<p>Are AP scores considered for applicants?
If so, is it an important factor?</p>
<p>They are considered, I believe, but are not terribly important. It's more important that you took lots of AP classes and got A's in them.</p>
<p>A record of 3's and 4's isn't bad at all, although 1's and 2's will hurt you.</p>
<p>Will having a lot of 5's help?</p>
<p>Of course 5's will help, they show that you are academically prepared to take college courses. Plus, they will help get you college credit (depending on the test, most aren't credited) which is very, very nice. AP scores are considered, although they are not as important as the SAT or SAT IIs, because they help show how rigourous your HS classes are.</p>
<p>Colleges cannot require AP scores because not all high schools offer AP courses. That does not mean that they are unimportant or that they are less important than SAT IIs. Many high schools do not offer math beyond calculus either, and no college requires it. But let's say you had a bunch of college math courses. You would want colleges to know. Even if the app doesn't have enough spaces for all your math courses, you would obviously figure out a way to squeeze your extra math courses on there, right? Same with good AP scores.</p>
<p>Rachel Toor, former Duke ad com, writes about AP scores on p. 92-93 of College Confidential:</p>
<p>"Although the scores on the (AP) tests were meant, originally, for placement into higher level college courses and were not intended to be used in college admissions, they are. We expect students to score 5s on their tests. If they get a couple of 4s, that's okay, but anything below a 4 doesn't help much. We don't require that students report these scores for admission; if they do, however, we use them. I always told students that if they scored below a 4, not to report it to us."</p>
<p>Michele Hernandez, former Dartmouth adcom, says on pp. 119-120 of Acing the College Application:</p>
<p>"The second key point (and this is a major flaw of the common application) is that you will notice there is no space at all for either AP or IB scores. That might give you the impression that these scores don't count, but that is not the case. In fact, since both AP and IB tests are considered the most difficult and collegelike tests around, colleges sometimes weigh these even more heavily than SAT Is and SAT IIs.... A strong showing on these tests can counterbalance less than stellar scores elsewhere... Do not leave out these scores even if they are not perfect."</p>
<p>I totally find those adcoms' comments to be true; when a discrepancy between AP/IB scores and transcript grades emerges, the AP/IB scores are trusted as the accurate reflection.</p>
<p>There's no way to report just SOME of your scores, right? It sucks to hear that the adcoms from Duke pretty much expect 5s...does Stanford take a similar view on that? My history AP scores (Euro, US) suck (3), but i've gotten As in the class.. would that be a big discrepancy?<br>
Also, does anyone know how much weight the Wendy's High School Heisman Award has in competitive admissions?</p>
<p>You can self report just the ones you want colleges to know about. No colleges require an official AP transcript until you matriculate and want credit. If you wanted to submit an official transcript during the app process, you can pay CB $15 per test per college to have scores withheld. Something you might want to consider, say, if you had ten 5s you wanted to "prove" with documentation, and one 2 you wanted to hide.</p>
<p>I didn't report my <em>bad</em> grade in Spanish, the only blemish on my record of five 5's and a 4.</p>
<p>So I got 3,3,4,4,5. Would that hurt me at all?</p>
<p>lol...that is exactly what i got. Calc BC grade counts for one 5 even with the AB subscore right? I'm asking because on the back of the report sheet it urges colleges to view them separately or something. Anyway, how would an adcom interpret someone taking an AP class but not reporting the grade?</p>
<p>At the time of my application, I had 5,5,5,4...and...2.</p>
<p>Right...so...I failed my AP Chem exam...and still got a legitimate A in the class. Go figure.</p>
<p>I didn't know I could hide the score...but I still got admitted EA. </p>
<p>I'm pretty sure AP scores will help, but they're not the most important factor in the big picture.</p>
<p>No, AB and BC are two seperate tests (even though they're joined in time) and you get two seperate scores. You get 10 credits(at stanford) if you get fives in both. </p>
<p>And as for taking AP classes but not reporting grades, there are schools (like my high school::Stanford's largest feeder school) where they don't force you to take the test. My German teacher advised juniors in her AP class not to take it, because they are not well enough prepared. So not reporting a score could just mean you didn't take the test... there are other legit reasons such as money issues that would result in the lack of a test score.</p>
<p>What if you school didn't offer US AP one year, and did the next year. So you were forced to take US History regulars, but you still take the test and manage a 4 or 5. How would the adcoms view this?</p>