Students Beware- Should you really take that AP Class?

Taking Advanced Placement classes has become more and more commonplace.  When I was in high school, taking an AP course was a rarity. Nowadays, it is much more common for students to take 3 or even 4 AP courses--and I am not talking about the valedictorian, but rather your 'Joe/Jill high school' type.


This has happened for a few reasons. First, students want to pad their own resumes, but, more disconcerting than that, this increase in AP enrollment is also, often, pushed upon students by schools--schools who are looking out for their own interests--sometimes at the expense of the actual student taking the exam!

Why the Increase Has Happened

This nationwide increase in AP course enrollment occurs for a few reasons. Students  are trying to differentiate themselves  in a competitive college admissions process--something that isn't bad. But, there is another reason that is less innocuous. Many high schools push or 'encourage' students to take all of the AP courses for reasons that, in the end, benefit the school : to increase their own district's rankings when, at the end of the year, Newsweek ranks all of the High School's in the US. You see, the greater percentage of students taking AP courses, the better a  school ranks.

Why Schools Do It

I would like to focus on the second reason--when schools pressure/push kids into AP courses. The way that some magazines like Newsweek  rank high schools is pretty complex and varies from year to year, but some of these rankings take into account the percentage of students enrolled in AP courses. This means that high schools can rank better simply by having more kids in "AP classes." "Enrolled" does not mean that students have to do well on the exams ...they just have to show up for the class. Now, some magazines do take the student AP performance into account, but Newsweek  has only cared about how many students are sitting in AP classes. From a school's perspective, this ranking factor is easy and cheap to manipulate. Administrators have a clear motive for increasing AP class enrollment-- improve their high schools' rankings  ....then they can brag to the community and the school board about how well their school is ranking! Think about it from the administrator's perspective--they can improve their rankings by 1) increasing student performance on state test and SAT exams 2) 'encouraging' kids to take AP courses 3) hiring more teachers and lowering the teacher/student ratio.  The easiest and most 'cost effective' solution is to just shift kids from regular classes to AP classes--after all you don't have to hire new teachers, spend more money...all you have to do is get kids to take different classes and...like magic you'll do better in the Newsweek rankings.

Pushing lots of kids into AP classes has lead, in some cases, to courses that are "AP in name only"(read here for more) or , if the school's AP teachers don't dilute the difficulty level of the classes, this trend has lead to many overwhelmed students whose high school transcripts have actually suffered!

Whatever happened to the Student's best Interest?

Unfortunately, no one is looking for the actual student in this case. So you can end up with an average student taking 2,3 or 4 AP classes, having a low GPA and not doing well on any of the AP exams.  In this case, an average student who could had some kind of B+ average now has, maybe, a C average and didn't do well on the AP exams--the kids just got in over their head. A friend of mine, who works in College Admissions, has said over and over again to me that colleges don't want to see a transcript of a student who took 4 AP classes with low grades and all 1's and 2's on the AP exams. Instead, they'd  rather see a student who got B's in non-AP classes and maybe took 1 or 2 AP exams total. Colleges, he said, often have GPA cut-off's  so if you're below a certain cumulative GPA, they probably won't even glance at your application--even if it's full of A

Since schools, ideally, should be looking out for their own students best interests, this one is really irksome.

So what is a student to do?

You need to look out for yourself, since your guidance counselor might not be.T his means, use your common sense. How many AP courses can you really handle? By "handle" I mean, how many AP courses can you take and still maintain a respectable GPA. The answer to that question should guide your decision making. 

What if you are already stuck in too many tough AP classes?

First off, if you find yourself overwhelmed, meet your guidance counselor and try to change your schedule. If it's too late and you are stuck with your schedule,  try find a good tutor  at school or  get help online --at homework help site or at other good educational sites. Lastly, you can always try to make study groups with your peers.

Related Links
How Newsweek Ranks High Schools
NY Times article on "AP Courses in Name Only"