Boarding Schools with APs and likely to remain that way

[CheddarIsBest]

1. Currently boards and is very happy. Would prefer to continue boarding.
2. We move frequently - currently living in USA but have lived in 4 other countries and very likely to have to move again before kid completes Gr. 12 so stability at school is important.

[Publisher]

Thank you for your reply. I now understand why boarding school is important to your family.My point is that AP courses seem to be much more prevalent in local public & parochial schools than in elite prep boarding schools.

[CaliMex]

@CheddarIsBest Have you considered keeping the kid home for two years, then applying to the United World Colleges program? If selected by the US committee, tuition is heavily subsidized and there are UWC-affiliated boarding schools on all continents. They all follow the IB and their graduates attend top universities all over the world.

Some of the UWC locations have really unique programs. And they all have a very deliberately constructed community of top students from around the world.

[CheddarIsBest]

Thanks for the suggestion @Calimex I had thought of those, but UWC follow the IB diploma, don’t they? Maybe I have that wrong… (googles frantically)

Kid currently is resistant to IB because they want to take all 3 sciences as far as they can and math and that doesn’t work with how the IB diploma system groups subjects… Something is obviously going to have to give though…

Thanks for the suggestion

[one1ofeach]

@cinnamon1212

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.

And colleges know all this.

Just curious, do kids routinely take the AP exam anyway? Just wondering about school culture. I think it’s frankly absurd to “self study” for an AP only because I remember how much work AP exams were and how much my teachers were an integral part of that. I would not want a kid, who’s in the middle of school work which won’t let up because of AP exams, to also heap on self studying.

“don’t try this at home kid!!”

[CaliMex]

I think it depends on the school. Many Boarding Schools take the long view. They see their mission as preparing kids to do well in college and in life – and perhaps even preparing kids to have an even greater impact on the “greater good.” Their focus isn’t on preparing kids to ace tests or get into prestigious colleges. Should ours be?

[doschicos]

@CheddarIsBest

@OneMoreToGo2021 Not sure whether to LOL or :sigh:

I do think it is worth considering why these well run, well established BSs are increasingly moving away from AP. They are doing it with plenty of careful thought. Many colleges are caring less about AP, and standardized testing in general, so that likely has an impact on their decisions.

The AP race and hype is out of control in this country and has become a money making industry. I’m glad my kids didn’t have to worry about it yet did just fine in college placement, including international acceptances.

[CateCAParent]

I have to believe that colleges abroad will understand and recognize the caliber of education a US boarding school provides, and that the bs administrations wouldn’t (across the board) make a change that diminishes their students’ success on the international admissions scene. That goes against their mission. Can you ask a college counselor how they deal with it at your child’s current school?

Does your child want to change schools?

[cinnamon1212]

I have no idea what other kids do at Hotchkiss, honestly. I do know the head of college advising told me that taking the AP exams was irrelevant for college admissions. And that none of my sons took or will take any AP tests.

Since the OP is concerned with international admissions it would probably be best to ask the head of college advising at their school how international admissions will work in their case.

[ChoatieMom]

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

The rigor of the curricula at schools moving away from or that have already eliminated APs has always been beyond the rigor of the AP curriculum. That is why these schools don’t want to waste resources on APs. Choate was quite clear about this. The students at these schools are NOT self-studying for AP exams. They are well-prepared by the depth of the courses they are taking to sit for any AP exam that might have relevance to the colleges they apply to. Our son did not take any AP courses, but sat for three exams and got a 5 on each. No self-studying required.

[CaliMex]

I’ve heard AP classes and exams tend to cover a semester’s worth of college material but over the course of a whole year? The upper level coursework at most top boarding schools is actually college level. They go at the same pace as a college course and have the same expectations of the students.

[OneMoreToGo2021]

Sorry, @CheddarIsBest, when we looked at Mercersburg a few years ago there was no inkling of potentially dropping the AP curriculum.

We are actually grateful for AP courses at our private day school. The coursework is predictable, straightforward, and reasonably rigorous in our view. Our junior is on track to take 16 AP exams by the end of senior year, and so far it has been very manageable in terms of workload, especially as there is never a need to reinvent the wheel given all the available commercial prep books out there.

