Anonymous
05/10/2026 18:09
Subject: AP tests—why??
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:DS is halfway through his college minor after freshman year thanks to AP scores and high ACT scores.
DD may finish in 3 years due to AP credit. Will start graduate degree in year 4.
This doesn't happen at Ivies or other top colleges, just state schools that want to push kids through the factory as quickly as possible.
While it would be cheaper for my kids to skip part of their college experience by using AP credits I'm glad they are undergrads for four years and will graduate with the class they started with. They have decades to be in the working world and joining it by 21 won't make their lives at all better.
That’s great for your kids. Do you think everyone is like you and your kids? Do you think everyone goes to an Ivy or whatever you judge to be top schools? Do you have any sense of a world outside your bubble?
No I do not think everyone is like my kids, nor do I say that everyone goes to an Ivy or other top schools. Someone posted their experience and I posted mine, without saying it was the best or norm. Defensive much?
“State schools that push kids through the factory as quickly as possible.”
So much judgement there.
I do judge schools that are trying to push kids through as quickly as possible, so much of what you learn in college is social and not based on adding up credit hours as quickly as possible. I don’t think they’re doing this in service of their students or their experience. And it’s odd to me when parents brag that their kids got to experience less time in college than the standard 4 years, what’s the rush?
Anonymous
05/10/2026 17:21
Subject: AP tests—why??
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Private schools in the DMV collectively did away with AP classes because they wanted to distinguish themselves from public schools. They wanted to be able to market themselves as being "special," and they couldn't do that if they were offering the same classes as the public schools. Not only that, because they're smaller than publics they couldn't offer the full variety of APs that the publics can.
In other words, they did away with APs because they couldn't compete.
The problem is that private school parents both like APs and are Uber competitive. They worry that without taking AP classes and exams their kids are at a disadvantage. So they want their kids in private schools AND they want them taking AP exams.
That's what they do it.
You realize there are only a few private schools in the DMV that do not offer AP classes, right? You make it sound like none of them do. Eight of them collectively announced several years ago that they were dropping APs, and at least two of those (NCS and STA) went back to offering them.
The majority of private HS in the area offer at least some APs.
Right. All the ones generally considered "best" did, and they did it collectively, because they felt threatened. The remaining privates never really held themselves out to be "better" than public schools academically--they market themselves as being "special" in other ways--so they didn't feel threatened by public school curriculum.
Anonymous
05/10/2026 17:15
Subject: AP tests—why??
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:DS is halfway through his college minor after freshman year thanks to AP scores and high ACT scores.
DD may finish in 3 years due to AP credit. Will start graduate degree in year 4.
This doesn't happen at Ivies or other top colleges, just state schools that want to push kids through the factory as quickly as possible.
While it would be cheaper for my kids to skip part of their college experience by using AP credits I'm glad they are undergrads for four years and will graduate with the class they started with. They have decades to be in the working world and joining it by 21 won't make their lives at all better.
That’s great for your kids. Do you think everyone is like you and your kids? Do you think everyone goes to an Ivy or whatever you judge to be top schools? Do you have any sense of a world outside your bubble?
No I do not think everyone is like my kids, nor do I say that everyone goes to an Ivy or other top schools. Someone posted their experience and I posted mine, without saying it was the best or norm. Defensive much?
“State schools that push kids through the factory as quickly as possible.”
So much judgement there.
Anonymous
05/10/2026 13:58
Subject: AP tests—why??
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:DS is halfway through his college minor after freshman year thanks to AP scores and high ACT scores.
DD may finish in 3 years due to AP credit. Will start graduate degree in year 4.
This doesn't happen at Ivies or other top colleges, just state schools that want to push kids through the factory as quickly as possible.
While it would be cheaper for my kids to skip part of their college experience by using AP credits I'm glad they are undergrads for four years and will graduate with the class they started with. They have decades to be in the working world and joining it by 21 won't make their lives at all better.
That’s great for your kids. Do you think everyone is like you and your kids? Do you think everyone goes to an Ivy or whatever you judge to be top schools? Do you have any sense of a world outside your bubble?
No I do not think everyone is like my kids, nor do I say that everyone goes to an Ivy or other top schools. Someone posted their experience and I posted mine, without saying it was the best or norm. Defensive much?
