<p>The above link provides info for each state and its subsidy for AP exams. For example, seeing that NC provides a subsidy the school was able to search the NC Board of Education which did confirm that for those with qualifying income or financial hardship, the State Board of Education will provide the school with a billing code to fill in for each student. The state is then billed for the AP exam. According to the AP people most states do this, so the AP exam should not present an economic hardship to take, according o them.</p>
<p>Kiddos' schools did not realize before we looked that such an alternative was in place.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the advice. We still have 2 days to figure it out (and yes, the school subsidizes the test a little bit, so that it is "only" 53$). DS really doesn't want to take the English unless he has to do so. His top choice school will accept the credit , but doesn't count it towards required distribution credit, so it is essentially worthless. I'll see if I can get him to read some of these posts! :)</p>
<p>Maize wrote "nothing happens to you if you don't pass except you're out $83, and many of our kids have the tests subsidized by school or PTA scholarships."</p>
<p>Please I know you meant well and all, but I'm giving you a wakeup call that it is blithe to say this. Admittedly we don't know everything before it happens, even if we should :) and so it surprised us when he came home needing $320.
"Nothing happend but..." I had to cancel something I wanted to do very much and it wasn't tennis, believe me.</p>
<p>"Nothing happens but..." a sweet bright child who's in my S's friendship circle, and is a junior, saw this and rethought whether she should take any
AP's next year. </p>
<p>Our school's policy is to require the exams of everyone who takes the AP courses. I figured it's because they don't want students to "pad" their h.s. apps with these courses in Senior year to create shiny college aps, and then not follow through with the exam and learning generated by studying for it.
I do agree with that as a policy. </p>
<p>I'm only suggesting not to presume about what finances mean to the next family. It is EXCELLENT that your PTA has scholarships for some students, but until it's for every student I continue to feel concerned.</p>
<p>It is very hard to always consider other people and we all speak quickly at times. I'm certain that we all care so we should all try to not be dismissive of what might be a small fee. You can never see into someone else's pocketbook.</p>
<p>paying 3: Of course, I did not mean to offend with my remark re: nothing happens. As you said, we're fortunate that our school is very generous with scholarships (we have avg sized population of free/reduced lunch students). And from what I read in other posts, there are some districts and some states that flat out pay the entire bill (I know - to up the Newsweek ratio). Alongside the financial considerations, I deal with AP students who are honestly scared to take the test (fear of failure), or fed up with tests in the general sense (senioritis rearing it's ugly head). I concentrate on the win-win aspects. Only one of those aspects is for future financial gain. IF it can be paid for, they should go for it. If the $400+ we paid for D's tests (they were somewhat less at the time) will save her and I $30,000 (no more loans...), then we hit the investment jackpot. And there wasn't a thought in our heads at the time about the magnitude of these numbers. My deepest conviction, though, as a teacher, is that my students should finish the journey.</p>
<p>I know its a lot of money -- but my daughter has almost a full semester's worth of AP credit at Barnard. As I noted above, my son's got more than a semester's worth of AP credit at his CSU -- a $1600 value for him, a $16,000 value for her. My son will use his credit to graduate early -- I don't think my daughter will (and we don't pay full tuition in any case).... but as painful as it is, I think this is one case where the long term payoff is generally worth it.</p>
<p>In the past our school required that students enrolled take the APs and the district paid for them. They dropped the requirement, far fewer kids are bothering to take the exams and I have heard that there are some AP classes now where they don't follow the syllabus or bother to review since so few are taking the exam. I'm in favor of requiring the exam as part of the course. Students who get low scores on the exam still get course credit, assuming they had decent grades. It just seems to me you can't separate the exam (which insures accountability, IMO) from the course. That's the way it was set up.</p>
<p>I would suggest if you're concerned about the cost that you approach the decision makers in your school and let them know. You'd be surprised at how little decision makers often know about the realities of such things. They might not even be aware that the test is $83 (after all, how could it be when the SAT is $41 or whatever it is) or that students tend to take multiple exams. You don't have to be on free school lunches to blanch at a $240 or higher bill you never expected because your kid goes to a public school.</p>
<p>Also, if you ask, you might find that the school can help subsidize the test. I did have an issue with the cost last year and my d. found out that there were some PTA funds to partially offset costs -- not by much, but it helped.</p>