From college admissions to academic rigor, Advanced Placement (AP) classes have proven to be helpful opportunities for high school students to prove that they are capable of college-level coursework. At CRLS, however, the AP system overloads students with challenging classes and pressures them to meet unrealistically high expectations. Simply put, students at our school are not set up for success when it comes to APs.
Reason #1: Semester-long AP classes. The amount of information included in yearlong AP classes that is intended to be covered over a year is often nearly impossible to cover in a semester. Mr. Nathan Whitfield, an AP Statistics and AP Calculus BC teacher at CRLS, agreed when he told the Register Forum, “Part of the flaw comes from the logistical nature of some of the AP courses. It wasn’t until I came to CRLS that I heard of AP classes being offered that were a semester long.” Whereas most students in the country have 180 days to learn the material, CRLS students must master it in less than half that time. This immediately puts CRLS students at a disadvantage and forces them to work unnecessarily hard and cram under a time crunch.
Reason #2: The Desire to Compete. CRLS, unlike most schools in the country, offers AP courses to all grade levels. Hermela Shimelis ’25 told the RF that she believes the school is doing a good job making these classes more accessible, but students misuse these opportunities. “When competitiveness occurs, being able to abuse these pathways through taking as many APs as possible is going to end up negatively affecting your mental health, your sleep, and your stress levels,” she said. Xander Selk ’25 told the RF that he felt pressured by his classmates who all took APs freshman and sophomore year. “I think that the majority of the pressure to take AP classes has been from seeing my classmates take those classes,” he explained. CRLS opening AP classes to all students has fed into a desire to compete with their peers, rather than helping them focus on their own academic journey.
Reason #3: A Misunderstanding of what AP Classes Actually Accomplish. As CRLS students overload themselves with APs, they begin to extract undue value from the number of APs they take. Hermela Shimelis ’25 explained that “APs are directly tied to academic validation. You feel like you can compete with your peers. You feel like you’ll do well in the college process.” This is a tragedy. It is far better for students to balance their course load and mix challenging classes with classes they find interest in. Shimelis encouraged students to take full advantage of the CRLS course catalog and said they should “prioritize themselves in the process.”
There is much more to a successful high school career than taking too many AP classes. Students need to take advantage of the different opportunities at this school, not just the APs it offers. CRLS itself should not foster an environment where students feel pressured to compete with their classmates and should focus instead on giving students more time to truly be able to succeed in these difficult classes, as well as support them in navigating their academic journey and curiosities.
