Advanced Placement
Advanced Placement courses and Honors courses are crucial elements in developing a successful college student. If students do well in Advanced Placement and Honor courses in high school, they are relatively accurate indicators of how well that student will perform in a challenging college environment. The University of California campuses are academically challenging environments. Therefore, a student must be well prepared to be able to compete in these environments. AP and Honors courses have been widely criticized because they are not available in every high school across the nation, and that some students take the courses, not to gain knowledge or to prepare for college, but to gain an added advantage when applying to universities. AP and Honors courses are merely extra challenging courses that students can take to challenge their intellect, and also to gain experience in college level classes. They are also better indicators of intelligence and college preparedness than the SAT's. The University of California campuses should continue using AP and honors courses as admissions factors, because they are great indicators of how successful a student will be in college.
I worry about this for the very kids for whom the AP courses are being argued-that's minority and poor kids. If you look at a high school master schedule, you'll find that the very best educated teachers are teaching AP, which has historically been the province of the most well off kids. You end up maybe advantaging a few more kids, but creating huge and greater disadvantages for all the rest of the kids. Haycock states that the AP educated students will have an enormous advantage over the others. However she does not deny the fact that AP courses will provide a higher degree of education. Students will often take AP courses and Honors courses just to receive extra credit. Arguments can be made against AP and Honors courses and how they are not readily available to all students and also how some students take the courses just to gain an advantage over other applicants. These may be worthy arguments but the bottom line is that Advanced Placement and Honors courses are extremely beneficial to all students. They prepare students for the challenging college environment. The UC campuses can not ignore the fact that AP and Honors courses are significantly more challenging than regular courses. Another prominent argument being made is that students fell the need to take inappropriate AP and Honors courses to gain an advantage over other students applying to the same university. Therefore, they should not be admission factors. Massanda D'Johns, a Castlemont high school senior in Oakland, California, took all six AP courses offered at her school. Massanda feels that taking these courses were extremely beneficial to her education but she also feels that they will give her an added advantage when applying to the UC campuses. " I might as well get the most I can while I'm in high school," states D'Johns "plus it will look good on my transcript." (Burdman) Students natura
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Approximate Word count = 1273
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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