Page 1 of 8 123 ... LastLast
Results 1 to 20 of 145

Thread: AP Courses

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
    Location
    On the Road to Nowhere

    AP Courses

    How many people here took AP courses in high school? Did you find them worthwhile? I took at least 4 and it enabled me to graduate a semester early from Duke and save a bunch of money. I imagine it helped my admissions application as well.

    Unfortunately, it appears they are going to be cancelled here in the state of Florida.
    Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote. - George Jean Nathan

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Undisclosed
    Quote Originally Posted by dudog84 View Post
    How many people here took AP courses in high school? I took at least 4 and it enabled me to graduate a semester early from Duke and save a bunch of money.

    Unfortunately, it appears they are going to be cancelled here in the state of Florida.
    I took a bunch, got me out of several classes at Duke I am glad I did not have to take.

    My kids each had enough to complete freshman year credit requirements Andrew a single semester.

    I am totally confused by what DeSantis is doing, but I’m not his target audience apparently. I’ll leave it at that.

  3. #3
    I'm pretty sure this thread is doomed. There is no way to discuss it without going into areas this board shall not go.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
    Location
    On the Road to Nowhere
    Quote Originally Posted by PackMan97 View Post
    I'm pretty sure this thread is doomed. There is no way to discuss it without going into areas this board shall not go.
    Only if you want to take it there. I think my questions were pretty clear. So PackMan, did you take any AP courses and did you find them worthwhile?
    Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote. - George Jean Nathan

  5. #5
    When I attended Duke in the early 2000s you could only use 2 AP courses (to take the requirement from 34 credits down to 32 credits) unless the goal was to graduate early, in which case additional credits could be applied. Otherwise, AP courses allowed you to place out of intro level courses (which, outside of a major, was a rookie move as the intro courses were great for bolstering the GPA).

    I found the courses to be worthwhile because they provided a challenging environment in high school and prepared me for college-style courses.
    My Quick Smells Like French Toast.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Boston area, OK, Newton, right by Heartbreak Hill
    I took AP courses. I used two of them to place out of introductory courses in subjects where I really didn't need to start over - AB calculus and French.

    The pressure on high school kids to take AP courses is too much. I am not a fan of the proliferation of AP courses and would be happy to see the emphasis on them lessened. The SAT, College Board, and AP programs are all a racket designed to get money out of upper middle class parents. My oldest took 7(!) AP classes - how in the world did I let him do that? I only found out later that he didn't really sleep during his high school years. My second son basically had a nervous breakdown during his junior year in high school when he was taking 3 AP classes. Between those 3 AP classes, he had 3+ hours of homework just about every night, and that was just the AP classes, he had 7 classes on his schedule. I told my third son he could only take 2 as a junior and in the end, he opted for just one. Granted, only my oldest son was accepted to Duke, the other two wound up going to the University of Vermont where they both had GPAs over 3.9. Third son wound up transferring to William & Mary when UVM got rid of their Classics major. (Yeah, it bugs me that my very bright, academically talented sons weren't accepted to Duke. Duke missed out.)

    Given my sons' experiences in high school, I'm not a fan of the AP program. Of all the ones they took, collectively, AP US History is the worst, IMHO. It's an awful way to teach US history to high schoolers and way too high pressure. All of my sons love history as long as it isn't US history.

    My youngest son is taking one AP class this year, his senior year in high school. He was encouraged by his advisor to take one. He's taking AP Computer Science and loves it. Go figure. He has no desire to study computer science in college though, he plans to major in photography. He won't be applying to Duke.
    Last edited by Bostondevil; 02-16-2023 at 01:15 AM.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Bostondevil View Post
    My youngest son is taking one AP class this year, his senior year. He was encouraged by his advisor to take one. He's taking AP Computer Science and loves it. Go figure. He has no desire to study computer science in college though, he plans to major in photography.
    What’s the future look like for a photography major? Seems like everyone is a photographer today given 2023 digital software. Imagine what digital software and AI will be doing 20 years from now?

    My good friend ran all the photography labs, for a University, until they were all converted to digital. Fortunately, he was retirement age and got bought out.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Jeffrey View Post
    What’s the future look like for a photography major? Seems like everyone is a photographer today given 2023 digital software. Imagine what digital software and AI will be doing 20 years from now?

    My good friend ran all the photography labs, for a University, until they were all converted to digital. Fortunately, he was retirement age and got bought out.
    Who is going to write that software and AI? Probably youngins like your kid.

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by PackMan97 View Post
    Who is going to write that software and AI? Probably youngins like your kid.
    Probably youngins who major in Computer Science.

    My girl digs Finance.

