I read about these schools that don’t stress the number of AP classes and I am jealous. We just don’t have many options in my daughters school, so she’s pretty much forced into 7 AP classes her junior year. She could do DE but she’s really not interested in going to a state school, so most of those wouldn’t carry much weight in the application process. Her school is public but uber competitive. She’s 35th in her class out of 560 and only taken honors or AP and has an unweighted gpa of 4.0. There are sophomores in her class that are already taking 7 AP classes this year - not sure how they do it and can’t fathom what classes will be left for them to take by senior year! Makes me sad honestly.
And of those kids taking 5-7 AP courses a year, how much extra merit scholarships do they get over the kids only taking a couple AP courses? Considering the amount of top notch kids deferred from highly ranked colleges, I’m letting my well rounded kid hedge his bets and take the lighter load.
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5-7 APs sophomore year?? that’s pressure for sure. when do those kids have time to just be kids? wow. well done to your kiddo btw
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At our high school there are only 2 AP’s available for freshman and 2 AP’s available for sophomores. 11th & 12th graders can take as many as they want.
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At my D17/19’s high school, there was a maximum of four APs possible at all.
At my D23’s (and will be my D25’s), there are gobs and bunches, but freshmen are limited to one (and that only grudgingly), and sophomores to two (unless, like my D23, you’re in an AP language class that year).
Our high school doesn’t have any APs open to freshman, and only two APs open to sophomores. Juniors and seniors can take as many as they like.
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Out of interest, what do those kids score on the AP tests? I understand that this may be needed for class rank purposes, but if you aren’t getting at least 4s and mostly 5s then it doesn’t seem like good preparation for college.
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Funny you should ask. My kid takes AP classes to be with his friends and because the classes tend to have less busy work and more thinking. Plus, they are weighted heavier and help with class rank and GPA which will help with merit scholarships. He got a 1 on AP Human Geo (to be fair, it was the teacher’s first year teaching it and pandemic). I already told him he is not taking the AP test for AP Word History that he is taking right now. Again, pandemic, he hasn’t learned a thing. Next year he is signed up for AP Music Theory and won’t be taking that one either. Although to be fair, he plans to major in Musical Theater and even selective schools seem to have a much lower academic minimum to get in if that is your major and you are accepted into the major.
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I understand there are kids who need the challenge of AP. But I think there is a huge push for Kids to feel “competitive” by taking every AP possible and I’m genuinely curious how much more money in merit do those Kids get above the kids who only take a couple APs throughout high school.
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We are chasing merit because of a set of circumstances that leave S seriously under funded for college. So I am always checking that first thing after if they have his major. Nearly every school that gives decent merit money automatically is based on unweighted GPA and SAT/ACT scores. I have not found a single school where class rank matters and not a single school where AP scores were even considered. There are a number of schools who use GPA on a 4.0 scale but weight AP and honors classes heavier.
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2plustrio - about AP classes - this is how it was in our low income HS. i’d love to hear about competitive top HSs - I’m sure its different.
very few of the graduating classes (500) go to any private schools. large majority are state, directional and community college, trade schools, or military. The AP classes at that school don’t have a high pass rate. I think that’s because the classes are mostly taken as dual credit - so they get the college credit which trumps the AP score. There are
kids going into college with 20-30 hours of credit - a big savings at schools that charge by credit hour. As far as merit opps for top schools - the top kids (maybe 2 -3 per grade) might take the classes for strength of schedule to look good; but mostly it’s for the college credit. I’d wonder about how it works in competitive HSs too.
The University of Alabama (among some others) uses the highest GPA listed on the transcript, which is kind of annoying for someone coming from a district like my kids’ where weighting is given stingily versus other districts where you have stuff like honors getting a half-point bonus and AP/IB a full point, but whatevs, I’m resigned to it.
And a number of colleges (mostly public flagships aside from the “Public Ivy” types) give special scholarships to valedictorians specifically, and a few public directionals for the top 10%.
