Starting this week, thousands of high school students here and across the country will sit for Advanced Placement tests, many hoping their $83 investment per test will give them college credits on the cheap.

Advance Placement credits
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Whether they actually get credits -- and how many -- depends not only on their scores but also on their colleges, their majors and whether the students even want to accept them.

In a survey of 22 colleges and universities popular with local students, the Post-Gazette found wide differences in how AP work is treated.

Waynesburg College, for example, doesn't award any credit for the Spanish language course. But Penn State University awards 12 credits for a score of 4 or 5 (on scale of 1 to 5) on the Spanish exam. At $485 per freshman credit on the main campus, students could save as much as $5,820 in tuition by taking and doing well on the test.

AP courses -- for which there are 37 tests in 22 subjects -- are intended to give students college-level work in high school. They can be used for credits toward a degree or placement in advanced classes, for gaining an advantage in the college admissions race or for just an extra challenge and preparation for the years ahead.

Hari Seshedri, a junior at Franklin Regional High School, hopes scoring 5 on three AP exams last year will help him win college admission. He is aiming for high scores on two others this year.

Fox Chapel Area senior Elise Liu -- who has scored 5's on eight AP exams and a 4 on another -- plans to take six more AP exams in the next two weeks.

"Originally, it was just for the challenge," she said.

Now the future Harvard freshman hopes to enter college with advanced standing so she can take higher level courses and take off a year or half a year to go abroad, perhaps for an internship. While she would be eligible for more than two years of credit at some schools, Harvard limits AP credit.

Valuing the scores

The College Board considers a score of 3 a "success," but colleges are free to set their own standards.

A score of 3 on the test is enough for college credit at some schools, such as California University of Pennsylvania, West Virginia University and Robert Morris University.

However, it won't result in any credit at some others, including Allegheny College, Carlow University, Carnegie Mellon University and Chatham University.

"We want to be sure they have strong skills before we accept the credit," said Kathleen Larkin, dean of advising and registrar at Carlow, which requires a score of 4 or 5.

With a lower score, she said, students "might not be as prepared to go on to the next level."

More than a decade ago, CMU officials decided that a 3 wasn't a strong enough performance to allow a student to skip a course. Its standard is now all 4's or 5's, depending on the course.

"What we were experiencing primarily were kids getting credit for courses and recognizing at the next level they didn't have a strong enough foundation to be successful, so they ended up having to take the class again," said Mike Steidel, CMU's director of admission.

"We weren't helping them at all by giving them the credit."

CMU isn't alone.

"Anecdotally and from all the evidence we see, colleges are demanding more than AP test scores. That '3' might not necessarily get you credit anymore," said David Hawkins, director of public policy for the National Association for College Admission Counseling.

Linda Conlon, secondary academic adviser in the Quaker Valley School District, said, "It's like they've upped the ante because we've caught onto the fact this is a good deal and we've encouraged more kids to do it."

Jennifer Topiel, spokeswoman for the College Board, said more and more students are taking AP courses and thus more are entering college with scores of 3 or higher. She said very competitive colleges have to manage the situation because they can't have all of their students going directly to the sophomore year.

AP exam participation has grown by 150 percent in the past decade for a variety of reasons, including more awareness of its role in college admissions and a push in high schools for higher standards.

Among public high schools, nearly 15 percent of last year's graduating class nationwide -- 11 percent in Pennsylvania -- scored a 3 or beter on at least one AP exam.

"What a 3 represents is a student would be able to succeed in the target college-level course," said Tom Matts, director of the College Board's AP course audit.

For the first time since the AP program began in 1956, the College Board is in the midst of auditing every AP class to make sure they are consistent and meet AP guidelines.

By June 1, all of the estimated 130,000 AP teachers must submit their syllabuses to the College Board for approval. If not approved in three tries, the course cannot be marked AP on high school transcripts.

So far, 60,000 teachers have submitted syllabuses, and, of those reviewed, 81 percent have been approved. Of those who submitted a second time, more than 99 percent have been approved.

Valuing the programs

Recent studies have differed on whether AP courses help students in college.

Two studies at the University of Texas -- both paid for by the College Board -- found favorable results: Students who took one or more AP test and course had higher grade point averages and were more likely to graduate in four or fewer years. Students who scored only a 2 fared better than those who didn't take an AP course or exam.

An earlier study by researchers at Harvard and the University of Virginia -- funded by federal agencies -- found "little evidence" high school AP courses significantly improved college performance in the sciences.

The College Board considers a 5 equivalent to "top A-level work" in college; a 4 to "mid-level A to mid-level B" and a 3 to "mid-level B to mid-level C."

The number of AP classes varies widely from high school to high school. Some high schools also enable students to take AP courses online.

Instead of graduating early, many students who do receive credit use it to add flexibility, giving them room in their schedule for more courses they want or for a second major.

At Allegheny College, which limits AP credits to 20, Scott Friedhoff, vice president of enrollment, said even students with many credits end up staying for four years.

He said the value of AP is in the preparation for college work. He said students come to realize that taking full advantage of college courses "is of greater value than finishing a semester early."

David Hornyak, director of advising for the Honors College at the University of Pittsburgh, said most of the time students with AP credits use them for flexibility to add other majors, not to get out of college early.

If a student is eligible for credits, it can be a tactical decision on whether to take them.

"If they are going to be a science major, I do not recommend that [taking the credits] to them," said Adele Selinger, who teaches AP biology and environmental science at Fox Chapel Area High School.

She said the first-level biology and chemistry courses are "where they set up their procedures, how a student is going to write a lab report, where you get the lab equipment, all the basics. If you take the second-level course, your professor is going to assume you know all the foundational stuff."

Paul-James Cukanna, executive director of admissions and enrollment research at Duquesne University, said pharmacy or science students who score well on AP often still take the course on campus so they can become familiar with the course and teaching style and begin the sequence with their classmates.

Mark McCloskey, who teaches AP European history at Mt. Lebanon High School, said that for his history class, the college course may be redundant. "It's better to take advantage of it and get on to more focused studies."

Carolyn Stewart, who teaches computer science and calculus at Franklin Regional High School, said some students want to take the course in college anyway so they have one easier course on their plate and can keep a high grade point average.

But for her students in her calculus class, she said, "I would feel sad if they didn't skip at least one term of calculus because they've had so much and they're so good."