Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Stop Letting High-School Courses Count for College

Wow.

Here's the bit where he talks about the drawbacks:


So apparently, the real problem with the AP system is that it makes the outrageously inflated college experience more affordable, but it doesn't give the professor enough opportunities to talk about himself?

Also, I'm not sure he understands the term "introduction."

Dude,

Thanks for re-posting that clip, as it made me interested enough to read the article.

There are a few potential discussion topics about the article, but one of them is "What is the main point of college?" Is it to "broaden your mind" as some would suggest, or is instead for career preparation.

I believe that the primary purpose of college is career preparation, as there are far cheaper and potentially more interesting ways to "broaden your mind". And given this belief, I think that the professor is about as wrong as he can be.

The main point of college is different for different people.

Depends on you and the college...if it's for career prep, why not a Votech program? they are generally more concentrated and focused on the actual job skills. I went to an excellent one that has a great reputation locally. I also went to the local community college, which was far more "mind broadening" than worthwhile as far as preparing me for a career...unless you mean preparing by being exposed to lots of different people and different ways of doing things...

Couldn't disagree more.

Both of my kids in college tested out of college classes due to AP classes in high school. Not only did it save money on tuition, it opened up slots to allow my kids to take classes that sparked an interest like Art History rather than a course load heavy on required classes like English 101.

Alternatively, a student who enters college with 24 credits only needs to obtain 96 more in 8 semesters to graduate, rather than 120. That's a difference of taking 12 credits at a time versus 15. With one less course every semester, they can dedicate more time to the courses they're taking, allowing them to learn the material better.

I entered college with the equivalent of a full semester already completed thanks to the AP classes I was able to take MANY years ago back in the dark ages. That was such a gift to me, both in the college credit and also in the challenging and interesting course work I was able to take in high school thanks to having those classes as an option.

None of that early credit resulted in me graduating early - I had a basic idea of what I wanted to do when I entered college, changed my mind a few times, also had a few semesters (in a very tough engineering school) where I just needed (mentally!) a lighter load than a full 18 hours. The early head start on credits gave me some room to relax and feel like I could take my time, explore other areas of interest etc. Ultimately I doubt that I would have graduated any sooner or later regardless of how much credit I had going into college - I needed an extra year just to get to know myself and what I wanted out of life and a career, and to be honest, it wouldn't have mattered a flip how inspiring or non-inspiring my professors were, I had to find myself.

One thing that I was really really appreciative though of my AP credits was that I was in a different tract automatically out the gate the first semester of college than the majority of the incoming freshman who were all tracked together for the courses that were required of all freshman that first year.

polarbear

I don't accept his premise.

He is worried about non-science majors missing out on introductory level science courses, and science and engineering students missing out on introductory level humanities courses. How many non-science majors are likely to have taken AP Science courses? How many science and engineering majors are likely to have taken AP humanities courses? Sure, I suppose there are a few, but I think that people mostly take AP courses in their area of focus. I don't remember anybody, even the most gung-ho students, taking all of the available AP courses when I was in school -- and there weren't as many then as they offer today.

In my kids' high school, about 500 of the 1000 students in each grade level were signed up for at least AP English, and a majority of those 500 were also signed up for AP Biology, AP History and AP Calculus. As long as a student could keep a C average, they were allowed in the class.

AP wasn't even invented when I was in school.