Under new policy, AP credits get less recognition

    There is some bad news for incoming English majors hoping that Advanced Placement (AP) scores might add up to an exemption from college math courses, or pre-med students who hoped never to take another social science class: Under a policy introduced this semester, no more than one AP credit can be counted toward a particular distribution area.
    Despite some student opposition, the Educational Policy Committee (EPC) voted in April to overhaul the school's handling of AP credits. The EPC capped the number of pre-matriculation credits that Arts and Sciences students can put toward their degrees at five; for School of Engineering students, the number was  limited to eight. Before the EPC vote, there had been no limit on the number of AP credits on which students could draw.
    Pre-matriculation credits are earned from scores on AP and SAT II exams, as well as international baccalaureate credits and those earned from some college courses taken before entering Tufts.
    In making the change, the EPC argued that AP courses do not always meet the standards of rigidity set by supposedly comparable Tufts courses. As a result, students who received credit for introductory-level courses and skipped to higher-level classes were often ill-prepared for the jump, according to EPC Chair Jack Ridge.
    The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate in February passed a resolution expressing concern about changing the AP policy. The resolution discouraging change passed 15-5 with two abstentions. But the two TCU senators serving on the EPC last year voted in favor of the policy change when the proposal came before the EPC.
    Senator Edward Chao, who co-sponsored the Senate resolution and was not on the EPC, expressed his disappointment with the committee's decision. "The new policy penalizes students who had achieved," said Chao, a junior and the chair of the Senate's Student Outreach Committee. "Students shouldn't have to retake courses."
    Ridge, a professor of geology, said classes taught in high schools often cannot match the rigor of Tufts courses, even if they are APs.
    "The AP credit is a little bit misleading in terms of … what the standard was going to be like in a college course versus what they had in high school," said Ridge.
    The EPC also noted in its resolution that, on average, students with higher financial aid packages matriculate with half a credit fewer than other students, putting them at a disadvantage.
    Tufts has granted 32 percent more AP credit in the past five years due to a rising number of students taking the test and the variety of tests now offered by the College Board, the non-profit organization that administers the AP exams, according to the EPC resolution.
    While some exams such as AP Calculus are generally seen as matching the rigor of college-level material, other tests such as those in U.S. history and biology are often harder to equate to a Tufts class, Ridge said.
    Last year, students in the School of Arts and Sciences could fulfill the entire math requirement if they received a score of five on the AP Calculus BC exam. Others were able to evade two semesters of introductory English courses with a five on either the AP Literature or Language exam.
    The EPC's decision did not reflect the feelings of the student body, according to Chao. "We agreed this wasn't right," he said.
    But Ridge said the problem lies in the quality of AP testing itself.
    "Fundamentally, most faculty have a problem with it," he said. "Regardless of what kind of course a student had in high school, the AP exam is not an indicator of how well they performed in that subject area."
    The Class of 2013 is the first to be held to these new standards, and a majority of the 10 freshmen interviewed for this article expressed frustration with the credit limits.
    While some were irritated with the new limitations, other students were unconcerned about the matter. Some said they had only taken three or four AP classes and would not be greatly affected by the changes.