Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids take AP classes to up their GPA so they can get into college. On all of the college tours DD and I have attended so far, all of the admissions counselors say they like to see a rigorous course schedule, AP, IB, etc.. it's almost a necessity to get into many schools.

But this isn't really true. Most colleges will calculate your unweighted GPA and use that to determine if students make the cut for admission. My DD tracks her GPA as weighted and unweighted.

Yeah but the most elite colleges want to see the most rigorous courses available and done well.

No one forces kids to take AP, IB etc. but if if they want to go to HYP or equivalent from this area, it is what it is.

But it is a choice. If your kid does not want to work their tail off and don't aim for the ivies, they don't have to do this.

OP here. My point is that it hasn't always been this way. At what point did it change? When did it become NECESSARY to take 5-7 AP classes to have a competitive college application? I am not a Pollyanna but think it is sad that high school has become a pressure cooker instead of the stepping stone into adulthood that it once was.

Probably when colleges started watering down the gen ed classes- the stuff my kid is doing in AP Chem is the same stuff I did in general chemistry that everyone took 20 years ago. My kid would have been bored silly in the general classes, and unprepared for the rigors of college.

+1. I am surprised ag my kid's chem class. It moves very slowly and is not very rigorous.

Similarly, English curriculum is very weak. Maybe read one complete novel a semester which is read aloud in class over the course of 3 weeks. Analysis is minimal. Shakespeare unit consisted of a lot of movies. Very little writing, usually only 1-2 pages max. Almost no explicit writing instruction and no feedback on writing from adults (peer editing only). No surprise that DC sought to jump into AP English classes ASAP.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. The cost to which I am referring is the stress and countless hours of work required by AP classes. Graduating college early is commendable and would save on costs, but how many people really do that? If AP classes are really preparing the students for college, why are the 4 year graduation rates so low,between 19-36%?

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2014/12/01/report-too-much-freedom-hurts-college-graduation-rates

And colleges seem to be moving to the 6 year graduation metric.

"The overall national six-year completion rate for the fall 2009 cohort was 52.9 percent...after six years, fully one-third of the starting cohort had left higher education without earning a degree or certificate."

https://nscresearchcenter.org/signaturereport10/#Discussion

I know of number of families for whom this was a necessity.