To the Register Editorial Staff:

Monday's editorial failed to mention one critical weakness of the Advanced Placement system. Although AP tests can garner undergraduate credits, they become an issue when applying to graduate schools. When you read the fine print, most graduate schools require “graded credit” in certain courses. This means that if any prerequisite courses are from AP credits, they will NOT be accepted by the graduate schools.

 By encouraging students to take AP tests for college credit, you are blindly leading them to a dead end after their undergraduate career. In a workforce that is becoming more and more competitive, graduate school is becoming a necessity for more and more students. I believe three things need to be done to fix this problem. First, a new measure of AP competitiveness between schools is required that does not rely solely on the number of tests taken. Similarly, schools need to stop requiring the tests to be taken to obtain a weighted grade if schools want to encourage their students to be successful beyond their undergraduate career. Finally, AP needs to reform to a standard that graduate schools, as well as undergraduate schools, feel is acceptable as a measure of scholastic success.

Sincerely,

Rachael Giertz