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PROGRESSIVE POLICY INSTITUTE
DIMINISHING CREDIT: HOW COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES RESTRICT THE USE OF ADVANCED PLACEMENT
offered no ideas for bringing college costs under
control.
Clinton’s “New College Compact” is a big,
multifaceted plan to take the debt monkey off the
backs of millennials who attend public universities.
But one thing it is not is cheap — the price tag is
$350 billion.
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And while it does try to curb college
tuition costs at public institutions, it doesn’t roll
them back.
In a 2014 report entitled “Give Our Kids a Break:
How Three-Year Degrees Can Cut the Cost of
College,” PPI proposed a more ambitious remedy that
would actually reduce the cost of college: Awarding
degrees in three years rather than four. If three-year
bachelor’s degrees became the norm in America,
as they are in much of Europe, students would see
up to a 25 percent savings in tuition and fees. And
because the proposal would free up class room and
dorm space, colleges could make up the lost tuition
by increasing the number of students they enroll in
any given year. On average, students and families
would see total savings of $8,893 for undergraduates
attending four-year public schools (in-state) and a
$30,094 reduction for those at private institutions.
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Best of all, it wouldn’t cost taxpayers a dime.
Cutting tuition by a quarter, of course, would
also reduce the amount students need to borrow.
Nearly 70% of bachelor’s degree holders have taken
out student loans, with an average debt burden
of $29,400. Assuming someone borrows $29,400
at 4.66% over four years, the interest owed would
amount to $7,505. But shaving a year off college cuts
that interest tab to about $5,629, a savings of $1,876.
And keep in mind we are talking averages here; the
many students carrying debts well above the average
will reap bigger savings.
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Nonetheless, it would be naïve to expect most U.S.
universities and colleges to move toward three-year
degrees without a nudge from public policy. It will
likely require a mixture of incentives and penalties
to encourage the vast majority of schools to move in
this direction. Fortunately, some schools have taken
the initiative and have begun offering a three-year
degree option. Leading the way are Bates College,
St. Johns University, Purdue, the University of
South Carolina, the University of North Carolina
Greensboro, the University of San Francisco, Florida
State, and Wesleyan College, among others.
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HOW UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES RESTRICT
CREDIT FOR ADVANCED PLACEMENT WORK
Another way for students to finish one semester
early or perhaps graduate in three years is to earn
Advanced Placement (AP) credit. AP’s origins
lie in a 1952 study by three preparatory schools
(Lawrenceville School, Phillips Academy, and
Phillips Exeter Academy) and three universities
(Harvard, Princeton, and Yale) that recommended
allowing high school seniors to study college level
material and to take examinations that (depending
on the score achieved) would enable them to get
college credit for their work.
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This report led to the
creation of the AP program, run by the College
Board, a nonprofit organization.
Today, over one million high school students take AP
courses in 36 subject disciplines, and their number
is growing. According to the College Board, the
number of total AP examinees doubled from 2003
to 2013 (going from 514,163 to 1,0
03,430). About a
quarter of those examinees are minorities, whose
share of the total has more than quadrupled during
that same decade, going from 58,489 to 275,874.
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Yet while the number of students taking AP exams
grows, colleges and universities are making it
increasingly difficult for them to get actual college
credit. Eighty-six percent of the top 153 universities
and colleges in the United States restrict the
awarding of AP credit, denying students hundreds
of millions in tuition savings. Only a handful of
colleges deny AP credit altogether, but many others
restrict the granting of credits. As a result, students
who start their undergraduate studies thinking they
have enough AP credits to graduate a semester or
year early often discover their school has denied
some or all of their AP coursework. “The AP system
Eighty-six percent of the top 153
universities and colleges in the United
States restrict the awarding of AP
credit, denying students hundreds of
millions in tuition savings