Saw on the HS threead many people talk about having AP classes. I graduated in '89 and my school offered some, but I still really don't see the point. What's the big deal about getting the college credit? If you can do well in the class I assume you can do well in the class in college which would more likely have more substance to offer. Plus, unless you are in a tight financial situation, why do you want to hurry and get through college so quickly?
1. you get the credits for a lot cheaper. 2. when you are in something like chemical engineering where you need about 135 hours to graduate it takes a bit of a load off your semesters. 3. free up your schedule for more classes like golf or something similar
AP credit allowed me to change majors 5 times, take only 9 hours 4 different semesters, and still graduate in 4 years.
They allowed me to finish in 3 and a half, taking 6 hours my last two semesters. I had to stretch it out to 3.5 in order to get season tickets for 05 and for my two Rose Bowl Tickets. Plus you don't have to sit through all those terribly boring freshman year classes and listen to stupid questions
Seems like getting done w/college earlier is more important to some than it was me. Sometimes I wish I was on the 15 instead of the 5.5 year plan.
I had a bunch of credits. Some of it I could take a A credit, which was a boon to my GPA. One advantage is that I took only 12 hours a semester and was pretty stress free. But more to the point, I was extremely prepared for the level of work and depth of reading. I took my AP classes seriously, and my first year at UT I absolutely killed curves. TAs basically asked me for the answers.
I graduated HS in '93. My HS was one of the first that had at least 1 AP course being taught in every single core corriculum subject. 2 huge advantages for me. #1 by having 15 credit hours to start the year, I was able to register as a Sophomore after just one semester due to having 30 credit hours. (and of course, Junior and Senior semester 1 time early as well) And if you dont think being able to log into TEX 5 days early wasnt an advantage, you are out of your freaking mind. #2 improving GPA. 15 hours of a "B' allowed me to overcome a really really bad 2nd semester, GPA wise and kept myself above the dreaded ScoPro threshold. As others have mentioned above, when I took the test it cost something like $50-60. Even in 1993 when my entire tuition bill for 15 hours was $900, I still would have spent at least $150 on those 3 credit hour classes. So it saved me money. And I am sure the savings are even more pronounced today... What does the standard tuition bill cost for 15 hours in the 2nd semester now??? My last year, '97, it was about $1800 for the final 15 hours-it literally doubled from Spring '94 to Spring '97
High school class rank. In my sons' high school, the top 5% or so of every senior class have GPA's over 100. That comes from taking pre-AP classes on the 110 point scale and AP classes on the 115 point scale. In a state where the top public universities are having trouble finding room for high school students that didn't graduate in the top 10% of their high school classes, that's big.
Wow! $900 to $3600 is amazing. When I went to UT in the early 80's, tuition was $4 per credit hour. My fee bill plus books didn't cost me more than about $275 per semester. When the tuition charge rose to $12 and finally up to $22 per hour, I decided it was time to graduate. From what I understand, tuition is around $90 per hour now.
When you consider that my son has at least 8 years of school left for medical school, getting 39 credits for college before he even attends UT; it's not even a question of why would anyone do it.
I have a question for those who took AP classes. I get everything everyone is saying about the advantages of AP classes. What I'm wondering is, what about the quality of the classes and the teachers? The reason I ask is that, while the classes are college-level classes, the teachers are high school teachers, which means they are required merely to have a bachelor's degree. Doesn't mean they couldn't do a great job teaching a college-level class. Just curious.
At my son's school, the teacher's have their masters and also teach at one of the local colleges here too. My son has a tremendous amount of research and writing he has to accomplish as if he were attending college. Hope that helps.
AP credits allowed me to graduate from college a semester early and they gave me the freedom to take different classes in college.
Agreed on what KC97 said, since I was there the same time. I was a madwoman about placing out of as much as I could upon my arrival at UT. The testing was somewhat difficult, but I was able to place out of 27 hours so I didn't have to deal with most of the freshman weed-out classes and could concentrate on my major. Then when I switched majors after year one I wasn't set back at all and still graduated in four years. It was, as KC97 pointed out, also nice to technically be a sophomore for the purposes of registration.
As someone pointed out earlier, it was all about class rank. If you wanted to be in the top 5% (my class had about 550) you took about 6 AP classes a year. I was all honors and took 11 APs: the lowest grade I made in high school was an 89 and I ended up 20th in my class. With how competitive large suburban schools are these days, that's kind of the reality. Of course, I also felt that the pace and expected discipline in my school's AP program put me light years ahead of other kids at UT. I came into UT with over 50 hours, and I actually sort of regret it: I've forgotten all my spanish, and a HS level economics class, for example, doesn't help at all with higher level econ.
Some others mentioned it - but I think the biggest thing was starting out with a higher classification. For the large weed-out classes there are usually 5+ professors with the distribution 1 being awesome, 1 good-to-ok, 1 mediocre, and 2 grade-nazis. The difference in grade distributions can be 40+% A's on the awesome professor and 5-10% A' for the grade nazi. And with pick-a-prof, everyone and their mom knows who the awesome prof is and how many A's he gives out. So if you pick before your peers taking a class, you can automatically raise your expected GPA by 0.3-0.5 than the guy who has to pick last. And you have a much easier and enjoyable experience than the poor fool stuck in the grade nazi's class.
I agree with many of the points stated in this thread, particularl the thought about "getting out of taking teh weed-out" classes. I only took 2 AP exams, but I should have taken at least a couple more. I was an engineering student, and not having to worry about the intro English classes was a huge ease to my schedule that first year. Regarding who teaches those classes, at my HS the AP (actually IB classes, but students in those classes were prepared for AP exams) classes were taught by some of the best teachers my school had to offer. My wife is currently a HS math teacher and I know for a fact how getting to teach the "smart kids" is something that is reserved for only those able to teach at a higher level.
People try way, way too hard in high school. High school is not difficult, and if you put in the extra effort you get nothing back for it. I am constantly reminded of Cool Runnings. The team leader asks John Candy what it's like to win a Gold Medal. John Candy explains: "If you're not enough without it, you'll never be enough with it." I would advise anyone not to kill him or herself for a rank. If you do what you love and you are good at it, you have achieved all that anyone ever can.
I know who a guy who was rejected from UT Law. He petitioned the decision because they didn't factor his AP place out credit into his GPA. When factored in it raised his GPA enough that they accepted him. That is a big deal. At my high school in one of the AP classes I took, the first thing she said on the first day was that she would not prepare us for the AP exam. wtf? Maybe just a way to keep good students above the fray.
I wish I would've put more time into my AP classes. I took AP English my Jr and Sr year and AP Psych my Sr year. I loved all 3 of the classes and have kept up with all the teachers who taught them as well. While I didn't take many and only passed 1 AP test I can definitely see the benefit. One of my friends came into college the same year as me, but as a sophomore and is graduating 1 full year ahead of me, possibly 1.5. I'll be lucky to graduate in 4, but I might stretch it to 4.5 to get one more football season in.
I placed out of two semesters worth of English, plus a semester of Calculus. Combined with some easy summer school weed-out classes at a junior college prior to enrolling at Texas (saved $$$ this way), I basically started with a whole semester of credit without ever having set foot on campus. I also attended Texas on a scholarship which only lasted for eight semesters. Had I stayed any longer, it would have been on my own nickel. Again, lots of $$$. That said, I wish I could have afforded to stick around longer. My years at Texas were some of the best years of my life.
