AP credits offer multiple benefits once students reach college

Students who accumulate Advanced Placement (AP) credits in high school take higher-level courses in college and are more likely to earn a double major, according to a study appearing this month in the American Educational Research Journal. In addition, Pell Grant recipients are especially more likely to earn their degrees in a shorter length of time.Conducted by Brent Evans, a higher education professor at Vanderbilt University, the study, based on data from the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study, also shows that students with at least 10 AP credits also spend about $1,000 less in repaying student loan debt, “likely driven by reduced time to degree,” Evans writes.Evans notes, however, that less than 8% of beginning college students enter with AP credit, that these tend to be “more academically and socioeconomically advantaged” students, and that it’s unclear if the results would be the same if AP credits were spread to a “wider swatch of the college-going population.” Even so, the results, he said, confirm students benefit from earning college credit while in high school, and that when deciding on their schedules, students should consider whether a course could provide college credit.