AP Capstone is an innovative program for high school students designed in partnership with college faculty, built on two new courses from the advanced placement program.  AP Capstone challenges students to select their own topics of study. 


AP SEMINAR
In AP Seminars students learn to evaluate the strength of an argument, pose solutions, collaborate and communicate. 


AP RESEARCH
In AP Research students design, plan and conduct a yearlong investigation on a topic they choose. 


AP Capstone – AP Research – AP Seminar

Both courses foster collaboration, research and analytical writing. 

Ken O’Donnell
Senior Director of Student Engagement
California State University

Within AP Capstone, the seminar course is innovative for its flexibility.  The research program has a similar focus of flexibility and innovation that we find attractive.  Instructors and their students can choose the topic they’re going to focus on.  It has to be inter-disciplinary, it has to be engaging, it has to be pressing.  

Teresa Reed
Associate Dean of The Henry Kendall College of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Music
University of Tuls
The AP Capstone program is, I think, one of the most exciting innovations that College Board has ever come up with and it’s primarily because the teaching focus is shifted from content to skills.  That is a paradigm shift.  

The AP Capstone program was implemented in fall 2014 in 114 schools in the United States and in 22 schools throughout Canada, Europe and Asia.  The number of schools and students participating in the program are both expected to grow rapidly.  
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Projected AP Capstone Growth 
2014-15 6,250
2015-16 20,000
2016-17 35,000
2017-18 50,000
2018-19 65,000


School Year - Students

Diversity in classes is fundamental to AP Capstone.  
AP Capstone ensures that the diversity of each classroom matches the diversity of its school. 

Jeanie Griffin
AP Capstone and AP English Language and Composition Teacher
West Shore Junior/Senior High School

I see so much growth in the students over the year with writing and learning how to not just synthesize information, which is so critical, but also to draw conclusions and solutions and think about problems in the world around them.  They also learn to work in teams and collaborate with each another which is a critical skill in today’s society.  


David Saenz
Principal
Jack E. Singley Academy

I was sitting here listening to our students and some of the presentations and I wasn’t seeing sixteen and seventeen year old high schools students, I was seeing twenty to twenty one year old college students in here going through of these topics that range anywhere from Euthanasia to human trafficking, pop culture.  Their intellectual maturity over the few months that we’ve had the program is outstanding.  

Stuart Schmill
Dean of Admissions
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The AP Capstone classes really help students develop the ability to do inquiry, to learn about gathering information, what information to trust or how to put that information in context, how to form an argument based on the data and the evidence and the information that they’ve got and then how to communicate it.  

AP Capstone exams are evaluated by an external team of expert faculty from high schools and colleges.  
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Philip Ballinger
Associate Vice Provest, University of Washington
Member, College Board of Trustees

The external validation associated with AP and AP Capstone does is it gives us a national standard and for people like me that work in admissions and enrollment at selective universities, that in itself is of huge value.  So we trust what we see.  

John Barnhill
Assistant Vice President for Enrollment Management
Florida State University

The AP Capstone program, I think, is very unique.  It’s a broad program that gives skills that we think are very valuable.  Not only for college but life skills; the ability to analyze, to critically think, to present that information is really wonderful and I think both courses do a great job of preparing the student for the rest of their lives.  

Fostering the research, argumentation and communication skills that provide a foundation for college and career success. 
AP Capstone [Logo]
For more information please visit: 
collegeboard.org/apcapstone