Certain Advanced Placement (AP) courses can provide students with an advantage in college admission while others, including some of the most popular, have no significant impact, according to a new report from the college and career counseling platform Empowerly.
Analyzing admissions outcomes for 11,764 students across 524 universities, the study found that six are correlated with an admissions advantage: AP Calculus BC, which provided a 5.18 percent advantage, followed by AP Psychology (+4.64 percent), AP Biology (+4.58 percent), AP Chemistry (+4.51 percent), AP English Language (+4.04 percent) and AP Statistics (+3.23 percent).
Of 36 AP courses that were analyzed, five courses didn’t appear to be associated with any measurable admission gain (AP Physics 1, AP World History, AP Calculus AB, AP Computer Science Principles and AP Computer Science A); the number of students taking seven courses was too small to determine how large and reliable their admissions boosts were (Comparative Government, Latin, Music Theory, Precalculus, European History, Physics C: Mechanics and Physics C: E&M); and for 14 courses, findings were too uncertain to categorize because of the large ranges of effects associated with them. These included art history, art and design, Chinese, English literature, environmental science, German, human geography, Japanese, macroeconomics, microeconomics, research, seminar, Spanish and U.S. government.
Remaining AP courses were not classified because of small sample sizes or inconsistent effects, according to the report.
Even small boosts can be beneficial to students, according to the report, which noted that highly competitive schools may receive tens of thousands strong applications for a few thousand slots, and that for a student choosing between two courses, “it’s one admissions variable entirely in their hands.”
“In a moment when students and parents are under intense pressure, this research suggests that some of the courses families think students need to take may be a wash when it comes to college admissions,” Changxiao Xie, co-founder of Empowerly, said in a statement. “Although this analysis isn’t exhaustive, we hope that it can challenge the conventional wisdom by providing parents with data that helps take the guesswork out of high-stakes scheduling decisions.”
The report shows that access is a significant barrier for many students. Courses associated with stronger admissions outcomes are often unavailable at high schools, according to the study. AP Calculus BC, which was linked to the largest confirmed admissions advantage, is offered at just 33 percent of U.S. high schools. Similar access gaps were found among other high-value courses, including Physics C: Mechanics (offered in 19 percent of high schools), Physics 1 (31 percent), European History (14 percent) and World History (34 percent).
