D was admitted ED1. We’re trying to decide if it’s worthwhile for her to take some or all (or none) of her senior year AP exams. Pomona’s website says its policy is: “There is no limit to the number of exams that may be awarded credit, but credit received for advanced standing does not supersede the College’s requirement of 30 post-college-matriculation courses. In effect, regardless of the number of AP/IB exams that are eligible for and awarded credit, no more than two of them can apply to the credits needed for graduation.” http://www.pomona.edu/admissions/apply/advanced-placement.aspx
If we are reading that correctly, she can only get credit for 2 AP’s. She already has five 5’s from soph/junior year, in Calc BC, Chemistry, Statistics, APUSH and World History. So she’s already in excess of the AP exams she can get credit for, correct? Her senior AP classes are AP Bio, AP Psych, AP Gov/Econ, AP Eng Lit. Is it worth paying the fee and taking any of those? Are they useful for placement? FWIW, D would prefer not to take them (but still expects to get A’s in the classes).
My son is a freshman at Pomona. You are correct that she already has more classes than she can receive credit for. Most Ivies and top tier schools have implemented a similar policy. I had my son only take the AP exams that he thought he may want to use or would be beneficial (ex. he skipped taking Eng. Lit since he had no intention of majoring in English, knew he would probably not get a 5, and Pomona has a mandatory freshman-writing class). His senior schedule was already stressful, and taking a few less AP exams actually helped alleviate some stress!
I am sure someone else will chime in, but there is some benefit to taking an exam for a class you may want to place out of (you don’t get the credit, but can possibly start at a higher level class). But that would be the only reason to take more exams.
Also, we were warned about placing out of classes (as an entering freshman) by some upperclassmen. Great advice as it is better to have a good solid start (and good GPA) than to be struggling with the rigor and pace of higher level classes.
Thanks @rav525. That’s pretty much what I figured. The advice about being wary of placing out of classes strikes home with me. Back when I was a freshman in college, I had gotten a 4 on the Calculus BC exam and placed into a higher level math class. I was quickly in over my head and would’ve been better off starting at a lower level class.
Exactly! Advice to us was it is better not to place out of classes as a first semester Pomona student. You can do it, but just wait until second semester or even sophomore year. We were thankful for the advice as many kids took a lot of placement tests!
My son even retook (is that even a word?) one of his AP classes as an incoming freshman. He still had to work hard, but it was an easy A, and is one of his choices for a major. We were all in agreement to set him up to be successful initially.
He loves Pomona and has had a great experience thus far; hopefully your daughter will too!
My D, after her acceptance, did not take all her originally planned AP tests her senior year. She was also wondering if she needed to let Pomona College know the situation, as she had put on her application she was planning to take the tests (she didn’t notify them.)
At an admittance day one of the administrators talked about a student who had taken 15 AP tests and scored 5s on all of them. And I was thinking that other schools may accept all them, but if the student ends up at Pomona College then that was a lot of extra money to pay.
I think you just have to figure it’s an added cost for applying to Pomona. I’m guessing you need a lot of AP tests in your sophomore and junior years to be accepted to the school, but the tests are not going to help you much when you’re in school. And I’ve heard that very few students actually graduate taking less than 30 credits because there’s always interesting classes to take. I know I want my D to attend as many classes as she can at Pomona, regardless if she has extra credits due to AP tests.
And on another note, Family Weekend is coming up and parents can attend classes on Friday morning. I am beyond excited about this. I can’t wait to see which classes are in session. And I did make an agreement with my D that if no other parent was in her Friday morning class, I would not sit in. I personally don’t think I’m an embarrassment, but I’m not a teenage girl.
