Graduating Seniors Reflect on AP Capstone Program

Liam Rue ‘21

June 2021

With their final AP testing season drawing to a close, 11 seniors are set to be the first graduates of GHS’s rigorous AP Capstone program.

The relatively new program, created by College Board in 2015, came to GHS in the 2018-2019 school year when the then-sophomores began taking AP Seminar. After completing AP Seminar, the Class of 2021 in the following 2019-2020 school year took AP Research. (Students can only take AP Research once they complete the AP Seminar class.)

Completion of both classes with scores of ‘3’ or higher earns students the AP Capstone certificate. This, plus four additional AP classes with scores of ‘3’ or higher, earns students the AP Capstone Diploma.

A core aspect of the AP Capstone program is preparing students for college-level research through independent, student-driven work on topics of their interest. This includes skills such as analyzing facts and opinions objectively and viewing ideas from multiple different perspectives.

Since all seniors who completed the Capstone program will not have received at least four other AP scores until this July, they will not find out whether they received the AP Capstone Diploma until then. Though with a year gone by since they completed AP Research amid the first Covid-19 lock down, senior Capstone alums gave their thoughts on the two-year experience.

Primary differences that students highlighted between AP Seminar and AP Research are that AP Seminar is a combination of smaller individual projects, team projects and a final exam; in AP Research, on the other hand, students work on a single research project over the course of the entire school year. “I preferred AP Seminar, because I work better with shorter projects and deadlines, along with the teamwork element,” said Emily McInnis.

Deniz Harvey had a similar opinion. “I liked that AP Seminar was split into one group project, one solo project and the test at the end. It did not feel like a big grind compared to AP Research.”

Kai Kaufman, on the other hand, preferred AP Research. “I preferred AP Research because I personally enjoy long-term projects more than short-term ones,” he said. “It also gave me the opportunity to do an in-depth project that was directly relevant to my interests, which wasn't necessarily true for AP Seminar.” (For the final in-class project in AP Seminar, students are required to choose from pre-selected documents from the College Board that share a certain theme.)

As AP classes, students noted that AP Seminar and AP Research were both challenging, especially in the realm of time management since students have more independence. “Time management is key,” Courtney Cocheo said. “If you stay on top of your work, you will be successful and realize that it isn’t as hard as you thought it was.”

“If you tend to put off longer projects until right before they’re due, or struggle pacing yourself with them, you might have a hard time keeping up,” Emily McInnis said.

The amount of writing and research in AP Capstone that necessitates so much time management is the next most challenging aspect that students discussed. While Kai Kaufman said that the presentation projects were the most difficult part of AP Seminar, he said the most difficult part of AP Research for him was the length of the research paper. “Writing a paper that's several thousand words long and coherent is surprisingly difficult when you've never done it before,” Kaufman said.

Students said that the AP Capstone classes benefited them in a variety of ways, from improving their writing skills to helping them dig deeper into their interests. “I use the skills I learned from [AP Capstone] whenever I write anything,” Deniz Harvey said.

Marley Medina said that AP Capstone most notably improved her public speaking skills, as well as allowing her to explore more of her own interests in class. “I was able to learn a lot about Lucid Dreaming, something I am very interested in,” she said.

While Ella Mazzaferro said that AP Capstone did not change her beliefs or interests, she said the program did teach her how to look at issues through multiple different perspectives (referred to in AP Capstone as “lenses”).

Meanwhile, a single student, an outlier among the responses, said that the program’s workload outweighed any perceivable benefits for him.

Emily McInnis said that AP Capstone showed her how to conduct research at the professional level. “I feel that the AP Capstone program helped to teach me about how independent research is done, which will help me in my future educational endeavors.”

“I would say that AP Research in particular expanded my interests”, Kai Kaufman said. “I chose a research topic that would give me the opportunity to do something completely different and new to me -- machine learning for predictions -- which ended up being very interesting to investigate and implement.” Also, he added, “[AP Capstone] definitely taught me how to do proper research -- I'd say that's an impact that will last a lifetime.”

The senior AP Capstone alums recommended the class for people who are open minded, hard-working, and passionate. Deniz Harvey stressed the importance of choosing to research topics you’re interested in, as it’s much more difficult to work on something you don’t like. “Do not pick one at random, as you will regret it later on,” he said. “If you don't have a passion for something, don't pick that topic.”

“The type of person made out to be in the Capstone program is someone who is hardworking, willing to learn and has the skills to manage their time efficiently,” Courtney Cocheo said.

“Pace yourself, and don’t just cram the night before each deadline,” Aidan Crowley said.

“If you're interested in questioning your pre-existing notions about any topic you're interested in (AP Seminar), and in trying to go where nobody has gone before (AP Research), then [AP] Capstone is for you,” Kai Kaufman said. “If either of those are not true, you're probably not going to have a great time.”

As final words of advice, Kaufman recommended that future students always use a source’s DOI (Digital Object Identifier) to cite it if it’s from an academic journal. “Citation generators will have a much easier time with DOIs than regular links to articles. In general, if a DOI is available, use it! They exist for a reason.”