Nope. Based on his scores and level, he only had to take one semester of French at Yale. Why they had no objection to his schedule change I can’t say–I made him contact them because I thought they’d make him stick with it.
I think you need to look at this in context. I can find no valid reason for me to take the AP European History exam.
Definitely consider the context. As I have said before, there was no reason for my D to take AP US History. It would have demanded a large amount of study and review with no benefit. She was happy with her decision not to take it. She likely would not have gotten a 5 on that one.
If you have been admitted to Yale, and have already decided to attend, a number of the AP exams will do you no good whatsoever. A few of them can be used for placement, but others not at all.
Some AP courses (and exams) are indeed more valuable than others. IMHO, the Foreign Language AP exam, with a score of 5, is probably the most valuable. At Yale, a score of 5 on AP FL exam will only require a student to take one semester of FL in college. At Harvard, scoring a 5 on the AP FL will exempt a student from the college’s FL requirement entirely.
A little anecdote: Mid-way through my daughter’s senior year at Harvard, she decided she wanted to apply to medical school. However, as she had been on the humanities track, she lacked some of the required math and sciences courses needed to apply. So, she’s now enrolled in a post-bac program to complete those requirements. My daughter was happy to note that some medical schools (Harvard among them) will accept a score of 5 in AP Calc BC, AP Bio, AP Chemistry and AP Physics in lieu of taking those classes in college. So some AP’s courses, with an exam score of 5, are valuable beyond the undergraduate experience.
To each his own and that’s what I like about CC. Again, my D took the AP exams senior year but did not send the scores. Since she took APLatin, that was not going to help her at Yale since it was not one of the languages you got to accelerate. Also, she knew she was switching to German and Korean (she is a language intensive Literature major)so it would have done her no good. Even not being as hell bent on good grades, she still did excellently her second semester. Must have something to do with the fact that second semester seniors don’t have finals at her school. That’s what I mean be the school understanding that these 125 kids have been academically driven and stressed for years and allowing them one semester to just be teens and enjoy high school. I do know that this would not work everywhere.
I should have qualified my original “Don’t worry about the AP test” to “Study it out and decide whether it’s worth it or not.”
AP credits are "acceleration credits"at Yale : If the student takes a more advanced class and gets an A or B, Yale will grant credit for the AP class. If your kid is like mine, then there’s not much point to the AP because he still has to take a course in the content area to (retroactively ) get the AP credit; it just didn’t seem to get him anywhere.
He could have take the English AP and been granted two credits for freshman level English, but he was able to skip those English courses anyway and take the higher level course he wanted to take. He could have taken the economics AP test and gone directly into the more intermediate economics class–but the intermediate class didn’t really appeal to him and isn’t needed for the programs he’s most interested in. He had zero interest in continuing in his high school language and lots of interest in trying a more modern language, so the Latin AP test didn’t matter either.
YMMV, of course, but it’s worth checking out the AP chart and thinking about whether those acceleration credits will really be helpful or not before the hassle and expense of the tests. http://yalecollege.yale.edu/new-students/class-2018/academic-information/acceleration/award-acceleration-credit-based-advanced
@Hunt: Did your son replace the French class with something else, or just drop the credits?
My recollection is that he used the extra period to be an aide to the band director.
Question to parents with kids on FA. Do you have to report Yale’s grant as income? Do kids have to file tax return and include that as income? Obviously, I’m not ready to file my taxes and I haven’t talked to my accountant but I was wondering to hear from the experts here:) thanks
@Saona63 Yes, you do have to file a tax return for anything that is over the cost of tuition and books/school supplies. Also, you will need to have receipts for any books/school supplies. That means that if your child has a grant that pays for room and board and expenses, he/she will have to file a tax return for that part of the grant. I am assuming that your child is a freshman, that would mean up to $7,000 for room and board as it will only be for the first semester. If you claim your child as a dependent, s/he will get the standard deduction . I believe it was $6100 last year. Not sure if that amount has changed as I haven’t filed taxes yet. That means that your child would only have to pay taxes on $900 of the grant after the standard deduction (assuming a $6100 standard deduction). Yale will send you a form (can’t remember the name) which will include the entire amount of the grant. Do not claim the entire amount as income, only claim the amount for room and board/living expenses. If your son has outside scholarships, this will also have to be factored into the equation. Your son/daughter will have to pay federal and state taxes on this income but not social security and Medicare. If you have any other questions, pm me.
