If I may rant. My oldest son will be a junior in HS next year at a STEM magnet (Townview SEM in Dallas). I think even one of his electives is an AP, It’s kind of ridiculous. APs in HS seem pointless if you can’t apply the credit to your college degree plan. As if a University is going to let a STEM major out of calculus because they took the AP in HS…
At my highschol, "Honors" classes were the ones that didn't get college credit and "AP" classes allowed you to take a placement test at the end to get college credit.
Same here, but selective universities will often not let students out of requirements with AP scores. They may let you get credit toward graduation, but if you have to start with all the base level prerequisites then you've not made much progress.
Basically, universities are aware that APs have gotten easier and are not a substitute for college-level classes that selective universities offer.