AP credits weigh into scheduling

As freshmen and sophomores prepare to register over the next two Sundays, students and administrators say Advanced Placement credits are an effective way to satisfy introductory and liberal arts requirements – freeing up schedule space for electives and major requirements.

College of Arts and Sciences Dean Jeffrey Henderson said students must make sure their department accepts AP credit before assuming a course can be avoided.

“CAS students may use AP courses as equivalents in some cases,” he said. “Individual CAS departments evaluate AP courses and minimum scores for equivalency, as they do with courses offered for transfer credit.”

Henderson said it is advantageous for students to free up space in their schedules if they can.

“Satisfying basic requirements before college frees time for students to start at a more advanced level in their major and to take more electives,” he said.

BUCOP junior Alison Palmer said she would not have been able to finish simultaneous philosophy/political science and public relations degrees if she had not used the 24 AP credits she had acquired in high school.

“It helped me with my general education, so that I could graduate in time with two degrees,” she said.

Palmer said she disagrees with accusations that college-level classes offered in high schools are not equivalent to actual college classes in workload and material.

“My school was one of the top schools in California and had a renowned AP program,” she said. “It was intense.”

CAS sophomore Joanna Thissen said she thought high school AP classes were accurate substitutes for college courses.

“I felt the teachers I had in high school were extremely rigorous in coursework and tried making it as much as a college course as possible,” she said. “It’s not as compact though because it is taught over the course of a year.”

Thissen said although she used AP credits to satisfy her humanities requirement, she still decided to take humanities classes as electives.

“If you have a major that had a lot of overwhelming requirements [use AP credits],” she said, “but it kind of eliminates taking a broad amount of classes.”

CAS freshman Sam Estabrook said it is a waste of time to take a college class that can be accounted for through an AP class.

“An intro course is supposed to give you a basic overview of a subject,” he said. “If one can do that in high school, I don’t see why they should again in college.”