Is Advanced Placement "Worth It" For College Admissions?

Is Advanced Placement Worth It For College Admission?
Guidance counselors often encourage students to take AP classes. Are they right?
It's almost considered a truism: Advanced Placement courses and subject tests can only help you in your quest to enter the best colleges.
Not so fast. AP classes have advantages - but there are drawbacks as well.
The Positives of Advanced Placement

• Taking an AP class will usually get your GPA knocked upwards. Depending how your particular school rates them, AP classes can be worth a full grade more than their regular kin - that's how some students end up with GPAs greater than the theoretically-perfect 4.0. And even if your school doesn't inflate AP grades, many college admission offices will do it for you.

• Good AP scores can reduce your eventual college course load - and, potentially, your time in college. Generally speaking, a high score - at least three, but often a four or five out of the five-point Advance Placement test - will equate to one semester of the equivalent test. So, if you place out of four courses - you could skip out of an entire semester of college - saving up to $25,000! Even placing out of one or two classes can lead to a semester of part-time student status and, hence, significant savings.

• AP classes show initiative. By taking the more challenging path, schools know you aren't scared to push yourself. In addition, since AP classes are supposed to be college level, you are showing schools that you are fully capable of doing the necessary work.

The Negatives of Advanced Placement

• Your AP scores have zero bearing on your admissions. That's a whole lot of work that may not have much to do with which college you get into - especially if your colleges don't inflate grades according to the difficulty of courses.

• Not all colleges accept AP scores for course credit. If you wind up applying to schools that don't accept AP scores and don't bump up GPAs for AP classes, then you'll have done a lot of work for absolutely nothing.

• AP classes and study takes an inordinate amount of time. It isn't unusual to have two or three hours of homework out of an AP class. That's time you can't pursue other studies, can't devote to extracurriculars, and can't practice for the SAT - all things that definitely will help you get into college.

The long and the short of it is this: AP courses can pay off in the long run, but there are no guarantees. And, in the short run, they are certain to make the rest of your life difficult.
If you are most concerned with getting into the best colleges, AP courses aren't much help at all. If, however, you are confident you'll get in somewhere good, and want to roll the dice that they'll take AP credits and you can save by graduating early or as a part-time student, AP courses are worth their weight in gold.
As always, the answer depends on you. One thing is certain though - when deciding whether to pursue AP courses, at least find out how your favorite colleges deal with AP credits. If there's no hope of placing out, then it isn't worth your time.
To your family's successful college pursuits,

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August 19th, 11 Diary

English Title:

Happy Things：	Plan\Memo：	Change/Progress：
News：	2011-08-20	Inspiration(最想说)：
Regret：	Heath/food/diet：	Wish to tomorrow：

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9 Square Workshop online

Happy Things：	Plan\Memo：	Change/Progress：
News：	2011-08-20	Inspiration(最想说)：
Regret：	Heath/food/diet：	Wish to tomorrow：

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Summary of Exterminate All the Brutes

I did this for my summer reading, and post this on my Student Clubs

Summary of Exterminate All the Brutes

Summary of the second chapter:

There are many things happened in the second chapter. I’m going to list three most relative and important things in this chapter.

The first one is about the main character Kurtz in Conrad's book, ‘the Heart of Darkness’. Kurtz resembles Stanley, who exterminates the brutes and became the idol. Just like other dictators, both have guns, which mean power, and they want to establish a new imperialism/colonialism. People in the ‘great human’s’ countries are very innocent, and they just believe what the dictators tell them the event it’s fake. Then the dictators get more and more supporters, and their ideas of establishing imperialism inflate. (P43)
     The second one is that the improvements of guns. The guns get lots of improvements in 19th century. At the generation of guns, their range was only a hundred yards. And it took at least one minute to load the gun between each shot. But at the end of 19th century, it came out real good guns such as Gras rifle, and the Prussians with the Mauser. Those guns are called arms to the imperialism/colonialism. The most common thing to the imperialism/colonialism is that all of them got the arms and try to make it harder than anyone else. And whether they own the arm is also the difference between imperialism/colonialism. (P47-P50)

The last material is about the Battle of Omdurman. All the imperialisms/colonialisms don’t respect the ‘brutes’ because they think they’re brutes. But ‘brutes’ need respects, although they can be conquered and surrenders. Just like Somabulano said in his speech at the peace negotiations :”You came, you conquered…But the Children of Stars can never be dogs .”(P62) Then, it caused the conflict, and they will have a final battle just like the Battle of Omdurman. Although the ‘brutes’ can’t even get close and hurt the ‘great man,’ they’ll still fight back because they know ‘You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain’. No doubt hundreds of ‘brutes’ will die. It’s really an ironic that the imperialisms/colonialisms think they’re great humans, but they try their best to become the leader of the brutes.

Summary of the third chapter

They don’t know die, the quotes of Thomas, the level of people. The Origin of Species,
     This chapter explains the Lindqvist’s experience and thoughts in the desert first. When he is desert, he realizes something was missing in his education. He never learned how to die. In other words, he didn’t really learn what the death is. Just like other normal people, they don’t really feel die, they don’t know if it’s happy or sad, relax or nervous, confortable or painful. They don’t really care about it. Why? Because they are the imperialisms/colonialisms, no one can hurt them. “Exterminate all the brutes” is just a great excuse to the imperialisms/colonialisms As Darwin’s research shown no one can exterminate any other species except the power from nature. As Tomas Jefferson said, “If one link in Nature’s chain be lost, another and another might be lost, till this whole system of things should vanish by piecemeal.” Those thoughts don’t work for imperialisms/colonialisms because all they need is a good excuse to get the profits.
     Furthermore, are the people in Africa and other poor place real brutes? No, they are not brutes. There’s a very good example showing that why the ‘great human’ say they are brute. Cuvier is the Napoleon of French science, but for a man of such power, he was unusually skeptical of hierarchies. To him, the belief in a “ladder” of creatures was the greatest of all scientific mistakes. (P99) However, in his great sixteen-volume work “The Animal Kingdom” he divided human beings in to three races. He had forgotten that no hierarchies existed. (P99) The thought of Cuvier is just like any other dictators of imperialisms/colonialisms Once, when somebody hurts their profits, they try to prevent it. But when they have chances and power to deprive others’ profits, they’ll forget their own profits-protection thoughts and try to get the best excuse they can. So, those people are not brutes anymore. “Brutes” is only a call from imperialisms/colonialisms

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