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Recognizing AP for Admission and Placement

College Board research has shown that an institution’s published AP policy is highly influential in student enrollment decisions. In fact, three out of five AP Exam takers report that an institution’s AP policy impacts their college choice. A strong, data-influenced, and easily accessible AP credit policy can be a key differentiator between your institution and its peers as you work to recruit domestic and international students. It also reflects the extent to which your college or university values your prospective students’ performance and hard work in high school.

Why You Need an AP Recognition Policy

Recruitment

  • A clear and accessible AP policy can attract motivated and prepared students. By including AP Exam scores in entry requirements or for credit, advanced placement, or both, you recognize their academic achievement.
  • Your institution’s recognition of AP sends a message to students and secondary schools that your institution values and encourages student engagement in rigorous high school coursework. 
  • In the competitive world of higher education, clear AP recognition policies help you attract the world’s most academically prepared students.

Admissions

  • Most colleges and universities in the U.S. and hundreds around the world use AP as a factor in evaluating candidates for admission. AP offers:
    • Consistency: As a nationally recognized program that includes a standardized assessment of knowledge and skills, AP offers a consistent measure of academic achievement.
    • Evidence of rigor: Students with AP on their high school transcripts show exposure to rigorous, university-level curricula—a key element of college readiness.
    • Priority admission: AP Exam scores can be used as admissions criteria for special programs or honors colleges.

Student Success

  • The use of AP Exam scores as entry requirements helps ensure likelihood of success for those students who are admitted to your academic programs.
  • Students who earn credit or advanced placement on the basis of their AP scores are more likely to experience success in college. They tend to earn higher grades and to persist and graduate at rates higher than peers who didn’t take AP.
  • Students earning credit or advanced placement can benefit from greater flexibility in academic planning or benefit from the opportunity to pursue a new area of interest. 

Disciplinary Focus

  • AP students who earn credit or advanced placement tend to persist in courses associated with their AP subject area at a higher rate when compared to students who didn’t take AP.

Developing and Refining Your Recognition Policies

The review process for reviewing or refining your institutions’ AP recognition policy can include the following steps:

Understand How Your Peers Recognize Achievement in AP

Colleges and universities around the world recognize AP scores. As you compete for the attention of motivated, academically prepared students, it can be helpful to understand how your peers are leveraging AP in admissions, credit and advanced placement, or scholarship decisions.

Explore AP Policies at Peer Institutions: U.S.

  • Nearly all colleges and universities in the U.S. have policies recognizing AP for admission, credit, advanced placement, or both, as well as scholarship. 
  • To explore how U.S. individual universities recognize achievement in AP for credit for introductory coursework and placement into sequent-level courses, visit the AP Credit Policy Search tool.

Explore AP Policies at Peer Institutions: International 

  • This resource allows you to view varying testing policies at colleges and universities around the world.

Evaluate AP Course and Exam Content

It’s important to understand how AP compares to other credentials accepted by your institution for admission as well as credit, advanced placement, or both.

Visit the AP course and exam home page to download AP course descriptions. Share this information, along with credit-granting recommendations with your review team. If your university is able to recognize achievement in AP for credit, advanced placement, or both, you may wish to review guidance from the American Council on Education, available here.

Review Current Research, and Conduct Your Own

A large body of research over the past 20 years conducted by College Board, universities, and independent organizations, has established the validity of Advanced Placement. Completing an AP course and exam is associated with a range of positive postsecondary outcomes for students, such as greater likelihood of enrollment in and completion of college; strong first-year performance; and success in subsequent college courses. 

Those outcomes are true even for AP students who take only one or two AP Exams. Although students earning AP scores of 3 or higher—the scores for which most colleges grant credit or advanced placement or both—experience the greatest gains, research shows that even students who earn scores of 1 or 2 on an AP Exam derive benefits that lead to college success.

Recent Research

  • Published in 2023, AP Students in College: A Review of Key Research is a summary of a variety of studies demonstrating the validity of AP in admission, as well as credit, advanced placement, or both.
  • Additional studies, including those focusing on particular AP courses and exams, content areas like STEM, and outcomes for students earning particular scores on AP Exams, can be found here.

ACES

  • To develop a testing policy that’s aligned with the mission and goals of a particular institution, it can be helpful to understand what the data looks like at that college or university. Admitted Class Evaluation Service™ (ACES) is a free College Board online service to help colleges and universities answer important questions about College Board assessments you use to admit, place, and advise students at your institution. Our expert analysis of the data you supply can serve to validate your admissions, credit, and advanced placement policies—or help you refine them.
  • Learn more about ACES.

For assistance as you develop or refine your institution’s AP recognition policy, please contact us using this form.

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