I took my first Advanced Placement (AP) course, a class in U.S. history, during my sophomore year of high school. Although my guidance counselor said the material would be challenging, she also said that if I worked hard and did well on the end-of-the-year exam, I could impress college admissions officers and parlay my score into future college credit.
What my guidance counselor didn't tell me, however, was that maximizing the total tuition savings from such exams was easier said than done. The problem, I later discovered, was that each college had a different AP credit policy. While some accepted most AP tests, others accepted very few. Some awarded generous amounts of college credit; others were quite stingy.
Because of these differences, it was possible to invest a lot of time taking AP exams and not save any money at all.
Fortunately, there was another way: At the suggestion of an older student who had already been through the process, I researched the AP credit policies at prospective colleges while I was still a sophomore and junior. By doing this, I was able to strategically choose my subsequent AP courses and prepare for those exams that were likely to have the greatest financial return.
The result: By the end of my senior year, I had earned enough AP credits to enter Harvard as a sophomore and save $30,000 in future college costs.
If your kids are considering taking an AP course—or they are already among the 1.4 million high school students who took more than 2.5 million AP tests last year—doing a little research can go a long way. To begin, call the undergraduate admissions or registrar's office at a potential college (or visit its departmental websites) and ask the following six questions.
Which test subjects are accepted?
Many colleges will not award AP credit if there is not an equivalent course at their institution. Even in subjects such as U.S. history, English literature, English language and calculus—the four most widely taken AP exams—there is no guarantee the tests will be accepted.
When you ask about accepted AP test subjects, you may also want to inquire about credits awarded for College-Level Examination Program (CLEP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) scores—alternate testing programs that can also earn you credit at some schools.
How high must you score to earn credit?
Each college determines the minimum score in each subject area for which it will award credit. Students at Northwestern University, for instance, must score a 5 (out of 5) on the AP biology exam to earn credit, while students at the University of California at Berkeley need only score a 3.
Nearly 60 percent of the AP exams taken in a given year result in scores high enough to potentially earn college credits.
How many credits are awarded for each test?
Schools take into consideration the difficulty of each exam and the total number of credits required for graduation when determining how many credits to award for each test.
Some schools may even award a greater amount of credit the higher you score. The University of Colorado at Boulder, for instance, awards three credits for a score of 3 on the AP Spanish language exam, but six credits if you score a 4 and 11 credits if you score a 5.
Knowing such policies ahead of time can give you an added push to study that much harder for the test.
Is there a maximum amount of credit that I can earn?
Colleges and universities frequently cap on the number of credits you can earn through testing. Many schools limit the credit that can be accumulated to one academic year's worth. Others may have more stringent limitations.
Additionally, some schools may prevent students from earning large amounts of credits in a narrow range of academic subject areas (such as piling up credits solely in the hard sciences).
If college credit isn't awarded, are there other benefits?
Some schools that do not offer college credits for particular tests typically award accelerated placement—the ability to skip introductory level courses and enroll in higher-level classes in a subject area. Besides the obvious benefit of being in a class better suited for your level of proficiency, accelerated placement empowers you to climb the academic ladder more quickly—acting as a springboard toward a graduate degree—and provides added flexibility to pursue new subject areas you have always wanted to study.
How many tests are needed for "advanced" standing?
The vast majority of colleges and universities will allow students who have scored well on a substantial number of exams (usually three or more) to skip ahead a semester, an entire year, or even more. Graduating a year early—as is the case with sophomore standing—equates to an entire year's worth of tuition, books, and fees (plus room and board) that you need not pay.
As a result, choosing a college with more favorable advanced standing policies can save you $40,000 or more at the nation's most expensive private colleges.
With advanced standing in your pocket, you might even decide to take some time off for an internship, a study-abroad program, a well-paying job, or other enriching activity, while still graduating on time with your classmates.
Who would have thought that taking a few tests could be so much fun?
Known as "America's Scholarship Coach," Ben Kaplan is publisher of the www.CityofCollegeDreams.org website and the winner of two dozen college scholarships worth $90,000. For more details on this topic, visit his Financial Aid information page.
© 2009 BY WWW.CITYOFCOLLEGEDREAMS.ORG