Is AP worth it when a student has multiple college classes in.

[Dmmetler]

an area?

 

DD14 is taking US Government and politics next fall in a class that uses an AP textbook, although it is not an approved syllabus, and if anything the syllabus exceeds the AP requirements. It wouldn’t be that hard to supplement some specific practice and take the exam. And there is a school that has been receptive to allowing homeschoolers to take tests that offers the course and gives the exam.

But history and social sciences is one area where DD has multiple classes just out of interest, many of which are special topics honors classes, and in fact, one reason for doing the high school Govt and politics was to allow more schedule flexibility and meeting a high school requirement. And AP hits right in the middle of end of season competition in her sport-and with AP registration so early next year, the competition season won’t even have started yet. 

Does having an AP class really add anything for a student that has dual coded 4000 level honors classes in an area and classes from multiple universities as a high school student? Right now she is mostly looking at state U’s with good honors colleges and merit aid, although she is somewhat interested in LACs, particularly women’s colleges. 

[UmmIbrahim]

Hi there!

My oldest son has been taking lots of DE classes at the local community college. We were deciding about the role of APs versus DEs versus doing both this year. After doing some reading, we came to the conclusion that the message from some of the universities we are considering was basically as a homeschooler, more standardized testing of all kinds makes the application stronger. The general idea being that any and all "outside validation" of skill levels helps to balance out the mommy grade factor. 

This may be overkill on our part (it's my oldest who is a junior and we are still figuring everything out for the first time!), and I had originally thought that a bunch of A grades for in-person DE classes would send the message of subject competence, but after more research, it seems like many universities still like to see the additional validation of a bunch of high scores on AP exams. This year my son was taking Organic Chemistry (he previously completed two full years of CC Chem, General Chem and University Chem) and we went ahead and had him take the AP exam on top of it all. Likewise with Computer Science A, despite having the CC coursework in the subject. 

Just our thoughts on it, for what it's worth. APs definitely come at an annoying time of year, so I feel your pain on decisions about scheduling them in. Next year is worse because we have to sign up so much earlier! Ironically, the AP Chemistry exam fell at EXACTLY the same time as my son's Organic Chemistry final exam, and we had to work with the professor to have him take the final early. Ugh! Good luck as you make your decisions regarding testing. 

[Farrar]

I cannot imagine that your specific dd with her resume and coursework needs to bother with the AP exam.

[daijobu]

Isn't your daughter a future biologist?  AP Gov has a reputation for being one of the easier APs.  So barring a schedule conflict with her sport, it should be easier to squeeze in, at least compared with other AP exams.  If she's interested in environmental policy or activism, this might dovetail nicely with that interest, especially as far as LACs are concerned.  (Not so much with state schools if they are more by-the-numbers.)      OTOH, if she's so far advanced in her coursework and understanding of government, given APUG is so easy, it may seem weird to adcoms, depending on how savvy they are.  (They may not be all that savvy.)  

If you are doing this to obtain college credit, you just need to make a quick check of her list of colleges to see what they will award for this particular exam.   Will obtaining credit help her in her college plans by helping her skip over some prereq's and go straight to more advanced poli sci coursework?  

Finally, does she enjoy taking AP exams?  (Not being facetious here; my dd's love them.)  Or will she dread them?  

[teachermom2834]

From all you have posted about your dd’s experiences and interests and the colleges she is considering I don’t think this test is going to bring anything to enhance her application. Most schools won’t care and if there was a school that loved AP exams as validation one score from the govt exam isn’t going to impress them. 

Your dd is outside the box in the most fantastic way. I would make zero effort to make her look more like other candidates at all. If she wants to take it great, but I absolutely would not fool with it if you had things you would rather spend the time and money on. 

 

[UmmIbrahim]

I'm recently back in these forums and it looks like I'm lacking plenty of context about your dd! My son (the one taking APs on top of DE coursework) is more of an average learner. Yeah, he's got a lot of chem, but isn't teaching classes or doing crazy high level coursework. I think the posters who know your specific situation better are surely right on the money that APs aren't going to be a big draw for a really extraordinarily distinguished student. So you should probably ignore my previous advice, lol!

Edited May 12, 2019 by UmmIbrahim
grammar fail

[Ms Brooks]

I'm not sure if this will help, but my oldest DD took a bunch of AP classes and exams. It turned out the number of exams she took were not essential to college acceptance. She could have used one or two AP exams not 10.  My fourth and last time through the high school gauntlet of college acceptance, DD is planning on taking two AP exams and two SAT exams. All of her classes are AP and honors (She attends a private online school). DD # 4 is hoping that the AP course work will show she is capable of challenging work. 

[regentrude]

If she has college credit, I would not bother with the AP exam. I do not believe AP adds anything to a transcript that is strong with DE.

For anecdotal data point: my DD got accepted to extremely selective colleges without any APs; she just had a lot of college classes.

[chiguirre]

The one reason that an AP Gov Credit might specifically be worth it is if a college she's interested in requires a government credit or two as part of their core requirements. If the exam is at an awkward time, many public universities also accept the CLEP.