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PARK CITY — It's common these days for students to graduate high school with college credit, but two students from Park City graduated with so many credits — nearly 20 AP classes — they could have been the majority of the way through college. So how is it they still started as freshmen?
In Utah, the College Board says that nearly 20,000 students took AP exams; 68 percent passed. Utah ranks tenth in the nation for passing exams.
Earlier this month Libby Malcolm and Roman Amici won the State AP Scholar award.
Compared to other Utah students, though, Malcolm and Amici passed the greatest number of AP tests with the highest average score.
Lots of kids take AP tests to get college credit and save money. Libby said, "Lots of my friends that are at in-state schools can use the AP credit, and it definitely is worth it for the financial side because you can enter as a sophomore or a junior your freshman year.
With so many tests, the dollars rack up quick, but neither Malcolm nor Amici got their full reward. They chose out-of-state schools.
"A lot of the sort of elite private universities don't really accept AP credit for a lot of things, so you're not really necessarily getting a return on your investment that way," Roman said.
He passed 19 tests, but at University of Chicago, he only got out of five freshman classes.
And although Libby passed 16 tests, she said, "I only got two credits out of my, whatever, 16 that I got, so that was kind of a bummer."
- 10. Pleasant Grove High School, Pleasant Grove
- Highland High School, Salt Lake City
- Woods Cross High School, Woods Cross
- Brighton High School, Cottonwood Heights
- Lone Peak High School, Highland
- Hillcrest High School, Midvale
- Park City High School, Park City
- Skyline High School, Holladay
- Alta High School, Sandy
- Davis High School, Kaysville
Roman considered going to the University of Utah. Had he gone there, his 19 AP classes could have added up to at least $20,000. Even at the University of Chicago, where one credit hour costs nearly $2,000, he received a financial payout.
"If you even save one class worth of paying college tuition versus the $90 test, you know, as a parent I can say that's a big savings, so it's definitely worth it," he said.
Both Libby and Roman say the classes paid off in more than just financial ways.
"They're taught by the best teachers and the material is on a much higher level, so if you are going to take a class and you feel like you can handle it, you might as well take the AP version of that class," Roman said.
Libby said, "I think that it's still worth it to take the AP tests and to pay the money because then you get to know completely how well you know the material."
The students say that AP courses require extra homework hours and sometimes less sleep, but financial and academic rewards follow in the long term.
Roman wasn't solely absorbed in class, either. He was in academic decathlon and had a part-time job throughout high school.
When it came time to apply to college, both students decided to go out of state. Libby chose Duke because she "just really wanted to fence in college." Roman is at the University of Chicago pursuing both computer science and physics.