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by dudog84 View Post
    Only if you want to take it there. I think my questions were pretty clear. So PackMan, did you take any AP courses and did you find them worthwhile?
    You proceeded from a false premise, so he's probably right regardless of where anyone else takes it.

    You might be interested to know that the policy at Duke for many years (unless changed recently) is that they accept a maximum of two for credit in Trinity, no cap in Pratt but many of the typical ones explicitly excluded. Additionally a suitable score can sometimes still be used to skip a course in a sequence, provided certain other requirements are met, but it won't contribute to the credit requirement.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Durham, NC
    Kept me from having to take Calculus in college, so big thumbs up!

    My nephew could graduate a semester early next year from State with all his AP credits, but I think he's going to use the time to take a couple of grad level courses instead.

  12. #12
    I took as may as my school offered. Like most others here, Duke gave me credit for two of my choosing but did let me place out of Math 31 without giving me the credit. They did also let me transfer in 2 credits for computer science that I took at a local college.

    I think they are a necessary evil. I came from a middle level school which lacked a history of students going to select colleges. It's in a small state with a poor reputation in education. I would have preferred to do International Baccalaureate, but that was only offered by one school in the district and school assignments are based on the home address. I felt the AP courses (and SATs and the ACT) were the only way to objectively show that I belonged academically at the schools I was considering. As for the classes themselves, I enjoyed them but didn't see a huge difference from my non-AP classes that where classified one level down.

    As for what DeSantis is doing? Well, we all know what he is doing. That's out of bounds for this joint outside of the non-bias analysis that I'm sure will be presented in the 2026 Presidential Election Thread. (BTW: I'm in the "to soon" camp.)

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Feb 2018
    Location
    Dur'm
    I took them. My main reason for taking them was to get into a good school. In the end, the school I attended accepted a certain number of them (I can't recall the number) for "distribution" credits - which were subjects outside your major and came in three buckets: Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences, and Natural Sciences. I wanted to take courses in all kinds of different things and had no trouble meeting my distribution requirements, so the AP courses did me about as much good as my application essay. I'd love to say they prepared me for college level work, but my high school wasn't that good, even in the AP courses.

  14. #14
    I took a mess of AP tests (I honestly can't remember) as well as a battery of International Baccalaureate tests (if you know, you know).

    I ended up attending a very small liberal arts college and first semester of my senior year they called me to the registrar (gulp!) and said they had been looking through my file and realized I had a bunch of credits they had neglected to give me from these tests.

    Meant that my final semester of school was effectively half time loaded with electives.

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Boston area, OK, Newton, right by Heartbreak Hill
    Quote Originally Posted by Jeffrey View Post
    What’s the future look like for a photography major? Seems like everyone is a photographer today given 2023 digital software. Imagine what digital software and AI will be doing 20 years from now?

    My good friend ran all the photography labs, for a University, until they were all converted to digital. Fortunately, he was retirement age and got bought out.
    My son has an eye. Unlike the big public high school his brothers went to, my youngest goes to a very small private high school. Instead of gym class, the kids have to sign up for activities, one per trimester. Most of the activities are sports teams but one of the other offerings that my son has done twice is media intern. The school gives my kid a camera and has him take pictures of goings on around campus, including taking pictures of the sports teams. They now use two of the pictures he took as a media intern in their official brochure.

    Everybody may be a photographer these days, very few are as good at it as my son already is. Plus, part of what he's learning is how to use all the digital equipment. He not only has a feel for when to hit the button, he's good at editing in post.

    Also - I am the wrong person to ask what good is any major. I don't view college as job training, I view it as getting an education and have told all my sons that. Educated people are employable even if they don't wind up taking jobs that have anything to do with their major. I tell them they are in college to get good at critical thinking. My oldest majored in physics (I was once asked what good is a physics major), the second one majored in economics and picked up minors in business admin and astronomy, the third is a Classics major with enough credits to have a minor in linguistics but no interest in declaring that minor. Whenever anybody asks me what good is a Classics major, I respond with - the kid has a working knowledge of 6 languages, granted 2 of them are Latin and Classical Greek, but still, he can pick up conversational ability in any modern language rather quickly. He wants to do archaeology as a career and spent last summer in North Macedonia on a dig. He came home able to speak enough Macedonian to get himself fed and ask directions (I do not count Macedonian as one of the 6.)

    I told my kids they could major in anything they wanted except business admin. That's the only major I refused to pay for although picking up a minor is fine.

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Summerville ,S.C.
    Quote Originally Posted by Bostondevil View Post
    I took AP courses. I used two of them to place out of introductory courses in subjects where I really didn't need to start over - AB calculus and French.

