Ok this is gonna sound like a weird and probably dumb question but today in class these two kids were debating whether or not colleges that accept a lot of Ap credit are as good as colleges that don’t accept a lot of credit. The “anti Ap” kid’s argument was basically that AP courses and tests don’t cover all the material thoroughly and truly to the college level and so schools that accept AP credit don’t teach you thoroughly and are not as good. The “for AP” kid’s argument was that schools that take lots of APs can allow you to get ahead and pursue what you really want, to which “anti AP” said that AP classes don’t actually prep you well enough so jumping ahead would make your classes miserable. Any thoughts on this? I can see where both sides are coming from, but is there a relationship between the acceptance of AP credit and the caliber of the school?
They both have valid points. I would be hesitant to take AP credit if I had to take the next course and it was my major. That’s not an absolute but worth considering. For the other kid, the schools that don’t take AP’s are going to be at the top so they are likely better but not because they don’t take APs.
For the record, I have a mixed view of APs. It’s teaching to the AP test which may be fine in something systematic like calculus but not as beneficial in U.S. History where a teacher doesn’t have time to push kids to think through themes. Of course the knowledge and skills of the teacher matter.
You have to distinguish between three possible ways AP credit can be used at a college:
a. Credit or course units counted toward the minimum number needed to graduate.
b. Subject credit for specific course requirements (e.g. accepting a high enough AP calculus score in place of a requirement to take calculus).
c. Placement into higher level courses (e.g. accepting a high enough AP calculus score to start in calculus 2 or 3 instead of calculus 1).
Note that b and c may be division or department dependent within a given college.
A college allowing none, any, or all of the above for AP credit; it does not necessarily mean the the college is “better” or “worse” than a college with different policies (other than for the direct effect of AP policy on the specific student).
For c, if a college allows higher placement through AP credit, and the student intends to take a more advanced course, it would be a good idea to try the college’s old final exams of the course that can be be skipped in order to make a good placement decision.