I remember the day I found out my Advanced Placement scores during my senior year of high school. I was visiting my family in India and had just come home from a day on the beach. My mother called my aunt’s house, and one of the first questions I asked was if my score report had arrived.
Why do I remember this day so well? No, it’s not because I get the memory booster in my Jamba Juice. Nor is it because I have a hip blog that chronicles my daily existence.
It’s because I was excited that I would be able to get out of general chemistry at Northwestern — I would be one of the cool (it actually ended up being more like super-dork) freshmen in organic chemistry. Meanwhile, I was sad to find out that I didn’t score high enough to earn credit in economics. Also, I met Jimmy Hoffa on that beach. (Just kidding. Though there’s just as good a chance Jimmy Hoffa is catching rays in South India as he is taking a concrete nap under Giants Stadium).
I read this week that the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences faculty is considering reducing, and perhaps eventually eliminating, the number of credits Weinberg students may use towards graduation requirements.
And despite my intense interest in scoring fives on AP exams just a few years ago, I support this proposal.
According to my unofficial transcript, I transferred approximately a year’s worth of credit from APs. But as I stare graduation squarely in the face, I have to wonder what these AP credits have done for me.
My high school offered only one AP class: calculus. For all the rest of the exams, I had only what I learned in a standard high school class. I definitely don’t know — and didn’t know at the time — as much about European history or Latin poetry as an NU student who has taken an introductory class in the field. But it’s easy for a good test-taker to ace the exams and escape taking these classes in college.
Although it may not be particularly useful for my future to know who Draco is, I wish I hadn’t been able to get out of my language requirement with my Latin AP credit. At NU I probably would have taken Spanish, which seems to be the most useful second language to know nowadays.
If I hadn’t had AP credits to rely on, I would have been challenged to explore outside the sciences by taking more classes in other fields. And who knows? Perhaps I’d be heading to law school or completing a fellowship next year, rather than medical school. Not that I’m complaining — I just wonder if I’ve missed out on something.
The use of AP credits encourages viewing college as a means to an end. I’m guilty of having this “get mine and get out” mentality from time to time.
But college is an end in itself. To some extent there is nothing greater to gain at NU than just being in college — taking classes in different departments, going to musicals and guest lectures, lingering over late-night coffee debating the merits of rent-controlled housing in New York City.
And while money for college may be a concern, remember that you’re going to be working for the rest of your life. But once you leave college, there’s no coming back.
