• Sept. 25, 2017

    138 USC students named AP Scholars
    College Board logo
    The College Board recently announced that 138 Upper St. Clair High School students earned the designation of AP Scholar – including six National AP Scholars. These students earned recognition for their exceptional achievement in the college-level Advanced Placement Program.

    “AP courses are among the most challenging offered to high school students throughout the country,” Dr. Louis Angelo, Upper St. Clair High School principal, said. “Our 138 AP Scholars and their teachers are to be commended for this outstanding accomplishment.”

    In May 2017, 316 Upper St. Clair students completed 689 AP exams in 23 subjects – earning a 91 percent pass rate. AP tests are scored 1-5; students must earn a 3 or higher to pass and possibly qualify for college credit. (Colleges and universities have independent policies regarding awarding credits for AP courses.) More than 87.5 percent of the class of 2017 completed and passed at least one AP exam.

    Six students were named National AP Scholars as well as an AP Scholars with Distinction for earning an average grade of at least 4 on all AP exams taken, and scores of 4 or higher on eight or more exams. 2017 graduates Tyler Besselman, Michael Camburn, Amy Chai, Aditi Chattopadhyay, Yash Lahoti and Yang Zhang were recognized for this achievement – the highest honor offered by the College Board.

    Fifty-four additional students were recognized as AP Scholars with Distinction. To qualify, students must earn an average score of at least 3.5 on all AP exams taken and scores of 3 or higher on five or more of these exams. The list of honorees includes 2017 graduates Paul Abrams, Brendan Allen, John Altvater, Amna Amin, Thomas Bednarz, Michael Besser, Alexander Beynon, Amatheon Bohan, Kristen Buckholt, Anthony Carroll, Christopher Damico, Mackenzie Damon, Antonio Del Rossa, Raahema Durrani, Seth Finkelstein, Aaron Fultineer, Daniel Geffrey, John Gibbons, Graham Gillen, Aidan Grogan, Nicholas Hages, Abigail Happ, Philip Hoffman, John Jenny, Macey Kaplan, John Lan, William Lang, Tanmayee Mahajan, Piol-Ha Masse, Malcolm Miller, Murphy Miller, Pramod Narayanan, Nicholas Ondrejko, Vashisth Parekh, Darius Radfar, Shlok Rawat, Keshav Reddy, Mahima Reddy, Tarun Reddy, Allie Ryave, Ethan Stout, Caleb Troughtmantz, Natalie Urban, Alexander Wolfe and Steven Yerina; as well as seniors Kevin Chen, Steven Cheung, Ariana Chiu, Sydney Closser, Nadith Dharmasena, Sahil Doshi, John Gordley, Wyatt Keating and Aritro Nandi. 

    Thirty-two Upper St. Clair students earned recognition as AP Scholars with Honor by earning an average score of 3.25 or higher on all AP Exams taken and scores of 3 or higher on four or more of these exams. Upper St. Clair’s AP Scholars with Honor include 2017 graduates Siddharth Aduri, Chase Banton, Connor Byrnes, Grace Eden, Abigail Falce, Suzanna Goodman, Dalton Hill, Alexander Loli, Averrey Jencka, Heaven Knight, Allison Lento, Maeve Lersch, Gavin Lindsay, Emily McFerran, Molly McNamara, Anastasia Michlik, Victoria Norman, Louis Olsakovsky, Vedant Parekh, Simon Ren, Hannah Sanner, Eva Schenker, Mor Shimshi, Christopher Stott, Joseph Violi, Osa Wheeler and Alexander Yerina; as well as seniors Michael Gallagher, Matthew Higgs, Austin Li, Spencer Miller and Kriti Shah. 

    Forty-six Upper St. Clair students earned the distinction of AP Scholar by earning scores of 3 or higher on three or more exams. AP Scholars include 2017 graduates Cara Amatangelo, David Behun, Shaeleah Buntain, Kathryn Burgess, Kenneth Burt, Tyler Clark, Nicholas France, Devon Garcia, John Jacobs, Leo Julian, Harvey Kane, Meredith LaRocco, Curt Leonard, Jonathan Levy, Nikhil Makkuni, Megan Meissner, Neale Misquitta, Kathryn Montgomery, Caroline Nolf, Clare Rainone, Alexa Rieger, Jessica Schubert, Roderick Smith, Breighan Szajnecki, Nicholas Toosi, Erik Warmbein, Shelby Zahren and Claire Zalla; seniors James Boston, Caitlin Cassidy, Thejaswi Duvvuru, Jonah Glunt, Jagadeesh Gummadi, Kathryn Hall, Andrew Hobart, Meghan Johnson, Jacob Lantzman, Parachi Masown, Abigail Matheny, Emily Molitoris, Krisha Monpara, Harshini Sakthivel, Daniel Speer and Abigail Wagner; as well as juniors Samuel Ding and Arushi Khaitan.

    The College Board’s Advanced Placement Program offers students the opportunity to take challenging college-level courses while still in high school, and to receive college credit, advanced placement, or both for successful performance on AP Exams. Upper St. Clair High School currently offers 23 AP courses including AP English Language and Composition; AP English Literature and Composition; AP World History; AP U.S. History; AP Comparative Government & Politics; AP U.S. Government & Politics; AP Macroeconomics; AP Microeconomics; AP Psychology; AP Calculus AB; AP Calculus BC; AP Statistics; AP Biology; AP Chemistry; AP Environmental Science; AP Physics 1; AP Physics C: Mechanics; AP Physics C: Electricity & Magnetism; AP French Language; AP German Language; AP Spanish Language; AP Music Theory; and AP Computer Science A.

    According to the College Board, AP students are more likely than their peers to complete college within four years and students who take AP exams say it makes them feel more confident and prepared for college.