Are AP Classes Overrated?

Lori Martello, Reporter|April 30, 2015

The purpose of taking AP courses is students have the vision of continuing on with school after high school. Considering the amount of stress that is involved with taking AP course, including the class load for high school, how are APs looked at and used for college admission?

 

AP stands for advanced placement. That means that a student is ready to take on the challenge of college levels courses in high school. The AP courses at Arrowhead range from European History to Spanish.

 

Christian Boyer, a recruiter for University of Chicago, was speaking at the University when the a question was asked pertaining to how AP credits transfer to colleges. She replied, “You can have AP,IB, whatever classes and get the highest scores on all of them, but it does not matter. A student will still be put at the beginning level classes not matter how many credits they have,”

 

Her explanation was that most professors or college instructors like to start a student out from beginning to end, regarding their course.

 

“The college that I applied to told me that I had to have a minimum of four AP courses and get at least a four or a five on all of them. It is a requirement because I will be attending a college out of the country,” said senior Briana Gates.

 

“I was planning on taking three AP courses next year but the stress of it would overwhelm me, so I said screw it and am only going to take one,” said junior Lindsey Mcgovern.

 

Juliane Meckler, an AP calculus teacher at Oconomowoc High School, said that, “with my students, I try and prepare the for college as best as I can and support them in their education. From what I have seen, the students who are enrolled in AP courses have a tendency to be more overwhelmed but that is what AP courses can do to a student. Heck, thats what college is,”

 

“The real reason I took AP Government was so I didn’t have to take a Sociology or Philosophy class is college,” said senior Dillon Steiner.

 

This may not be the viewpoint of all universities and colleges but it would not be so surprising to a student if the AP classes in high school are not used to bypass certain levels of classes in college.