The AP cap for Starr’s Mill students is changing.
Currently, freshmen can take one AP class, sophomores can take two AP classes, juniors can take three AP classes, and seniors can take four AP classes.
The Starr’s Mill High School administration has decided to remove the limit completely, aside from the freshmen, who cannot take more than two AP classes.
“Feedback that we have seen from selective colleges is that they want to see their applicants challenging themselves when those challenges are available,” Principal Allen Leonard said.
“The limit was there to make sure students didn’t overload themselves, but we have seen that opening that limit will benefit our students.”
A push from the county has allowed for these changes to be made. County officials and administrators have seen more competition from other schools, and realized changing the AP cap would help our school.
Most of the AP courses are replacement courses, or a course that takes the place of the general curriculum class. Administrators at Starr’s Mill have realized it is not fair to count the maximum amount of APs students can take when they are trying to fill their graduation requirements.
This change has been discussed throughout the year due to an increase in students requesting to take more than the maximum amount of AP classes from the current cap.
“We have been thinking about this change since last year,” Assistant Principal Andrea Freeman said. “When we looked at the data for the students who were requesting to take maximums, most kids were allowed to, so if we were going to accept them anyways, we might as well remove that extra step.”
The AP cap has benefits, but the administrative team thinks that Starr’s Mill students can decide their course load on their own with help from counselors, if necessary.
“The biggest concern of this change is that sometimes in the chase for improving GPA and college application status, students overload themselves and they don’t think about how much work will be required with AP classes,” Leonard said.
AP contracts for students are due shortly. For upcoming seniors, contracts were due January 26. For upcoming juniors, contracts are due February 1, while the deadline for rising sophomores is February 15. Incoming freshmen have until February 5.