<p>If you are enrolled exclusicly in AP classes, why not take these courses at a local college? In this case, you will get the actual college experience and not what seems to be a watered down version of the course. I did not attend a traditional HS, thus, the concept of AP is foreign.</p>
<p>Senior Year was all APs for me. I could have gone that route but I decided to stay at the school. By then I enjoyed the company of my classmates whom, because of an academic program at my school, I basically got to see everyday.</p>
<p>In our area, AP classes are given more respect by colleges and in the grading system than their respective classes at the local community college.</p>
<p>Fair enough Luxar, assume your local college is a state university. Which will have more respect in this case?</p>
<p>Well wouldn't you have to apply to the state university or something to be able to take classes there? I don't know, that's a hypothetical situation for me since I have no reasonably close state universities in my area.</p>
<p>Thing about AP is that there's not enough depth and breadth. I mean, common, AP math ends at Calculus, and even IB goes further. In community college you can study math all the way up to linear algebra and discrete math.</p>
<p>Many of the top schools will give you AP credit, but will not give credit for local college courses.</p>
<p>Also, from a parent's point of view, I don't have to pay (extra) tuition for my kid to take an AP course.</p>
<p>Here are my reasons:</p>
<ol>
<li>AP classes are less expensive.</li>
<li>No commuting required.</li>
<li>The community college in my area isn't exactly...respected.</li>
</ol>
<p>logistics. it's much easier to sign up for a class at your own high school, and to attend it too.
also, it's called the high school experience. if the OP is right, then we should all drop out of HS and take community college classes all day. No thanks.</p>
<p>I have friends in high school. Figure it out from there.</p>
<p>Also depends on what programs the high school run in concordance with the local community college. My high school has a program with San Diego MESA Community College where professors will come to the high school campus and teach college classes in the high school classrooms. The college classes available for this program are Calculus 1,2, and multivariable Calculus, and a political science course.</p>
<p>Our HS teaches the comm college on the high school campus like Strykur. They offer poli sci/econ. In my experience my son went into Northeastern as a freshman with a full semester behind him, a combination of comm college and AP. Some APs at his high school were great. others not so. He took AP stats with a brand new teacher who didn't know what she was doing... got a 1 on the test.<br>
To me the advantage to the comm. college was that it was a guaranteed transfer credit, it was free, but the biggest was that the students were dealing with a college teacher, not the same AP teacher they know very well. The comm college profs teach like college profs, they don't want to be your friend, they don't know your parents, it is: do the work, get the grade you deserve. Good prep for college life.<br>
By the way to the "it's about the high school experience" poster..guess what high school is not real life. The first comm college class my DS took was at comm college campus. The first day he called me during the break to let me know that he was the youngest there and that most of the students were adults who worked full time and took classes at night. Welcome to the real world.</p>
<p>Veggie Dog : "AP classes are less expensive."</p>
<p>For me, the classes I take at my local community college are free. At this point, alot of community colleges have programs that will cover your tuition as long as you do well in high school and meet their testing requirements. I receive books for free as well. </p>
<p>Community College Professors at My School</p>
<p>I am also in a program which allows a professor from a local community college to come to our school and teach us something. My course teaches you about the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS). When the school year starts, I will be in the second year of the class. I will have a total of 11 college credits when I am through with the courses. The stuff we learn is so cool, too bad that most of the colleges I am applying to won't accept this credit.</p>
<p>^ Lucky you.
We have to pay for everything. Th only way we can avoid that is we do the whole dual enrollment thing (this is at U-Mich, not the community college) but it's an annoying ordeal to sign up for these classes, get rides, and it is about a half-hour away, and the courses offered are very limited. I can fill my time up with APs well enough. :)</p>
<p>AP tests are designed to be very comparable to introductory college courses. The content is always evaluated so that it meets pretty tough standards. If you've learned and absorbed a lot of material during your time taking an AP class, then your performance on the test should reflect that. </p>
<p>The convenience of AP classes is probably the main reason so many students take them. Going to a community college would be more time consuming, so it's just a lot easier to take a comparable AP-level class. Besides, most students who load up on APs are your classic overachievers who spend their afternoons and evenings at club meetings, sports practices, play rehearsals, etc. In many cases, they don't have the extra time to devote to community college classes.</p>
<p>Although a few posters are lucky enough to have their classes at community colleges or state schools completely paid for, it's generally not the case. Depending on where you go, courses can cost several hundred dollars per credit.</p>
<p>AP classes are designed to be comparable to intro-level college classes... but in most cases they aren't. I think in terms of academics and actually learning college level material attending college classes is far superior. Of course, this can totally mess up your schedule because of the commute involved. Ultimately, it becomes a cost-benefit analysis where you need to think about if the cost (annoyance, commute, etc.) is worth the extra benefit (actually learning college level material.)</p>