    The pressure on high school kids to take AP courses is too much. I am not a fan of the proliferation of AP courses and would be happy to see the emphasis on them lessened. The SAT, College Board, and AP programs are all a racket designed to get money out of upper middle class parents. My oldest took 7(!) AP classes - how in the world did I let him do that? I only found out later that he didn't really sleep during his high school years. My second son basically had a nervous breakdown during his junior year in high school when he was taking 3 AP classes. Between those 3 AP classes, he had 3+ hours of homework just about every night, and that was just the AP classes, he had 7 classes on his schedule. I told my third son he could only take 2 as a junior and in the end, he opted for just one. Granted, only my oldest son was accepted to Duke, the other two wound up going to the University of Vermont where they both had GPAs over 3.9. Third son wound up transferring to William & Mary when UVM got rid of their Classics major. (Yeah, it bugs me that my very bright, academically talented sons weren't accepted to Duke. Duke missed out.)

    Given my sons' experiences in high school, I'm not a fan of the AP program. Of all the ones they took, collectively, AP US History is the worst, IMHO. It's an awful way to teach US history to high schoolers and way too high pressure. All of my sons love history as long as it isn't US history.

    My youngest son is taking one AP class this year, his senior year in high school. He was encouraged by his advisor to take one. He's taking AP Computer Science and loves it. Go figure. He has no desire to study computer science in college though, he plans to major in photography. He won't be applying to Duke.
    I'm mixed about them.my daughter took ap biology and I believe calculus can't remember if it was ab. calculus or bc calculus. No issues. Ran cross country aswell.
    My son took environmental science.between that and football .he folded like a cheap suit.was to much pressure. Maybe the combination of sports and regular course load plus a.p.
    Was to much .he broke down .
    Plus it was in the middle of covid .maybe that played a role .
    But I'm not a fan of the added pressure.

    I'm not sure there's a definitive answer
    For me .
    I believe for some it's great I think for some it's not a good fit.
    But I believe they should be available.

  17. #17
    Duke didn’t have a limit on how many you could use when I was there. Saved me a semester’s worth of classes.

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Ashburn, VA
    As someone mentioned earlier, Pratt didn't have a cap (at least in the early 2000's) and that allowed me to really open up my schedule and take some interesting electives that weren't required for anything, and also I never have to overload any semester*.

    I don't recall any of my high school courses to be too crazy, but I also "only" took 5 -- 2 my junior year, and 3 my senior year. It seemed in the decade after I graduated things really ramped up and you heard about all these kids taking 7 to 10 of them.

    One annoying Duke-specific story was that, even though I took AP Physics C exams in both Mechanics and E&M and received 5's on both, the Duke Physics department made you take their own assessment, where they included some topics that weren't on the AP's. I narrowly missed passing that, but because everyone was saying how terrible the into physics classes were (even to the point of people wearing t-shirts that said "I Hate Duke Physics" - yikes!), I opted to take them over the summer at American University. Their syllabus was satisfactory to the department, but the whole thing was a giant waste of time and money, as we never even covered those extra sections that were missing from the AP (despite being on the syllabus), and also despite claiming to be Calculus-based, the professor basically went out of his way to avoid it. I learned nothing but I checked a box. Fun...


    * I actually got to underload my last semester - taking 2 real courses, then bowling (1/2), Band (1/4) and Orchestra (1/4) to total 3 credits for the underload. I do feel a bit guilty and should probably write my dad a check to cover half that semester's tuition.
    A text without a context is a pretext.

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by aimo View Post
    Kept me from having to take Calculus in college, so big thumbs up!
    In my experience, Calculus is usually taught sooooo poorly in college. Really glad I got to take two AP Calculus courses in high school and had an excellent teacher. Made a gigantic difference for me moving forward in college and beyond, super super worthwhile.

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Seattle, WA
    AP Calculus in HS led me to conclude that I never wanted to take another math class (and left me able to follow through on that goal). My only regret from that is that I wish now I had taken a statistics class - I have a good layman's working grasp of the concepts but not the underlying math. I've had to deal with quite a few statistical experts (or econometric experts who use statistical sampling techniques to draw conclusions) as a lawyer and I always feel like a better base knowledge of statistics would be helpful (sadly, clients do not pay for their lawyers to take stats classes).
    Just be you. You is enough. - K, 4/5/10, 0:13.8 to play, 60-59 Duke.

    You're all jealous hypocrites. - Titus on Laettner

    You see those guys? Animals. They're animals. - SIU Coach Chris Lowery, on Duke

Similar Threads

  1. Fort Myers; Restaurants, Golf Courses, etc.
    By dukeforester in forum Off Topic
    Replies: 7
    Last Post: 03-23-2010, 07:57 PM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •