<p>I am struggling with the decision to have dd do any more AP tests. She did one as a sophomore, World History, and did well, but this was a tremendous amount of extra work to self study. This seems to defeat the purpose of why we homeschool in the first place --the freedom to explore subjects in a diverse manner, not just teaching to a test. </p>
<p>So what do you do when your kid already has a huge, but creative and fulfilling workload? Must one even bother self-studying for AP exams? It seems we will have plenty of opportunity as homeschoolers to explain and give examples of coursework in great detail, along with SAT scores.</p>
<p>I am inclined to only have her do the three required SAT subject tests and call it good. Studying for the world history exam seemed to do little more than double her workload and suck the life out of an otherwise interesting curriculum. All of dd's academic classes are done online, and most are college-level, with grades given by the instructor.</p>
<p>I never took any AP courses, per se, though I did take many college-level courses using books from courses at the university I will be attending in the fall, the University of Chicago. I never took an AP test, either, yet all worked out in the end. I did, though, express a great interest in Classics (especially Greek), and I took two years of Greek through the College of the U. of C. I also took two years of literature courses through the U. of C.'s liberal arts program for adults. I think those helped my case more than a few AP tests would have. Everyone takes APs, but not everyone has taken a strange subject - Greek - through a difficult university. Perhaps your daughter should consider something like that as an alternative.</p>
<p>By the way, despite the fact that I took no AP tests, I was accepted to the three colleges to which I applied; none of them questioned why I didn't have any APs to show for myself.</p>
<p>I think the SAT is more important than AP. However, if your child desires to just knock out some freshman classes, which would save you money, then maybe you should re consider the AP tests.I really feel that you should go with you you think is best, O/P.</p>
<p>My dd is a Sophmore this year and planning on taking 2 AP Exams this year and 2 next year, in addition to 3 SAT-II Subject Tests. (That's on top of the SAT & ACT w/ Writing).</p>
<p>The colleges that we spoke with (in-state Virginia schools) want to see AP Exams or SAT-II Subject Tests from homeschoolers, as a way to "verify their transcripts".</p>
<p>Now, if you're taking subjects through distance learning, community college, etc., then it might not be as necessary, since those transcripts would come from an outside source.</p>
<p>Some schools have a limit to the number of AP's they'll accept for credit. If the goal is to save money on college credits, one should check with specific schools to see if they'll be accepted.</p>
<p>My homeschooled daughter was accepted at Northwestern with one AP, and three SAT II's. She took AP calculus at the local high school her senior year, instead of self studying. When she applied ED, she had a letter of recommendation from the AP teacher and a quarter grade, but no AP test grade yet. Northwestern is competitive, but not as competitive as the top Ivies, so I can't say exactly what they would require. However, admission to extremely competitive schools would probably still depend more on her hook(s) than extra AP's (given excellent SAT's and GPA if there is one). </p>
<p>Homeschoolers catch the eye of college admissions people, not because they've managed to replicate school at home, but precisely because they are different. It's important to cover the necessary bases when preparing to apply, but it's also important to remember why we're homeschooling. I think your daughter should check with schools where she is likely to apply and find out what they require, then enjoy learning the way that best suits her.</p>
<p>My daughter didn't take any AP tests and it worked out fine. (She attends Brown; also admitted to Chicago and UNC-CH [OOS].) None of the tests reflected what she wanted to study and how. We really didn't want to adjust her schedule to fit their categories. She did lots of college-level work, but that was shown by a couple college courses and my course descriptions.</p>
<p>Had she taken AP exams it wouldn't have done her any good anyway. At her school you have to take the same number of courses to graduate no matter how many how many APs you've taken. Further, none of the APs would have served as prerequisites for anything she wants to take. Brown lacks distribution requirements, so she couldn't have used APs for that purpose either.</p>
<p>Given your daughter's online work, I don't think APs would be necessary for "verification."</p>
<p>I can see that AP might help for admissions purposes if there are one or more in the field your child is interested in. But there are no such tests for my daughter's interest. So we found a professional in the field who offers correspondence work in that.</p>
