To evaluate how Advanced Placement (AP) courses affect college-going, we randomly assigned the offer of enrollment into an AP science course to over 1,800 students in twenty-three schools that had not previously offered the course. We find no AP course effects on students’ college entrance exam scores (SAT/ACT). As expected, AP course-takers are substantially more likely to take the AP exam than their control group counterparts. At the same time, treatment group students opt out of the exam at very high rates and most do not earn a passing score on the AP exam. Though less precisely estimated, the results also suggest that taking the AP course increases students’ aspirations to attend higher-quality colleges but does not lead to enrollment in such institutions.

为了评估大学先修课程 (AP) 课程如何影响大学学习，我们随机分配了 23 所学校的 1,800 多名学生之前未开设该课程的 AP 科学课程。我们发现 AP 课程对学生的高考成绩 (SAT/ACT) 没有影响。正如预期的那样，参加 AP 课程的学生比对照组的学生更有可能参加 AP 考试。与此同时，治疗组的学生选择退出考试的比例很高，而且大多数人在 AP 考试中没有获得及格分数。虽然估计不太精确，但结果也表明，参加 AP 课程会增加学生进入更高质量大学的愿望，但不会导致他们进入此类机构。