[Spivak]

Colleges don't really take AP courses in the way you're describing. I took every single AP and dual credit course in HS I was offered and a few more I wasn't. Did you know schools can just order the test for you without the class? Anyway, I went to uni with 80ish credit hours which "coincidentally" didn't count for any of my major classes or electives.

So the AP as a means of saving $$$ loophole has been hard closed.

[thfuran]

I think you're extrapolating a lot from a single datapoint.

[Spivak]

I guess but I went to a major well-known university that isn't weird or exceptional in their process and has the same table of AP to course number mapping for every student so we were all in the same boat.

And in hindsight of course that's how it works, both because the university isn't keen on cost savings but also because every student is coming loaded with APs. AP physics isn't "college physics" anymore it's just high school physics and the optional prereq to Physics 101.