Anonymous
05/10/2026 12:47
Subject: AP tests—why??
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:DS is halfway through his college minor after freshman year thanks to AP scores and high ACT scores.
DD may finish in 3 years due to AP credit. Will start graduate degree in year 4.
This doesn't happen at Ivies or other top colleges, just state schools that want to push kids through the factory as quickly as possible.
While it would be cheaper for my kids to skip part of their college experience by using AP credits I'm glad they are undergrads for four years and will graduate with the class they started with. They have decades to be in the working world and joining it by 21 won't make their lives at all better.
That’s great for your kids. Do you think everyone is like you and your kids? Do you think everyone goes to an Ivy or whatever you judge to be top schools? Do you have any sense of a world outside your bubble?
Anonymous
05/10/2026 12:43
Subject: AP tests—why??
Anonymous wrote:DS is halfway through his college minor after freshman year thanks to AP scores and high ACT scores.
DD may finish in 3 years due to AP credit. Will start graduate degree in year 4.
This doesn't happen at Ivies or other top colleges, just state schools that want to push kids through the factory as quickly as possible.
While it would be cheaper for my kids to skip part of their college experience by using AP credits I'm glad they are undergrads for four years and will graduate with the class they started with. They have decades to be in the working world and joining it by 21 won't make their lives at all better.
Anonymous
05/10/2026 10:05
Subject: AP tests—why??
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:What is a “good reason” to spend more than four years on an undergraduate degree, double major or otherwise?
You are the self-appointed judge. Let’s hear your view.
I’m not PP so please stop dodging what seems to be a fairly straightforward question.
But it’s not, is it? Your good reason is not judgy PP’s good reason. It’s a BS question.
Anonymous
05/10/2026 09:55
Subject: AP tests—why??
Anonymous wrote:I have admissions experience, and AP scores absolutely are a valuable addition to an application.
Ok so let’s try this. A kid is number one on their class with an A plus average with hardest classes at a top DMV private that offers no AP classes. Aiming for appropriately challenging colleges. Is there any reason to take all these AP tests?? Do HYPSM care with those grades?
Anonymous
05/10/2026 09:26
Subject: AP tests—why??
NP. Why do any of you care why someone else spent more than four years to get a degree? If the person could afford it (in whatever way that means for them) and wanted or needed to, that’s their prerogative. Other people’s educational and financial choices do not affect you and do not need to have your values and judgements assigned.
Anonymous
05/10/2026 09:21
Subject: AP tests—why??
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:What is a “good reason” to spend more than four years on an undergraduate degree, double major or otherwise?
You are the self-appointed judge. Let’s hear your view.
I’m not PP so please stop dodging what seems to be a fairly straightforward question.
Anonymous
05/10/2026 09:07
Subject: AP tests—why??
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Mine did not. Her school discouraged sitting for the exams. Missing school for the exam was not excused and teachers continued to teach new content during the AP exam week that students were responsible for during finals.
Which is pretty awesome for those kids for whom getting that college credit means saving some money. You know, the kids on a budget for college.
Oh well.
Maintaining the illusion is incredibly important.
Anonymous
05/10/2026 08:52
Subject: AP tests—why??
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:People do. I did. You asserting that they don’t does not make it true.
It is a dumb move. Nobody *smart* would spend extra years in college for a double major.
I understand that you don't value education
Anonymous
05/10/2026 08:49
Subject: AP tests—why??
Anonymous wrote:What is a “good reason” to spend more than four years on an undergraduate degree, double major or otherwise?
You are the self-appointed judge. Let’s hear your view.
Anonymous
05/10/2026 08:17
Subject: AP tests—why??
What is a “good reason” to spend more than four years on an undergraduate degree, double major or otherwise?
Anonymous
05/10/2026 07:20
Subject: AP tests—why??
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:People do. I did. You asserting that they don’t does not make it true.
It is a dumb move. Nobody *smart* would spend extra years in college for a double major.
So you admit there are situations where a double major would take five years?
However there is never a situation where someone should do it if it takes 5.
So that’s a “yes”?
Someone could also take 6 years for one major. A double major is never a reason to stay in college past 4 years.
Never? Really?
Yet people actually do and for good reasons.
Unless, of course, you think you are the ultimate judge of what is good in the world.