But for the most part, yes, agreed—just wanted to note some exceptions to the rule.
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@Theaterforme provided some info on auto merit schools. My S21 didn’t apply to any of those, so here is info from another perspective. Purely anecdotal, but S21 only had 1 AP in high school, and he did well with merit but he was shooting mostly for CTCL schools - all holistic admissions, no automatic merit and most with acceptance rates of 50%+ (two schools with lower acceptance rates). In comparison to a student we know with more APs (and higher scores), S21 got the same amount of merit at 2 schools they were both accepted to and 6% less merit than that student at a third school they were both accepted to. In comparison to a different student at another school (no overlap with the first 3 schools I referred to), he got the same merit despite far fewer APs. I think geographical diversity may have helped him with merit in some cases…other factors in other cases.
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@nichols51 I think your situation is similar to what I have been seeing and hearing about. None of my kids are shooting for top 20 schools so my view may be different than others. I think kids should take AP courses in areas that interest them or in those courses that may be appropriate for their major.
In the end I feel my sons grades will determine his acceptance into certain colleges and whether it was an AP course or not will be irrelevant.
I’m honestly not hearing about much difference in merit from schools based on AP courses. Many view unweighted GPA and want to see the classes chosen represent the kid. Whether it’s a 3.9 versus a 4.3 weighted doesn’t seem to matter with merit.
Taking AP tests to skip courses and potentially decrease tuition costs I could understand. I also understand class rank matters to some states for instate tuition options.
One benefit of a high score on an AP that translates to college credit (besides saving those tuition units) is that at most colleges, registration for classes goes by number of credit hours. Just having one credit (well at most schools it will be 3-4 for that one class) can help your student to register a bit earlier than the others, every year (in general).
Of course, at highly selective schools, all kinds of students will come in with all kind of credits so this benefit goes away. But both of my kids who go to middle sized privates, top 70 or so, have benefited from scheduling a bit earlier than many of their classmates. Dual enrollment classes that transfer would have the same benefit.
I consider this just a side benefit and not a reason to push a child into an AP if they aren’t ready or interested. After all, it depends on getting a high enough score to count.
On APs - none possible in freshman year at my son’s school and not that many in sophomore year. S will take four, I think? next year. He has ECs that take a ton of time (chorale/mock trial/theater) and doesn’t want to completely load up.
We toured some local schools this week. Elizabethtown, St. Joe’s in Philly and Temple. And S loved Temple, which I figured he would, despite his insistence that he wants a small LAC. It helped that Temple was bustling - a really alive place, and for my son, who has barely left the house in months, it must’ve really been appealing.
Winter term grades were good - five As (or A-/A+) and a B+ … He is intent on killing it in spring term to end up with a 4.0 weighted; has done the math and everything. He is so much like I was. Sigh. It’s not necessarily a good thing…
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Thank you! Love and appreciate all of the insight and advice. Ds GC just wrote back to my email today and he suggested we three meet Monday for a check in (virtually). Now I just have to tell my D. She was ok with me contacting him but she doesn’t like me to get super involved in this stuff.
I will have her older sister tell her she is lucky she goes to a small enough school where you have a GC you can meet with;)
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our D23’s school mentioned today – no days missed due to CV this school year; and no cases reported in the last 4 months. !!! yay!!! feeling so good, and so thankful they had school in person. . It’s been different and odd, but they made it. I’m so hoping CV is on its way OUT.
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I’m not sure the passing rate at our school on the AP exams. Anecdotally, my oldest was in a similar situation and took 6 AP classes her junior year. She got 4’s and 5’s on all of them except AP Chem. In fact, one of our English teachers is a reader for the AP Lang test. I think they are well prepared, it’s just exhausting to watch.
My husband used to be in admissions for a T-30 school many years ago, and he said basically they looked at the rigor of the school and counted how many AP classes a student took out of how many were offered. But as I said, that was 15+ years ago and may not still occur.