College Credits Earned in High School

Since their development in the early twentieth century Honors Programs and Colleges within Higher Education serve a variety of functions; from attracting academically talented students to an institution for the purposes of increasing the institutional profile to providing an opportunity for those students to achieve their potential. However, the challenge has always been how to identify the student that will benefit and succeed from an honors curriculum. In many cases students are identified based on their high school average and standardized test score. In many cases, such as this study here, this admissions model can lead to a higher attrition rate of student that cannot maintain the grades necessary to stay within their program.This study focused on students who were enrolled in the Honors College at the State University of New York At Buffalo between the years of 2006-2008. The purpose of this study was to determine if Advanced Placement college credits earned in high school serve as a better predictor of grade point average during their undergraduate academic career. Instead of the traditional metrics of high school grade point average and standardized test scores.