The most common way students earn college credit whilst in high school is by taking International Baccalaureate (IB), Advanced Placement (AP), or actual college classes. These programs boast academic rigor and are known to develop students’ college-readiness well. The AP program even claims to help students save on college expenses by earning credit early, on the basis that most colleges in the U.S. accept AP credit. Whilst it is an U.S. university, NYU Shanghai is one of the few institutions who do not grant college credits, like its sister school NYU Abu Dhabi. Recently, there have been rumors that NYU Shanghai is going to start granting college credit to students who have taken college-level classes such as those in the AP/IB program. However, a conversation with Assistant Provost John Robertson revealed that there is no foundation to this rumor and there are currently no plans to grant students college credit for classes taken during high school. Many upperclassmen have found themselves paying to relearn the same materials or being asked to take more placement tests despite achieving high scores in an AP/IB or other college-level class. There have been a few updates this year for the Class of 2020 and any eligible upperclassmen. Currently, students who are particularly advanced in some subjects, such as Calculus or Mandarin, can opt to take a placement test so they can be placed in an advanced or honors class. This year, Assistant Dean Diane Geng revealed that “if students have high school exam scores that meet a core requirement, they need to submit the relevant official score reports to the Admissions Office and notify their advisor of the score and requirement they are applying for it to fulfill. The advisor will need to verify this with the official score received by Admissions and if everything is approved, the Registrar will note the core requirement fulfillment in the student's Albert record.” Therefore, even if students are not being granted college credit, they can still have more flexibility when choosing classes by having core requirements waived. Upperclassmen who have not completed core requirements can still submit relevant score reports to have requirements waived, if they find that they have scored high enough in the relevant advanced high school classes such as the AP/IB. The decision to waive requirements is a welcome improvement, although it does not grant actual college credits. In fact, one can argue that NYU Shanghai’s policy to not grant students who took AP/IB college credit is justified. In such an international student body, there are also students from different yet just as rigorous academic backgrounds, such as the German Abitur, French Baccalaureate, and British A-Levels, to name a few. NYU Shanghai in particular also has to think about the Chinese students who make 50% of the student population. This itself already makes it difficult for NYU Shanghai to establish a standardized credit-granting system to be fair to all its undergraduate students. Some students also feel that in college, they are more mature and being given a second chance to learn the same concepts is beneficial to them because they are able to grasp the material better than they did in high school. NYU Abu Dhabi Study Away student Gjorgji Shemov explained that “students are more mature while at college, which offers them the chance to quickly understand the material. It means that (re)taking Probability and Statistics will be beneficial as it is a requirement for future courses. Having (re)taken it at uni, it would be easier for them to master their further courses.” This article was written by Bishka Zareen Chand. Please send an email to [email protected] to get in touch. Photo Credit: Cassandra Lin Ulvick