Some changes to the upcoming school calendar…
Dear Yale College Students,
I am writing to announce that the Fall 2015 term will end on December 22, 2015, a day earlier than originally planned, after making one adjustment to the fall calendar.
The calendar committee, which is made up of students, administrators, and faculty, had hoped to maintain all the features of the current calendar, including the six-day reading period, the fall recess, and the week-long break at Thanksgiving. To preserve all these features, the committee seriously explored a number of options, including the possibility of starting the academic year one week earlier than originally planned, a suggestion proposed by the Yale College Council.
The committee looked particularly closely at the YCC’s request to start the academic year a week early and gathered the necessary information for pursuing this option. It included bringing the freshman counselors and pre-orientation leaders to campus in the middle of August, scheduling annual maintenance during a smaller window of time, and requiring instructors to return to campus two weeks before Labor Day, conflicting with many faculty members’ summer research and travel schedules. The committee presented its analysis, of all options, to the vice presidents of the university, who concluded to shorten the reading period by one day, to five days, in the fall term in order to end the semester early and to preserve both fall recess and Thanksgiving break.
The 2015-16 calendar presented particular difficulties due to how the academic calendar is scheduled: fall semesters begin every year on the Wednesday before Labor Day, with no classes held on Labor Day itself. This academic year started on the earliest date possible, August 27. Next year, however, the opening day swings to the opposite extreme, as it does every seven years, to the latest possible date, September 2. Since the 2015-16 academic year is scheduled to begin on September 2, next year’s fall-term exam period was originally scheduled to end on December 23. By custom, dorms would have remained open until noon on December 24 (Christmas Eve), and students and staff were understandably concerned about ending so late.
I will be convening a committee and charging it with assessing the fall break and developing a single University academic calendar. I will update you with more details once we have them.
Article on the calendar change on YDN:
http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2015/01/23/fall-2015-reading-period-to-be-one-day-shorter/
Better than Dec. 23, but still a real hassle for the many students having to travel any significant distance.
This is when you pay close attention to finals and other end of semester requirements during shopping period. Unless it is a required class that you just can’t get around, if you have to travel far, I would order my finals so that I was done early. Trust me, that is what we did back in the day. I know its not perfect, especially if you are in a class you have to take, but for the vast majority, this does work.
Yale closed this evening and tomorrow. DS reports that “they’re not going to feed us tomorrow.” Horrors!!!
I guess the dining workers can’t get to work. I hope that the food bags they’re handing out tonight will be enough for a turbo-charged 18-year old.
Apparently this is one of very few Yale closings ever.
They closed two years ago right around this time. My 2015 Yalie has had (now) two campus closures due to blizzards and one due to a hurricane (freshman year, right at drop off in August). I imagine that Yale is getting quite good practice dealing with these types of disasters, no one will starve 
OMG. My D texted me. I don’t know if its global warming or not but back in the day Yale never, NEVER closed for bad weather. I remember going to class in a blizzard. But, if it is as bad as they say, workers cannot get there. They will make sure our babies have food.
The freshman are in for a treat. The first measurable snowfall usually results in a huge snowball fight on Old Campus. Not having classes tomorrow makes that an almost certainty. Not too worried about the food. I just want the electricity and more importantly the heat, to stay on.
Yale canceled classes for two days in February 2013 due to snow. Before that, there had not been a snow day since 1978.
http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2015/01/26/classes-cancelled-monday-evening-tuesday/
Don’t want to jinx it, but like yalemom15, I have a student who has been through a hurricane and a 3-ft blizzard at Yale and both times, the power remained on. I believe most of the utilities are underground. And yes, once the winds stop some of these kids will have big fun on campus – especially those who come from places where they have rarely, if ever, seen snow.
I can second that, living nearby, I used my daughter’s room to do my hair once, since she always had electricity and we went a week.
I think D’s suite has enough junk food for them to survive on for a few days, but the bags of food will be a nice addition. 