Could our kid have had a more challenging course load at one of the elite boarding schools with only limited or no formal AP courses? Who knows for sure, but I suspect not.

[roycroftmom]

I offer only my own experience. The Oxford admissions tutors were very, very happy that my daughter self studied for the relevant AP tests for their course of admission. And yes, she did have the usual other standardized test scores as well. It was a fair amount of work to self study for the APs,though she felt it was worth it.

[roycroftmom]

For American universities, check carefully how not having APs may disadvantage college life (not admissions). Outside of the most elite, a surprising number of schools allocate room draw and course selection based on class standing, which can depend on AP credit. For another of my kid’s, it mattered a lot,but I did not know at the time.

[gardenstategal]

@CheddarIsBest , George School (PA) offers both the IB diploma and AP classes.

Students can mix and match however they like. Many of the hard core STEM kids like the IB math but not the diploma option so this works for them. Feel free to PM if you have questions.

[cinnamon1212]

Another thought for your situation OP – the expat families I know all tend to have their kids attend college in the US. You’ve undoubtedly thought of this, but it is unusual to have the kid come along with the family to a new country for college. Just another aspect to consider.

Plus, won’t the child’s future employment be a consideration? Will they want to end up working in the US after college graduation? If yes, that’s much easier to achieve after US college. I’ve seen graduates of well known schools like the University of Edinburgh struggle to find a job in the US. The structure and network just isn’t there.

That said, you may have very good reasons for university overseas for your child that you haven’t shared yet.

[CTMom21]

I don’t know if OP’s child is a son or daughter, but Salisbury (all boys) has APs and I haven’t heard anything about eliminating them. As a small school there aren’t a ton of AP classes, but there’s a selection across disciplines.

[CheddarIsBest]

@one1ofeach

Just curious, do kids routinely take the AP exam anyway? Just wondering about school culture. I think it’s frankly absurd to “self study” for an AP only because I remember how much work AP exams were and how much my teachers were an integral part of that. I would not want a kid, who’s in the middle of school work which won’t let up because of AP exams, to also heap on self studying.

“don’t try this at home kid!!”

That was my though too @one1ofeach - sooo much extra work on top of the normal homework sport ECs etc. Added to that, many schools incl my kids current BS see to be moving towards inquiry-based learning and away from knowledge-based learning. While I totally value inquiry-based learning, I can’t imagine that a course that relies on this approach would get through the content necessary to pass an AP exam, so that adds considerably to the self-studying.

[CheddarIsBest]

@CTMom21

I don’t know if OP’s child is a son or daughter, but Salisbury (all boys) has APs and I haven’t heard anything about eliminating them. As a small school there aren’t a ton of AP classes, but there’s a selection across disciplines.

Thanks for the suggestion, but my kid is a girl.

[CheddarIsBest]

@cinnamon1212

Another thought for your situation OP – the expat families I know all tend to have their kids attend college in the US. You’ve undoubtedly thought of this, but it is unusual to have the kid come along with the family to a new country for college. Just another aspect to consider.

Plus, won’t the child’s future employment be a consideration? Will they want to end up working in the US after college graduation? If yes, that’s much easier to achieve after US college. I’ve seen graduates of well known schools like the University of Edinburgh struggle to find a job in the US. The structure and network just isn’t there.

That said, you may have very good reasons for university overseas for your child that you haven’t shared yet.

We actually have a very BAD reason for US colleges to not really be an option. We come from a non-USA country that doesn’t have a culture of saving for college in the same way USA families do because it is more heavily subsidized by the state and so more affordable from salary. On top of that as an academic I get tuition waivers as “perks of the job” (there aren’t a whole lot of others really). So, we would find it difficult to fund USA university and if we were resident outside of the USA when kid goes to college I am guessing that makes it even more costly to have them at college here…

So the pragmatic reason, is that we probably simply couldn’t afford to leave kid in the USA for college. However, your post did make me wonder whether we had lived in Canada for long enough to establish resident status, and planning for college there might be a solution. which I am still looking into. - so thank you for that!

As for employment, I think that you are correct but kid will just have to find their way where they end up making their life… I haven’t worked for more than a couple of years in the country I was born in nor the country I was educated in. if they want to live in the USA, I am sure that they will find a way.