Hi
Without stirring up debate about the pro/cons of AP courses, could I have some suggestions for BSs which offer and are are likely to continue to offer a broad slate of AP courses & exams? I have tried to search using BoardSchoolReview and their “high number of AP/Advanced Courses” category appears to conflate AP courses and their own home-grown Advanced courses. The result is that schools that have very publicly replaced AP courses with their home-grown courses appear in the list and life is too short to go searching through each individual school website.
I am specifically hoping that the hive-mind of CC will have some idea of academically-focused prep BS that are unlikely to follow the popular drift away from APs. I don’t have enough experience of the ethos of individual BSs to make an educated guess about this.
I think some schools have a different approach than others in terms of pedagogy. I don’t think that many will actually stop offering them as students want/and need them. You could ask the AO if there has been any thinking on the subject.
I know most of the top schools like having multiple levels as there are top kids and top kids who really want to go deep in something. Honestly, I’d guess many would like to get rid of them but not many schools will.
Hotchkiss is getting rid of them next year. But that doesn’t mean Hotckiss’ rigor is going down! Hotchkiss just prefers it’s own way of teaching the subject.
There aren’t really any “easy” courses at Hotchkiss. Junior year English, which every junior is required to take, is an AP course. Next year it won’t be called that, but it won’t be any easier after the name change.
For some, this isn’t about a “popular drift”. St. Paul’s, for one, doesn’t offer them, hasn’t for quite a long time, and doesn’t encourage students to take AP tests, although some do anyway.
No AO is going to tell you “if there’s been any thinking” on the subject of getting rid of APs, until or unless it is a firm decision (as with Hotchkiss, e.g.). For one thing, most top-level schools have been “thinking” and talking about it; many have already eliminated them; and most will continue to explore that.
You might be able to get answers to specific questions about which APs the school will be offering next year, and whether that is the same number as this year, and you can ask whether the school is seeing declining enrollment in AP classes. Even that is only going to give you a bigger pile of tea leaves.
OP, I see that you don’t want to get into the pros and cons. If you can explain why you are searching for the most APs, maybe people can offer useful information. For example, are you hoping for the most college credits? (Tricky, since you don’t know ahead of time where a child will matriculate, and whether that college offers placement, credit, both, or neither.)
And I’m kind of wondering how, if “life is too short” to look carefully at schools’ individual websites, you are going to put together a serious list in any case. Is this for some other kind of research?
I don know the answer, other than you have to go down the food chain a bit to find them.
Imo, the issue is how well the kid does on the ap exams, not whether the classes taken are officially ap. And even then, it only matters if you are using them to place out of requirements at certain colleges. Fewer colleges will give you actual credit than before - meaning you can’t graduate early even with ap credits. Could be that state universities do, but Kiddo isn’t there yet in his bs to know which.
There are more schools getting rid of them than there are schools going back to them. I think they are on their way out at most top schools.
Most teachers prefer creating their own courses and having the option of going much deeper on a topic than the AP test prep would allow. At some point, it will be harder for schools with AP classes to attract and retain the best teachers.
(I’m speaking of private schools only, of course. In some districts, public school teachers are paid extra for teaching AP classes.)
Thanks all for the responses - unfortunately not many USA schools are known to every university everywhere in the world, or if it is it doesn’t negate the requirement for externally validated scores. Kid will be applying/attending university outside the USA.
The easy option would be an IB diploma school but kid wants to follow their interests rather than have the subjects they study be determined by taking certain subjects from certain groups. They are mostly interested in STEM-type subjects atm…
No @HarrierMWelsch I’m not a journalist or anything. I am a parent who is genuinely looking for a BS with the specific criteria that the school offers AP courses/exams.
We don’t need “the most” APs but we do need enough to occupy an academic kid for the next 4 years. Kid needs externally validated exam scores to apply to universities outside the USA. We have been blind-sided by changes from the “high number of APs” category to none and cautious of our choices because we don’t want to have to switch schools mid-way.
In that case, it looks as if you can go one of three ways: You can convince your child to go IB, which you seem to see as unlikely. You can put together a list of schools that meet your child’s interests/your standards, and learn as much as you can about their AP program. Or you can just have your child self-study for the AP exams that relate most closely to their coursework in school. As other posters have pointed out, you just need to take the test, not the class.
Cambridge University: “In cases where an applicant’s school does not routinely offer APs, applicants are advised to contact their prospective college for advice about how SAT IIs might be viewed in their application. Strong performances in SAT Subject Tests will strengthen an application; Colleges will pay close attention to percentile data as well as raw marks.”
Many Boarding Schools have students that take AP exams despite not having AP courses. You better question is to ask which schools offer AP courses and/or offer courses which prepare for the AP exams.
No overseas university (AFAIK, and certainly not the major ones discussed on this site) require AP courses, only AP scores.
So many helpful responses! Thanks all (and without an acrimonious debate about the nature of APs!)
@caliMex Thanks for checking the websites for Oxford and “The Fens Poly” as non-tabs like to call it. As a word of caution, the people who write the words on the websites and the people who actually make the admission decisions are not the same people at Oxbridge - don’t ask me how I know. Most Oxbridge subjects have now reinstated their own tests which have to be taken by all candidates. That makes them less of a problem than other UK universities. They are however almost impossible to get into…
I understand your point @skieurope and @caliMex . I understand that it is common for kids to self-study for AP exams. However, it doesn’t seem like the optimal plan to send a kid to a school which is intentionally choosing to not teach the course material for exams that the kid intends to take - iykwim…?
And thanks @HarrietMWelsch for the helpful advice. I guess the fourth option would be to try to decide where the kid should apply to university and send the kid overseas now. My crystal ball is being hazy on that score too though. And I don’t want to send my kid overseas at 14 and the financial costs are great.
If I could just find a BS in the country that we currently live in (USA), that teaches courses that prepare kids for the exams that are globally recognized so they can attend university in the country that we will be living in in 4 years time (who knows), AND they would fit, make friends, be happy, grow, thrive, laugh, learn, sleep enough, eat healthily and shower regularly all at the same time my life would be less complicated. Am I asking too much???
It sounds like there isn’t a practical way forward with my original question. Thanks all for your insightful comments!
Just because a school doesn’t offer AP classes doesn’t mean the students aren’t prepared to do well on the AP test. For strong students, a little self-study might be involved but I don’t think it is extensive and BS students do take AP tests without AP classes and do well.
Add schools like McGill, St. Andrews, Edinburgh, Trinity College in Dublin to the list of universities seeing interest by BS kids that don’t require AP classes or AP tests.
It sounds like there is no solid plan as to what the post HS-country looks like or that the kid has even bought into this nebulous plan to attend college in this hypothetical country. IMO, the other elements you list are more important than who offers APs. Also note that most overseas universities asking for AP scores are asking for scores from “only” 3-5 tests (with 5 being Cambridge which, as noted, is difficult to get into), which is far fewer than what many applicants on this site have taken.
Take a look at Mercersburg Academy. Great school, fairly predictable admissions, merit awards available for top students, and offers the full range of AP courses. A little remote, though.
@OneMoreToGo2021 Thanks for the solid suggestion! Ironically, it looks like Mercersburg is “Planning to Move beyond Advanced Placement” also according to their website. Not sure whether to LOL or :sigh:
I need to take the time to read through the blurb, but I appreciate the non-judgmental suggestion.
