College Discussion - View Single Post - Colleges That Request AP Scores on Their Application Forms

calmom · 07-20-2007, 10:31 PM

Applicants don't "claim" they have taken AP classes - they enroll in the courses at their high schools and it is reported on their transcripts. The issue that the colleges are interested in is whether the student has taken the most challenging courses available at their high schools -- not the comparative quality of the course work. If it was a matter of comparing quality of coursework, then the elite schools could simply go back to the days when they only took students coming from prestigious feeder schools -- and forget the kids coming from typical public schools entirely.

In the same vein, the AP score may not reflect the student's ability but rather the nature & scope of the course they had. This doesn't necessarily mean that their course work was poor or unchallenging- it could be a matter of an AP teacher who simply fails to cover something that is on the test while going more in depth on other topics. My daughter did not take AP English Language in 11th grade because of her semester abroad; instead she worked out an arrangement with a different English lit teacher to self-study for the year, and she spent the year reading various works of American literature while her classmates in AP English Language focused mostly on writing and analytical skills. At the urging of her teachers, she decided to take the AP exam, and prepared by getting a review book and spending an hour going over the vocabulary and sample multiple choice questions, the night before the exam. She did better on the exam than the kids in the formal AP class because of that brief review session -- it wasn't a matter of the *academic* weakness of the course, it was simply that those kids did not get prepped well for the multiple choice part of the exam. (Yes, of course they should have been taught that material - but it wasn't difficult stuff; it is very likely that the AP teacher did include it all within the course, but simply did not give her students an appropriate pre-exam review session).

So the bottom line is that the AP score doesn't tell much about either the quality of the underlying course or the quality of the student.

And... as I've now noted several times .. Harvard (and other colleges) tell their applicants that they do not require the AP exams.

If they want to see them, then they should say so - it would be simple enough to tell students that they will not acknowledge AP's or weighted grades unless there are AP scores to go along with the courses reflected on the transcript.

07-20-2007, 10:31 PM	#36
calmom Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Threads: 69 Posts: 5,478	Applicants don't "claim" they have taken AP classes - they enroll in the courses at their high schools and it is reported on their transcripts. The issue that the colleges are interested in is whether the student has taken the most challenging courses available at their high schools -- not the comparative quality of the course work. If it was a matter of comparing quality of coursework, then the elite schools could simply go back to the days when they only took students coming from prestigious feeder schools -- and forget the kids coming from typical public schools entirely. In the same vein, the AP score may not reflect the student's ability but rather the nature & scope of the course they had. This doesn't necessarily mean that their course work was poor or unchallenging- it could be a matter of an AP teacher who simply fails to cover something that is on the test while going more in depth on other topics. My daughter did not take AP English Language in 11th grade because of her semester abroad; instead she worked out an arrangement with a different English lit teacher to self-study for the year, and she spent the year reading various works of American literature while her classmates in AP English Language focused mostly on writing and analytical skills. At the urging of her teachers, she decided to take the AP exam, and prepared by getting a review book and spending an hour going over the vocabulary and sample multiple choice questions, the night before the exam. She did better on the exam than the kids in the formal AP class because of that brief review session -- it wasn't a matter of the academic weakness of the course, it was simply that those kids did not get prepped well for the multiple choice part of the exam. (Yes, of course they should have been taught that material - but it wasn't difficult stuff; it is very likely that the AP teacher did include it all within the course, but simply did not give her students an appropriate pre-exam review session). So the bottom line is that the AP score doesn't tell much about either the quality of the underlying course or the quality of the student. And... as I've now noted several times .. Harvard (and other colleges) tell their applicants that they do not require the AP exams. If they want to see them, then they should say so - it would be simple enough to tell students that they will not acknowledge AP's or weighted grades unless there are AP scores to go along with the courses reflected on the transcript.