<p>The reality is that unless one has parents who can afford to pay the bills or take on the debt themselves, a young person faces a much higher opportunity cost to attend college in terms of foregone and forsworn income than in past decades. Who, today, can work his way through four years of undergraduate education? It’s impossible. It didn’t used to be. That’s not to say that college is always a scam or a waste; by no means. But it’s unnecessary or even counterproductive for large swathes of the population, and the higher education industry should stop pushing destructive myths about the value of college at any cost. </p>
<p>AP credits have become an expensive signalling device. Several high-end colleges don’t even accept AP credits except for useless free elective credit (and in my opinion, rightly so). Many colleges are raising their AP equivalence standards to demand a 5, instead of a mediocre 3 or 4, for any credit whatsoever. I think AP has really jumped the shark. Speaking of scams: the College Board! (but that’s another topic).</p>