2008 Woodie Awards
Higher AP Scores, More Time on Campus, and Rising College Costs
Ari Mayefsky
Issue date: 8/31/05 Section: Opinion
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Always looking to improve, Yeshiva plans to introduce two new policies in the near future. Yeshiva will require students to stay on campus for three full years and will only give credit to students who earn the maximum score of 5 on their Advanced Placement (AP) examinations. Like most new policies here, these have become very controversial.
On the one hand, staying a full three years may improve student life, as it will enable students to take fewer credits each semester and comfortably make their way through the education process. As it stands now, many students rush to finish their studies as quickly as possible and, causing themselves great stress which is sometimes detrimental to their grades, cramming their stay on campus into two and a half years. An easier workload, spread out over three years, would not only allow students to relax and focus more on their studies and earn better grades, but will also allow them to do more learning and engage in more extra-curricular activities
On the other hand, however, one must point out that Yeshiva has already adopted the practice of placing credit limits on the amount of credits its students may receive each semester. If Yeshiva's goal is indeed to lighten a student's burden each semester, then it should merely impose stricter credit limits. If a student is able to graduate in two and a half years, given the credit limit, and has enough on-campus credits, then that extra half-a-year should be given to him as a reward for the hard work that he put in. Instead, he is being penalized for his studiousness and diligence.
Requiring students to attain higher AP grades to earn college credit can be looked at as improving the institution as a whole. The same way a university may raise its standards for SAT grades, thereby improving the quality of its students, YU is looking to improve the quality of its students' education through stricter AP standards, ensuring that students who receive credit for courses are indeed qualified.
On the one hand, staying a full three years may improve student life, as it will enable students to take fewer credits each semester and comfortably make their way through the education process. As it stands now, many students rush to finish their studies as quickly as possible and, causing themselves great stress which is sometimes detrimental to their grades, cramming their stay on campus into two and a half years. An easier workload, spread out over three years, would not only allow students to relax and focus more on their studies and earn better grades, but will also allow them to do more learning and engage in more extra-curricular activities
On the other hand, however, one must point out that Yeshiva has already adopted the practice of placing credit limits on the amount of credits its students may receive each semester. If Yeshiva's goal is indeed to lighten a student's burden each semester, then it should merely impose stricter credit limits. If a student is able to graduate in two and a half years, given the credit limit, and has enough on-campus credits, then that extra half-a-year should be given to him as a reward for the hard work that he put in. Instead, he is being penalized for his studiousness and diligence.
Requiring students to attain higher AP grades to earn college credit can be looked at as improving the institution as a whole. The same way a university may raise its standards for SAT grades, thereby improving the quality of its students, YU is looking to improve the quality of its students' education through stricter AP standards, ensuring that students who receive credit for courses are indeed qualified.