<p>I’d LOVE to hear everyones’ responses if it wasn’t about receiving college credit. My goal is not to receive college credit, and I could care less if I do not receive any for any of my classes.</p>
<p>I am talking about the rigor of dual enrollment vs. AP to admission officers.</p>
<p>My school does not offer any AP’s, and that is the reason I’m taking dual enrollment classes. Now, on every thread or many people I talk to, they all say that admission officers will look at what classes I was able to take and which ones I actually took, and judged based on that. TBH, I really don’t understand what that means, and just think it’s a cover to say “AP’s are superior in every way, but whatever”. Can someone please explain to me the EXACT thinking behind admission officers when differentiating between applicants who have AP classes and dual enrollment classes?</p>
<p>Unfettered… the school I work at doesn’t offer AP except for Euro and even then, few actually take the test. (My son who took AP self-studied for them.) We had a student just get accepted to Stanford…</p>
<p>If everything is decent on your application - good scores, took the hardest classes available, etc, no AP won’t be an issue.</p>
<p>If you had a choice between AP and DE for the same class, then it might come into play.</p>
<p>But I’m finding myself have to put in a lot of effort to cover the material that’s on the AP exam that wasn’t covered in my dual enrollment class. But, whatever, I guess I gotta do what I gotta do.</p>
<p>Quick question for you: Online high school such as FLVS offer AP classes. If I’m taking one or two or even three my entire high school career, will this hurt me? In other words, should I have taken more online AP classes or is it fine? Don’t know if I’m making any sense right now…</p>
<p>I did respond to your question about the rigor of DE vs AP–in our school the AP classes are much harder then the CC classes, no question. CC classes are a step-back from the AP classes at our school. Obviously that is not the case at your high school. Self-study for the AP tests, get your 5 and stop worrying about it. I’m not sure why the hesitation for self-study–pretty much the same thing you do in a college class, read a lot and take a couple tests.</p>
<p>As for your intro to Psych class–who knows. At our high school AP Psych is considered and “easy 5” because the teacher is very good and the kids like the class but the material itself isn’t all that difficult. AP BC Calc, on the other hand, is a difficult class that is very challenging ,but 90+% of the kids get a 5 on that test too.</p>
<p>Nope. AP classes are geared towards teaching the students the material that is covered on the AP exam and not much more. College class have no test they are geared towards and are free to discuss any topic relevant to that subject. Thus, this cannot be defined as a reason for AP’s being superior to dual enrollment courses.</p>
<p>^^^ Well, like I and many others have said, we’ve seen both. I’ll stick to my beliefs based upon that experience rather than what may have been a rabbit trail in another class (taking up time from covering what is generally considered the basics).</p>
<p>Again, this kind of thinking by college admission officers is what scares me. A student who takes dual enrollment course (that arguably can be harder than an AP class), verses a student who took AP classes is at a disadvantage because of the general thinking (be it right or wrong) that AP’s are harder. I’m not being put on an even playing field, and this is going to hurt me.</p>
<p>Taking both the college course and the AP test may give you “double coverage” for credit and placement at the college you eventually matriculate to. The reason is that colleges vary considerably on whether college courses taken in high school will be granted placement and/or credit for entering freshmen. State universities are often more generous with community college credit (based on pre-existing articulation agreements) than AP scores, but private universities are often very stingy about college courses taken in high school (particularly community college courses). The reasons for such policies are both economic (from the college’s point of view) and standardization.</p>
<p>Math majors typically have to take a real analysis course, which is a proof-oriented course on the theoretical foundations of calculus, even though they may have skipped freshman calculus with AP calculus credit.</p>
