<p>High schools often are the biggest impediments for kids who want to take advanced courses. A lot of high school gate keep. The reasoning is often good, but the actual results always are not, and sometimes come down to rationing the AP courses. Our school district does this. Only so many AP sections and when they are full, too bad. </p>
<p>This is where certain private schools come into the picture. I know a number of them that do start kids right out with the AP sciences, for instance. My son’s best friend went directly into AP Bio as a freshman and is now taking AP Chem. His high school permits this. My son’s would require a lot of bureaucrat head cracking to be allowed to do this. </p>
<p>Do be aware that most colleges when they say they really only take count of X number of AP courses and don’t care if the student takes more, are still looking at the relative rigor of each students curriculum as compared to other students at the same school, and also, they will be looking at which APs were taken. 4AP lites do not equal 4 hardcore APs anywhere.</p>
<p>D’s hs for Bio, Chem, and Physics requires the regular or honors section first. You then have 2 slots filled with the same basic material or subject matter and have less room to explore interests and try different things in search of what may ultimately interest you in a profession. </p>
<p>It seems rather unfair for colleges to weigh AP’s so heavily and not take into account the individual situation of each high school. The student who can just jump directly into AP Bio, AP Chem, AP Physics only takes one year each of these courses, while the student who has to take a base course first would take 2 years of each. Is it really reasonable to say that they are equal, or that the first student is massively superior if the second doesn’t take the AP courses or only, say, one of them?</p>
<p>Our HS does as the Collegeboard recommends - AP sciences are not taken until the relevant HS science is taken (and that can be regular or pre-AP but if regular an A is required, if pre-AP a B is required). However, our HS only offers AP Bio (and AP Environmental Sci), the most rigorous sciences are Chem II and Physics II. Many kids do take the AP exam after those but they prefer not to teach those advanced science classes to the AP curriculum.</p>
<p>You might be optimistic about what credit you will get.</p>
<p>The state university that I attended for undergraduate is generous with credit units, but stingy with subject credit (current policy, not when I attended):</p>
<p>AP physics B: no subject credit
AP English language: 1 semester of English composition with a score of 4+
AP statistics: only a few social studies majors accept it in lieu of a semester introductory statistics course (the popular economics and business majors do not)
AP US history: no subject credit, except as 1 semester lower division humanities or social studies breadth course for engineering majors
AP calculus AB: 1 semester of calculus, although students with scores less than 5 should be extra careful about skipping, and business and biology majors do not allow skipping unless a more advanced math course is taken in place
AP microeconomics: need both microeconomics and macroeconomics with score of 4 or 5 (depending on major) to substitute for the 1 semester introductory economics course</p>
<p>It just depends on the university. Below are three different AP charts. My daughter has only run into one university she’s interested in that is stingy on its AP credit. I understand why they are stingy. They want all their students on the same playing field after they take their core courses and the students will most likely receive a better college education because of it.</p>
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Does your school require a regular section of the subject prior to the AP section? Does your school require a regular section of the subject prior to the AP section?
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</p>
<p>For biology and chemistry they have to have taken honors or college prep first. They can take AP Physics either way.</p>
<p>What kind of credit a student gets for AP exams depends on the college and even the department of the college. My son got 7 credits for AP BIo and it more than fulfilled his science requirement at his university, but had he been Premed, he would have had to have taken a college biology course, for example. Also it can depend on the score on the exam as to how many credits one gets. </p>
<p>The AP English Language tends to be a one semester college course in equivalency. Usually for the freshman comp course, and sometimes they make all kids take it anyways, but getting a high AP score puts you in a different level.</p>
<p>My kid’s high school required honors Bio or Chem before AP Bio or Chem and AP Calc (either course, I think) as a pre or corequisite of AP Physics C. A modest exception to this was the sequence offered to designated-gifted students, who took honors Chem in freshman year, then AP Bio as sophomores with no previous high school Bio course, then AP Chem as juniors and, for those STEM inclined, AP Physics C as seniors (with the math requirement).</p>
<p>My oldest son took 13 APs, seven through an online state program. He loved the challenge they offered. He even got to meet his online teachers at a state conference following his graduation, and continues to keep in touch with them. His high school was so small that online AP was the only way he could gain additional academic classes. My younger son is at a larger HS. After this year, he will have taken 5 APs. He’ll probably take three or four as a senior. The only AP he will take that does not require the basic class is AP Physics B. The teacher says that since my son will have completed BC Calculus, he is qualified the class at the AP level.</p>
<p>Our HS has PSEOP options with two private colleges, a public U and a community college, also independent study with a HS teacher and “credit flex” (an independent study with a college professor or other mentor). </p>
<p>Both of my kids have chosen a combination of pre-AP (generally 9th and some 10th grade classes), AP, “II”, community college courses taught at the HS and independent study. The IS and flex require proposals and evaluations with HS administration before, during and after the study. S’ college accepted all his AP and PSEOP credits for both credit and placement. Some satisfied gen-ed requirements, some were accepted as elective credits.</p>
<p>For AP, our HS offers:</p>
<p> AP English Language (English 11)
AP English Literature (English 12)
AP United States Government
AP United States History
AP European History
AP Spanish
AP French
AP Latin
AP Calculus (AB & BC)
AP Statistics
AP Biology
AP Environmental Science
Chemistry II—AP rigor but does not adhere to AP curriculum. Students often take the AP Chemistry test and are successful.
Physics II—AP rigor but does not adhere to AP curriculum. Students often take the AP Physics test and are successful.</p>
<p>Kids can take any AP with the right pre-req classes and grades, or by teacher rec. </p>
<p>I think what UNC-CH is talking about are AP classes, not necessarily self study AP exams.</p>
<p>Here is my two cents.
Let’s not forget that many private schools cannot afford to have 6 kids in AP Biology. That’s how many kids took it when my daughter took it at our local public school. She ended up taking 11AP classes and that got her into Duke. My second daughter took 6 and they were enough to get her into UNC. My son is applying to UNC and Duke this year and he has taken/taking 8.
For UNC surely its not only the number of AP’s its all about their total package. Did they pass the AP exams? What about EC’S?
I guess I am saying that UNC can say what they want but if a kid wants to challenge themselves and if they have the opportunity then why not?</p>