I agree she should take the exams for classes she may want to place out of. I think in general the students at Pomona are looking for challenge (and most only taking 4 classes a semester, at least freshman year.) Would she really want to repeat introductory psych or econ? The professors are helpful if there is an issue or a missing concept. My D took Calc BC and the information from Pomona said something like - we know there may be a few things that were missed, but please don’t repeat a class for that, we can help you there. She went right into vector calculus and linear algebra. She may end up double majoring in math and that will open up more higher level options. (She did feel over her head in the first few weeks, but she spoke with the professor who encouraged her to stick with it, and she got into a study group which helped also. There are regular help sessions to answer questions.)
I was an engineering student, and got placed in a higher level calc after getting a 4 on the Calc AB test. I felt over my head and did not have the support that my D has at Pomona. They want you to succeed.
Thanks everybody for the feedback. She will definitely take the Psychology exam and possibly Econ. She doesn’t see any reason to take AP Lit and is inclined not to take AP Bio either. She’s currently taking Calc III/Differential Equations and I assume will take some sort of math placement test when she gets to Pomona. @LibbyT please report back on Family Weekend. Sounds great but I’m sure my D would feel the same way as yours about having me attend a class.
Son did not have to take a math placement course, but did have a little trouble getting into a Linear Algebra class as a first semester freshman. There was some availability, but did not work with his schedule. Was able to get into it second semester though.
I have a question about senior AP exam. Any response will be appreciated!
My daughter wrote on her common application that she expected to take 5 AP exams in senior year, but now she does not want to take any of them, since she thinks it is useless to take them. Will college view this is as an integrity issue? Will her acceptance was based on the fact that she was expected to take those AP exams as she wrote she would take in her app?
My D also listed her 5 senior year AP classes on the Common App under AP tests. But now that she knows she is going to Pomona and can’t get credit for any of them, she will probably only take Psychology and maybe Econ. I don’t think this is an integrity issue. She will finish the classes and of course submit her final transcript showing her grade in those classes. I believe that it’s taking the rigorous schedule that matters at this point and I can’t imagine a school wanting to make a student pay $91 per exam for exams that won’t matter. We’ve paid the College Board enough already!
cherry, I agree. I don’t think the college bases acceptance on expected AP exams or will care that she didn’t take them after all. Our HS required AP exams be taken for all AP classes enrolled, so kids here didn’t have a choice.
@Corinthian@mamabear1234 Thank you for your reply. So you both dont think this will be an integrity issue, and college does not care. But what about the high school? My D’s high school does not force them to take AP exams but strongly encourage them to take. My D is a top student, and I am guessing that the high school teachers want her to take the exams to make the average AP scores higher.
Our high school also encourages but does not require the test. My kid’s AP Lit teacher is displeased that she says she doesn’t plan to take it. He is the only one who has let it be known that he cares. It’s true that teachers and school districts like to have a good record of high scores so they want their top students to take the test. But again I feel my D has done her part, and already has five 5’s from soph/junior years. It would be different if she was going to a college where she could get credit for them, but she’s not, And she’s not the only senior in this position. Several other top students in her class were admitted early to highly selective schools that won’t give them credit.
@Corinthian Thanks for reply. Are those top students in your D’s class who were admitted early to highly selective schools will also not to take many APs in senior year?
They are looking at the specific policies for their schools and deciding accordingly. For example, we have someone who got into Stanford early. Like my D, this kid has already taken the AP Chem and AP Calc BC exams. (Our school doesn’t offer AP Physics classes.) It makes no sense for this kid to take the exams for AP Bio, AP English Lit, AP Gov, etc, so he’s not. Most kids are still waiting for their RD decisions so they need to pay for their exams soon.
I’m not sure Pomona even checks to see if the AP tests were taken. Those scores do not appear on the transcript where my D attended HS. They did not ask for any other data from the HS. My D took 2 placement tests at Pomona. She placed out of first semester Mandarin and is currently in the second semester course. She says she already knows everything up to this point in the semester and has gotten 100% on every evaluation, so placing out of first semester was useful. She also placed out of first year calculus, but it did not really help. She is not planning to major in anything requiring math, and she still had to take a math course to meet Pomona’s requirements.