AP Law Change

Illinois Colleges Required to Accept Score of 3

Piotr Morawiec, News Editor

The Illinois legislature has passed a law that requires all public Illinois colleges to accept an AP score of 3 or higher, effective next fall.

Senior Rene Leyva  is considering going to the University of Illinois at Chicago, yet before this change, the school only accepted a score of four out of five and above for a Psych AP class. He received a score of three. By next year they are required to accept a score of three. This credit can be used to bypass taking some classes.

“I feel like this law helps anyone who got a three, it would save me a lot of money, because now I wouldn’t have to pay for classes anymore[..] It helps a lo,” Leyva said.

The bill, otherwise known as HB 3428, has a  financial note attached to it which states that the bill can  “decrease the amount of tuition revenue received by the public institutions [by letting students] bypass costs associated with earning those credits”

Last year, out of 637 exams taken in Leyden, 198 exams scored a three. Before the law, the students who got these scores would stress out thinking about colleges accepting them. Some colleges accept fours and some accept threes. Now they have less to worry about.

The bill, however, does not specify what type of credit and how many credits the students would receive.

Kristin Smigielski, a University of Illinois Admissions Officer, said “details […]will be worked out over the course of the next several months. […] It is up to each public institution to determine what type of credit will be awarded. Credit can include elective credit, general education credit or credit for major requirements.”

Colleges are struggling to find the balance of the right amount of credit per score. They have a multitude of elements that they must consider, like whether a student who has taken an AP class in the direction of their major, and a student who has taken the class without the intention of continuing studying it, whether they should receive the same amount of credits.

A lot of the details have not been settled, Yet this law will help students by letting them bypass paying for classes and receive the credit that they worked very hard to get.