A 3 on AP Calc BC: Am I done for?

<p>Here's the deal-- I'm taking a total of 13 AP's in my high school career, 8 so far (I'm going to be a senior). I now have a 5, 5, 5, 4, 4, 4, a 3 on BC Calc, and another score that is delayed but more likely a 5. </p>

<p>My question is, how much <em>really</em> do Ivies weight AP scores? I have definitely taken the most rigorous courseload at my school but received B level grades both semesters for Calc, though my SAT math (I and II) are excellent but I'm obviously pretty bad at math. (I'm Asian BTW). </p>

<p>My understanding is that you should self-report all scores on CommonApp and you don't have to send it through CB officially because otherwise it looks like you took the class but either didn't take the test or were afraid to show the score. </p>

<p>If HYP adcoms see this, is this a red flag? My GPA, SAT, and ECs are all pretty good so there's no problem there. How will this score affect me?</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

<p>Depends… what are the rest of your APS. For example, Chem, US, Physics are harder than Psychology, Human Geography, Art.</p>

<p>“. . . 5, 5, 5, 4, 4, 4 . . .”</p>

<p>They are 3 histories, english, psych, bio, foreign language, etc. Next year I’m taking econ, gov, more english, stats. </p>

<p>I’m sorry if this sounds overly ridiculous but I’m truly worried that the 3 will look horrible along with the rest of my application…or will the other 4/5’s balance it out? I know that good scores can help but do bad scores hurt you? - even if AP scores aren’t supposed to be used for admissions rather mainly for placement? Any other thoughts?</p>

<p>Thanks so much!</p>

<p>I wouldn’t worry about it. When I was a junior, I took AP U.S. Government, and at the end of the year, my teacher decided that he wanted some of us to try the AP World Government exam as well—despite the fact that we hadn’t studied the material. >.> I pulled a 2 on it, and still managed to get into Harvard without winning a Nobel prize or anything.</p>

<p>uhhh i have REALLY bad AP scores. actually to tell you the shortened version… i have not gotten any 5s and i have 2 2s (in all my science ap exams) and i still managed to get in.</p>

<p>dont worry too much about AP scores!</p>

<p>Haha, a 3 on an exam is not going to keep you out at all. AP scores aren’t even officially used for admissions by the adcoms, other than to determine the merit of your high school AP class.</p>

<p>A lot of non-science kids even do not take AP Calculus. I know at least 10 kids who just barely passed trignometry and nothing beyond. All these kids are majoring in non science or math in Harvard. So do not sweat about AP calculus score if you are majoring in history or government. I hope you have other strong achievements in other academic subjects or ECs to overcome this low score in AP. </p>

<p>If you are going to major in math, you got a problem unless you come from a very poor school district where no one ever takes AP calculus.</p>

<p>Wait I don’t think AP scores can cause you to get rejected…</p>

<p>AP scores have essentially no effect on your application. They’re really only factored in once you’ve been accepted for course credit/placement purposes.</p>

<p>2013 Harvard and Jen98. Do you mind sharing your extracurriculars, grades (weighted and unweighted), and SAT 1&2 scores? Thanks!
Tristan101: You should be fine considering how great all your other scores are.</p>

<p>This is a good subject so I’m bumping it.</p>

<p>I think they consider APs when deciding to accept/reject you because if they see 2s and 3s, they won’t just say “ohh well, just ignore that” when other applicants are reporting 4s and 5s.</p>

<p>My question, which concerns transfer students, is: If you know you have bad AP scores (2s, 3s, 4s), is it a good idea to not report them or should you report the bad AP scores anyway and hope that a good college transcript can outweigh them?</p>

<p>Everyone is encouraged to respond!</p>