Advanced Studies (AS) curriculum, designed by Emma Willard faculty for Emma Willard students, doesn’t just raise the bar on what students can learn—it removes the ceiling. Moving away from restrictive frameworks designed to prepare students to take standardized tests, AS allows students the latitude, time, and creativity to pursue deeper, more rigorous explorations.

Dean of Academics Dr. Esther Dettmar has spent years teaching and leading through the development of Emma’s own unique AS courses. “Our AS courses relieve teachers of the burden of teaching to the Advanced Placement™ (AP) test; even so, many of our students take AP exams and do quite well,” Dr. Dettmar explains. “In AS classes, test preparation is replaced by opportunities to conduct authentic research, for example. This serves as better college preparation for our students.” Although research projects are not prohibited in courses designed for test preparation, the time required to prepare students for an exam leaves little room for this kind of expansive work.

 

Freedom and Passion

Emma Willard’s focus on AS coursework demonstrates the confidence we hold in our students’ readiness to engage with unique, complex material not found in a textbook. Freeing teachers from an external syllabus allows them to teach to their expertise and passions, which translates to more robust and engaging instruction.

Beatrice Geissinger Cutchins, an Emma Willard graduate from the Class of 2022, experienced the transition to AS curriculum first-hand and found the evolution to be a natural one. “The big difference moving from AP to AS was that it allowed my teachers to teach me what they’re personally interested in,” Beatrice shares. “At Emma Willard, our teachers are so good, specialized, and focused. Many of them have doctorates, or they've published. They're scholars in their own right and have academic focuses and interests, which makes students interested as well.”

 

Balancing Rigor with Wellbeing

While AS classes broaden the horizons of what students can study, Emma Willard’s focus on the whole person motivates a balanced approach to how many AS classes students can pursue concurrently. AS classes do require more homework than standard classwork, and there are only so many hours in the day. Considering the time available for study and the need for rest and extracurricular involvement, the school caps the number of AS courses a student may take in each grade year.

A key factor in determining caps to AS classes stems from research on the impact of homework hours on students. An often-cited 2015 study found that when students were assigned more than 90 to 100 minutes of daily homework, test scores began to decline (Fernández-Alonso, Suárez-Álvarez, and Muñiz, 2015). More recently, research concluded that “excessive homework was associated with shorter sleep and poorer mental health” (Kaixin Liang, Diyang Qu, Anni Zhu, Xinli Chi, 2025). 

Emma Willard's caps for AS course loads prioritize wellbeing alongside these rigorous courses. AS coursework begins in Grade 10, with students enrolling in one AS course. Grade 11 students may enroll in two courses, and grade 12 students may enroll in three AS courses. Recognizing that each student is unique, petitions may be made to increase a student’s AS load when doing so places the student in the appropriate course for their academic growth.

 

The College Outlook

A common misconception is that moving beyond AP testing hinders students’ ability to earn college credit early. However, the landscape of higher education has shifted dramatically in recent years. The tier of institutions many Emma Willard graduates target—colleges that demand the highest level of intellectual capability—rarely accept introductory credits based on the AP test. 

Beatrice found that the AP tests she took prior to the transition to AS had no impact on her college search. “I was looking at small liberal arts colleges whose requirements tend to be pretty specific. Even if I had taken more AP tests, they couldn't have replaced many of the courses I would have taken or could have taken,” Beatrice recalls. “I felt confident enough in Emma Willard's reputation, my extracurriculars, and my grades to decide I did not need to take those exams.”

What academic institutions are most interested in is evidence that students have excelled at the most rigorous curriculum available to them. This is where the school profile comes in. College representatives look to our own descriptions of our course offerings to inform the way they evaluate transcripts from Emma Willard School. “Colleges expect independent schools of our caliber to do their own thing,” explains Director of College Counseling Dr. Ashley Bennett. “It’s not a surprise to colleges that we have our own advanced curriculum. We make sure we are clear about what AS means when writing our school profile.”

There are always exceptions, and some colleges in the UK and Canada still consider AP test scores. For this reason, Emma Willard will always offer AP testing for those who qualify. Students are allowed to enroll for AP exams when an AS course in which they are currently enrolled has a College Board AP exam counterpart that covers 70% or more of the curriculum. In addition, students may take APs elsewhere if it is necessary for their college applications. AS teachers provide students with recommendations for self-study resources, helping them prepare fully for the AP exam.

 

The Outcomes

Now a classics major in her third year at Wellesley, Beatrice credits her academic trajectory to the passion with which History Instructor Emily Snyder opened her eyes to art history. “Now that I've taken multiple art history classes in college, I'm thinking about doing that for graduate school. The joy and the delight that Ms. Snyder's AS Art History class sparked in me for that topic has carried through the years.”

In addition to inspiring students, the AS curriculum gives them a glimpse into college-level coursework. Qiming Coco Yang ’25 recently transitioned from the Emma Willard classroom to Northwestern University after taking Dr. Erin Bennett’s AS Postcolonial Literature class. “The class helped me prepare for college in many ways because of how it was structured,” Coco shares. “We did so much reading with theoretical frameworks, small group discussions, and presentations. Similarly, in my current college classes, we apply frameworks to shape how we read the texts. We do a substantial amount of writing to analyze the reading, and in discussions, we talk about the theories and relate them to what we see in other parts of our lives.”

 

The fruit of AS coursework can be seen not only in the experience of our students as they move on to college, but also in their openness to pursuing higher-learning opportunities that are more attuned to their interests. “If you look at our matriculation list now versus pre-AS days, you’ll see much more diversity,” says Dr. Ashley Bennett. “Students are really thoughtful about placement, focusing on where they can be their best academic self, regardless of how it ties to a particular program or exam.”