Stressful AP courses - a push for a cap EDUCATION High schoolers load up to get into top colleges

INstructor, James Spellicy, teaches an advanced placement economics class at Lowell High School in San Francisco, Ca., on Thursday Jan. 5, 2012. High school student are increasingly loading up on advanced placement classes to increase their grade point average on college applications, but critics say the loads are to heavy and stressful and that policies should limit the number students can take. less INstructor, James Spellicy, teaches an advanced placement economics class at Lowell High School in San Francisco, Ca., on Thursday Jan. 5, 2012. High school student are increasingly loading up on advanced ... more Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 9 Caption Close Stressful AP courses - a push for a cap 1 / 9 Back to Gallery

Perfect isn't good enough when it comes to getting into some of the country's top colleges.

Last year, the average grade point average of an accepted freshman applicant at UCLA was 4.34 - well above the former gold-standard 4.0 for straight A's.

The only way to push past a 4.0 and compete for a spot at Harvard, Yale, UC Berkeley or UCLA is to take Advanced Placement courses, college-level classes that offer a grade-point premium, which typically increases a grade by an entire point, making, say, a B look like an A on a transcript. Over the past decade, students increasingly have loaded up on those classes, sometimes juggling so many that they have little time for anything besides academics.

With four or more hours a day of homework, even sleep is often an afterthought.

At some of the Bay Area's most competitive public and private high schools, teachers and counselors have started pushing for a cap on the number of Advanced Placement courses a student can take.

In Marin County, teachers at Tamalpais High School circulated a petition last year urging the school to restrict AP classes to juniors and seniors. The effort didn't change policy but did promote discussions about student stress levels and the appropriateness of 14-year-olds doing college-level work.

Meanwhile, at some private schools, including Lick-Wilmerding in San Francisco, officials are eliminating AP courses entirely.

"I see kids in tears" from all of the stress, said Adee Horn, peer resource adviser at San Francisco's top-tier Lowell High School, who supports a cap. "I feel like there would be a sigh of relief."

But limits on AP courses, or honors courses, which are academically rigorous classes that aren't sanctioned by the College Board, are opposed by many parents and students who want every opportunity to stand out on a college application.

"Some kids have the drive and ability," said Lowell senior Kaz Lewis, who is taking AP statistics, calculus, biology and economics this year in addition to three other classes. "I just think it's up to the student."

The 17-year-old has applied to UCLA, UC San Diego, UC Davis, Yale and Stanford.

Lowell offers 28 AP courses out of the 37 nationally sanctioned by the College Board.

Benefits of AP

Students who enroll in AP courses typically take an AP exam at the end of the year. The exams cost $87 each. Financial aid is available for low-income students.

A high score on the exam can translate into college credit, depending on the university, an added incentive for students to pile on the AP classes.

At Lowell, 1,390 students - typically the sophomores, juniors and seniors - took 3,529 exams last year, nearly three per student.

A handful of students at the school make each of their seven classes AP, and many take five or six, counselors said.

Some students can accumulate enough college credits through AP exams to enter a university as a sophomore, potentially saving $25,000 to $50,000 in college costs.

But that's rare, with most universities restricting how and when AP credits can count toward degree requirements.

Lewis, for example, said he plans to retake the AP courses in college anyway, but he believes he'll be more prepared for them.

Prepared for college

Research shows he's probably right. Students who take AP courses do better in college than students who don't, even if the students had similar high school grades or SAT test scores.

Jim Spellicy, Lowell AP economics teacher, doesn't support a cap.

"How do you know if a student can do it or not?" he said. "I think the students should be given an opportunity."

Counselor Marie Aguirre sees the other side when students come to her stressed out, overwhelmed and parent- or peer-pressured to pile on the AP classes.

"I think because they are kids, they need more structure," Aguirre said. "They are not able to say no."

Some may take two AP classes and an honors course and still not feel like it's enough, she said.

"You see low self-esteem, feeling anything they do is not good enough, a feeling of failure," Aguirre said.

Many public and private schools across the country do cap the number of AP classes allowed, a restriction they communicate to college admissions offices to ensure the students aren't at a disadvantage.

And many universities want to see well-rounded students who balance academics with other activities.

"We want to be clear that this is not a case of 'whoever has the most APs wins,' " according to Stanford University's online admissions page.

Moneymaking schools

The pressure to push APs doesn't just come from parents and students. In public schools, AP classes are a money maker.

The College Board gives schools $8 for every AP test taken, but on top of that, Advanced Placement teachers in San Francisco and many other districts have a lighter teaching load so they have more time to plan and prepare.

It means schools like Lowell offering more AP classes get more teachers than schools with the same number of students and fewer APs.

Capping the number of AP classes would result in staffing cuts.

"It's a position-maker," Spellicy said. "We definitely have a divided faculty on the question."

At Lick-Wilmerding, officials severed ties with the AP system this year, saying the curriculum was too rigid and too focused on the tests.

Lick now offers honors courses, but caps the number at five per year. Colleges consider those classes to be on an equal footing with AP courses, said Eric Temple, head of school.

"We can have as rigorous if not more rigorous classes that are much more interesting without being tied to the AP curriculum," Temple said. "We have a lot more freedom over our curriculum."