<p>BTW only a few schools now require three SAT IIs. Most say two now -- and a number of those accept the ACT in lieu of them. My daughter only submitted the ACT.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your great responses. I can relate to every post. Part what makes homeschooling so wonderful for us is the ability to customize each year along with some very special talented online tutors who bring out the best in dd. Lacking a four-year college education myself, they have been a true blessing, taking her much farther than I ever could, and typically beyond the realm of an AP class. Documenting the depth of her coursework will be easy and all of her teachers have offered to write letters. She will also be a first-generation college student, and we're hoping my shortcomings become her strengths. One of my greatest joys has been the opportunity to learn along with her. </p>
<p>It's easy to get caught up in the AP frenzy and lose sight of our original purpose. Dd is adamantly opposed to standarized testing to begin with, (feels it puts her in a box, limits her studying of things she loves, and proves nothing), but she is willing to work hard and do what needs to be done. </p>
<p>Like you DianeR, colleges we have been looking into give very little for AP credit, if any. Brown is one she is considering, along with Princeton and a number of other small LACs and Christian colleges. </p>
<p>Your input has been most helpful. Thank you everyone!</p>
<p>My son did a boatload of APs (10). We loved them! But we certainly know plenty of homeschoolers who got into good colleges with none. I look at it this way..... most colleges are not going to wade through a bunch of primary material like portfolios, syllabi and book lists in order to evaluate your child's homeschooled education (a few will). They might want to process several apps an hour and only spend a few minutes on each one. There may be departments who are unwilling to evaluate homeschooler portfolios to give the ad coms an idea of how strong the student is, and the ad com may not be qualified to figure that out themselves. And colleges cannnot be expected to attach much weight to parent-generated grades, or else every ambitious parent would call their high schooler a "homeschooler" and give them all As. So, even colleges that are open to homeschoolers need some sort of quantitative data to quickly place a homeschooler into the context of their traditionally-schooled peers. AP scores are one way to provide that. Other ways are SAT II scores, or grades from traditional high school or college courses. </p>
<p>Since my son didn't have many official grades, we found AP scores to be a very convenient way to document what he was doing without requiring a lot of record-keeping on my part. Since he was studying the subjects at an AP-level or higher anyway, the additional effort to go through an AP review book and make sure that he was prepared for the test was minimal. We didn't do it for the purpose of getting college credit, although he did get credit for a couple of them. The colleges he was interested in don't do much AP credit, preferring to rely on their own exams. We knew that in advance, but chose to do AP's anyway for documentation purposes.</p>
<p>Advantages of Aps with schools that accept them.</p>
<p>A head start in housing choices (credit hours)
A head start in class registration (credit hours)
Early graduation.
Skip some 100 level classes.
Easier to go for double major.
AP test scores are easy for a college to see if you can do the work as the tests are the same for everyone.</p>
<p>There are some advantages. The main disadvantage is the studies required to do well on these tests. Question however, if you find having to study a problem.. why college? Does that make sense?</p>
<p>In our particular situation, all academic courses are being graded by dds tutors, some of them who previously taught at the college level. She will have no parent-issued grades. Her schedule is already full; she does almost ten hours of schoolwork a day, runs a service organization and a small business, and commutes almost two hours daily to study classical ballet, in addition to a myriad of other subjects she is teaching herself. My concern is using unnecessary time tweaking an offbeat, but rigorous curriculum or adding to it, just to do AP testing. I think I would almost rather her have more to show of her creative or service-oriented qualities. </p>
<p>Our original plan for doing APs was to skip the level 100 courses; it still is a big consideration, as dd is accustomed to an accelerated pace. Getting a head start on housing choices and registration for classes is a very worth consideration too, and something I had not thought of. </p>
<p>FWIW, our kids didn't do any APs. They did take a number of CLEPs though. With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, I'd suggest that homeschooling teens come up with a short list of potential colleges fairly early on and base their testing decisions on what those schools will accept. My older child did not do that, and most of her CLEPs did not earn her any credits. Her younger brother made his choice & stuck with it (same university, different college) and consequently shaved an entire year off his college program. Both chose to start college a year early after having unschooled since 5 & 6, so ds will turn 20 shortly before graduation.</p>