<p>D goes to a Cal State school and got GE credit for her APs. Son goes to a UC and got units (which gave him sophomore standing) and they got him out of certain classes (like the constitutions requirement and the first writing requirement) but they don’t count towards GEs.</p>
<p>My kids were each given 45 direct credits for AP classes. Younger son was also given additional credits for placement testing in Spanish. They entered college as second semester sophomores - which helps for registration and other things.</p>
<p>They aren’t going to graduate early (their choice), but instead are adding minors and second majors. They will graduate in 4 years…Yeah!</p>
<p>When my older son graduates in May, he’ll have 180 credits…LOL That’s an extra 2 years worth of credits!</p>
<p>However, your point about GPA is important. If a school isn’t going to weight AP classes, and your child’s GPA will suffer from too many APs, then that can be an issue.</p>
<p>One of my younger son’s suitemates had a strong ACT score, but a lowish GPA (around 3.2) because of too many AP classes. This screwed him for merit scholarships. If he had had a better GPA, he could have had free tuition. His parents are just kicking themselves because they were in full support of their son taking so many AP classes.</p>
<p>This doesn’t only happen with AP classes. It can happen when students or their parents insist on minimal electives and all “solid” hard courses.</p>
<p>“However, your point about GPA is important. If a school isn’t going to weight AP classes, and your child’s GPA will suffer from too many APs, then that can be an issue.” - so true!!</p>
<p>During the college selection and research process the AP angle never came into play, had no clue that there would be a huge disparity between colleges and sometimes even departments at the same college. </p>
<p>I remember at the UT Austin talk for parents the guide told us just how many credits freshman get for AP courses taken in HS. I was really pleasantly surprised!! S1 could have graduated from there in 2.5 years!! </p>
<p>Everything else being equal for someone it could become a tie breaker, especially if half a years tuition can be saved. In todays environment that is a big deal. My goal is to help parents who can benefit from this. S2 is very aware of this fact.</p>
<p>Math and foreign languages placement tests are utilized everywhere, not just at Harvard. My D. could not register for first semester at her state school until she took these placement tests. They also determine the level of some other classes. In her case, math placement test score determined the level of General Chemistry that she could register. However, placement test did not undermine D’s ability to use AP credtis, which she did for math, since she was not interested to take more math than she had to, (too easy), she rather focuse on additional classes related to her major. Foreign language placement test is a very good tool, D. was able to take 3rd year and has learned a lot. One semester of foreign language was required at her school anyway and to be able to take the highest possible level was a great advantage.</p>
<p>In regard to weighted GPA, please, be aware that lots of colleges (all?) are stripping GPA to unweighted. AP classes decision should be based on interests and ability or strategic points in regard to future college major (some kids know their major, some do not), not HS GPA. For example, D. took AP for the class that is very hard for her - history. She has worked very hard, got lots of help from her father and was able to avoid taking this class in college which had potential to lower her college GPA. College GPA is much more important than HS GPA.</p>
<p>Many colleges look at “strength of schedule” so if your school offers AP classes I think they expect you to take them. It is not only about the weighting of the GPA but the fact that you took advantage of what your high school had to offer.</p>
<p>My D’s LAC gives one course credit (equivalent to a semester-long college course) for each 5 on an AP test, and 1/2 a course credit for a 4, up to a maximum of 4 course credits. I suspect for most kids the AP credits don’t matter much; the expectation is that everyone will be there for 4 years and graduate with their class, so there’s no real cost-saving involved. I suppose in principle you could use the cushion provided by the AP credits to take a lighter course load in college, but to my mind that would be a wasted opportunity to take a challenging college class that you’re effectively paying for anyway (since at most LACs tuition isn’t pro-rated based on the number of classes you’re taking). </p>
<p>IMO APs are more useful for purposes of showing you took a “challenging” HS curriculum, and in certain areas for placement into more advanced college courses. Why cheat yourself out of a full 4-year college education by using credits granted for work you did in HS to graduate college early (where that’s allowed) or to take a lighter course load?</p>
<p>It is not just the gpa, but class rank (if your h.s. ranks). Some colleges might “strip” out the weighting, but they still want kids who graduated in the top ten percent of their respective classes. If your school offers APs and your kids can handle them - and want to apply to competitive colleges, take some APs.</p>
<p>^AP credits were of great importance to my D. who has minor completely unrelated to her major and alsmost completed another minor which she had to drop because of additional requirements of one of Grad. Schools that she has applied. In addition, she would not be accepted to her program (only 10 spots for incoming freshmen) if she did not take the most rigorous classes in HS. And as I mentioned before, because of AP credits she was able to avoid taking college classes that she is not interested and the ones that had potential to lower her college GPA. Very high college GPA is extremely important in her future.</p>
<p>Many colleges look at “strength of schedule” so if your school offers AP classes I think they expect you to take them.</p>
<p>Colleges know that a student can’t take all/most of the AP classes offered if a school offers many. A student who has taken some classes (Latin, for instance) may not be able to take certain APs because of time conflicts. </p>
<p>Besides, only the most competitive schools are going to care whether you took 4 APs or 12. For most students, it’s better to protect your GPA than to take 12 APs instead of - say 8.</p>
<p>"only the most competitive schools "</p>
<p>-There are some programs within not so competitive schools that would not consider applicant because the rigor of his HS classes will not match to others. There are programs that have 10-15 spots with applicant pools in hundreds (sometime 800 for 15 spots). You do everything as the next person or you are out. Kids know it very well.</p>
<p>Our small public school in Southern California only offers 8 APs and the top kids took all 8or at least 7 of 8. It made a big difference for being designated “Eligible in the Local Context” by the UCs, being designated a valedictorian and being nominated for various scholarships. The valedictorians all took 4 APs their junior year and 3 APs their senior year, whereas a friend of my son’s took 3 APs her junior year and 4 APs her senior year and because the second semester grades for senior year didn’t count (because it was designated before the semester was completed), even though she had taken the same classes and gotten the same grades, she was not designated a valedictorian.</p>