AP Credit A Sign Of Reputation

I’m writing in response to yesterday’s article on AP grades, “BU to change AP credit policy.” It’s a very bad idea to curtail credit for Advanced Placement courses. The purpose of AP courses is to give introductory surveys to different subjects. They are not upper-level courses. For this reason, giving credit for AP scores is not a bad or dangerous thing. There is not much that a student will learn in one semester of an introductory college course (usually a 101), that he or she will not learn in an AP class in high school. For its purpose, AP works well.

But that’s not the part that I care most about. AP’s convenience is far more important. Many students come to college with specific plans in mind, and AP contributes to that. When I came to BU in September, I had planned to major in biochemistry and history, a combination that would be nearly impossible if I didn’t already have all my divisional studies requirements satisfied by AP credits. Further, since AP counts for the lower-level courses, it allows us to skip to more advanced topics right away rather than wasting time studying the same things we’ve been studying all through high school. Instead of completing BI 107/108, I skipped to 203, cell biology. In cell biology, getting a taste of more advanced biology, I decided I really didn’t want to major in biochem after all. If I’d had to take 107/108, I would have wasted two semesters — an entire year — before realizing I didn’t actually want to study microbiology. Being undeclared, it was important to be able to shop around all I wanted before deciding. Being restricted to divisional studies or intro courses would only have delayed me. Being able to skip intro-level classes is especially important for science majors, I think. Rather than the usual 9-12 classes, biochemistry would have required 17 courses; others require more. AP classes allow students to explore other interests rather than spend yet more time in their area of expertise, broadening their general knowledge.

If not for credit, many students would not take AP courses, only normal high school classes. I can imagine that doing so, coming to college would be like hitting a wall in terms of homework level. It would be just one more difficult thing to adjust to as a freshman. Because I took multiple AP classes in high school, I didn’t find the amount of work during my first semester (and so far this semester) to be ridiculously high. It’s more than I had in high school, but it’s not anything near overwhelming.

Finally, not granting credit to future classes would only clog introductory courses further. Enrollment in large lectures would be even larger, and BU would have to adjust either by building more high-capacity lecture halls or increasing the number of 101/102 sections through more staff members or at the expense of advanced courses.

Having a higher percentage of students coming in with AP credits is not a bad sign; it is a good indication of BU’s academic reputation. Rather than try to curtail these improvements, BU should be proud of more students coming in with AP credit.