AP Credit Will No Longer Be Accepted At Dartmouth • Hacker News Board

Re: AP Credit Will No Longer Be Accepted At Dartmouth

#51

Post by andrewchoi » Fri, Jan 18, 2013, 1:55 AM UTC

richeyrw wrote: post #43

andrewchoi wrote: post #34

As a current student at an Ivy League school, it's interesting to see that this is getting much backlash now. My school hasn't accepted AP credit for a while now, and it's never been a problem. Students grouse superficially, but for the most part, it's understood that they're just prerequisities to get in to the schools you want to go to.

So my daughter is in High School and she's doing IB (International Baccalaureate) does that have any benefit for those aspiring to the Ivy League or similar?

It does, AFAIK IB is respected more than AP on campus. Of course, the more rigorous subject matter will be better for her in the long run anyways.

Re: AP Credit Will No Longer Be Accepted At Dartmouth

#52

Post by caw » Fri, Jan 18, 2013, 2:14 AM UTC

redwood wrote: post #26

It always felt like you were robbing yourself of really interesting college courses if you skipped them due to AP. I always saw AP as more of a gateway to college due to the prestige/GPA-boost they gave your application, rather than a real way of getting significant college credit.

Actually, it's the reverse. If you score well on AP and then elect to take the class, you'll probably get a high grade. However, if you take the class and realize you're in over your head, you damaged your GPA. AP credits didn't count at my school for your final GPA, so fewer classes meant each class counted more.

I skipped almost 30 hours of credit with AP. It still took me 5 years to graduate after switching my major 2nd year. If I had to re-take those classes I skipped, I would be 1) bored, and 2) loaded with busy work instead of being able to take classes I wanted. I have friends that had to take Calc 1, whereas I went right to calc 2. Can't say I would have wanted to take it again.

Re: AP Credit Will No Longer Be Accepted At Dartmouth

#53

Post by leephillips » Fri, Jan 18, 2013, 3:46 AM UTC

shrughes wrote: post #32

maratd wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In defense of AP tests, they're meant to replace college level courses ... not university level courses. They're equivalent to what you'd encounter at a local community college, not what you'd encounter at the top 100 research universities in the country.

That's not what "college" means in the United States. "College" is a synonym with "University." There is sometimes some word usage where the connotations can be different, but rarely, and in particular, there's no difference in the notion of "university level courses" and "college level courses."

This is doubly confusing in the case of Dartmouth College, which is actually a university (I got my physics Ph.D. there - and they have a medical school, a prominent MBA school, etc.) but is called a "College" for interesting historical reasons involving Daniel Webster.

Re: AP Credit Will No Longer Be Accepted At Dartmouth

#54

Post by leephillips » Fri, Jan 18, 2013, 3:53 AM UTC

ghaff wrote: post #24

InclinedPlane wrote: post #5

Maybe the AP system has degraded over the years. When I was in school it helped immensely and I was able to enter college as a mid-year sophomore and graduate early. And the level of material and rigor in AP courses seemed roughly comparable to 100 and 200 level college courses. The cynic in me sees this as a money making move, as it means that more incoming students will have to pay more to graduate. I'm really curi…

Dartmouth has a very strong teaching tradition. Certainly not all the professors are good at it. But freshman etc. courses aren't taught by teaching assistants.

I was a physics graduate student at Dartmouth. The undergraduate lectures were given by professors, but most of the homework and exam grading, and all the lab instruction, was by us, and doing this was a requirement for the Ph.D. I discovered in teaching my first lab that 1/3 of the undergraduates at this Ivy League school, mostly premeds in this case, did not know how to add fractions.