<p>If you are taking the most rigorous available options at your high school, then that is the best you can do, and college admissions people should consider that. Given how many existing AP courses are “AP lite” (i.e. covering only a semester of college course over a year, or too easy to be given college credit at most colleges), it is unlikely that actual college courses would be seen as being any worse.</p>
<p>For your in-state public universities, there is probably an articulation agreement with the community college, so that you know what is transferable. Be sure to take transferable courses to show the highest course rigor and gain transfer credit and placement.</p>
<p>@UCB, “Quick question for you: Online high school such as FLVS offer AP classes. If I’m taking one or two or even three my entire high school career, will this hurt me? In other words, should I have taken more online AP classes or is it fine? Don’t know if I’m making any sense right now…”</p>
<p>That is so wrong it isn’t even funny. Sure, a few kids can do it that way, but for most people (outside of the super high achieving CC crowd) a 5 is hard to get even after having taken the course.</p>
<p>At our HS the APs are definitely harder than DE. My oldest got Bs in DE but never got above a 2 on an AP exam. </p>
<p>You also need to realize though that Adcoms know what the general rigor is of the colleges that kids take the DE courses at. They may not know the specific prof etc but they know in general if the courses are comparable or not. They also don’t penalize kids who go go schools that don’t have APs. As a result of that you will not be penalized, but will actually get extra credit in their minds for having taken DEs.</p>
<p>Edit- you also won’t be penalized for not taking online AP classes (or 3, or whatever) since most people don’t even know about online AP classes.</p>
<p>If your school doesn’t offer AP classes you aren’t going to be penalized for not having taken them. </p>
<p>The advantage of the AP is that there is a standardized test and thus it’s possible to compare students from different schools on one measure. Colleges vary greatly in their approaches to giving college credit for APs. Many give no credit. AP psych is one of the courses that is less likely to be accepted by colleges for credit. To be blunt, it’s viewed as an “AP-lite.” It’s a gut. It’s also rarely taught as a lab science in high school and it’s usually taught as a lab science in college. I doubt taking AP psych or a CC course Intro to Psych is going to impress any college admissions officer or at least any admissions officer at a selective college.</p>
<p>I just did a quick search. Over 20% of students who take the AP psych test get 5s. Roughly two-thirds get a 3 or better.</p>
<p>Tougher courses have higher median AP scores. Over half the students who take BC calc get 5s and about 80% get a 3 or better. On AP stats, which tends to be taken by a less-mathematically inclined group, only 12.5% get 5s.</p>
<p>Seriously, if someone takes an AP class, puts in some real effort, and only gets a 2, it’s probable that the course wasn’t taught well and nobody should get college credit for it.</p>
<p>I just took a look at your other courses. You need to talk to a counselor. Is AP pysch your only science course your junior year?!!!Have you already taken at least bio, chem and physics? If you want to get into a combined BS/MD program, you should be taking real science courses, not AP pysch.</p>
<p>AP exams do not correlate with regular level classes be they DE classes or AP classes. What did your oldest child receive as letter grade in those AP classes?</p>
<p>And thank you for your reply. It was very very helpful!</p>
<p>I am currently a junior in high school. I’m looking at some BS/MD programs along with Ivy’s (MOST BS/MD programs and Ivy’s are reaches for everyone, including me). UCF is currently my safety and USF’s BS/MD program is my current “safety” (although no BS/MD can really be a safety), as I live in Florida.</p>
<p>I took the SAT as a sophomore and scored a 2100. I am taking it again this year in hopes of a 2300+.</p>
<p>I am also going to be taking the SAT subject tests for Literature, Math 2, and Chemistry.
I will be taking the AP test for Literature and MAYBE (big maybe) for psychology.</p>
<p>And I’ll just go ahead and post my classes here also :</p>
<p>College Trig (at college)
Freshman Comp 1 (at college)
Intro to Psychology (at college)
Next semester (Still junior year): English Literature 1300-1800 Fundamentals of speech (or Political Science. Not sure yet.)
Precalculus Algebra
U.S. History (at high school)
AP Composition and Literature (online High school course)
Honors Chemistry (at high school)</p>
:</p>