My sophomore year I took the World History AP exam and scored a 1 (which I obviously will not submit) and my junior year I took the US History AP exam and scored a 5. My senior year I am taking 3 AP classes, but I plan on doing the early-decision application so I will not be able to submit any of my AP exams from my senior year simply because I haven’t taken them yet. Will this look bad?
How did you manage to score a 1? FWIW: I’ve written this before, but here it is again:
If your AP classes will appear on your transcript, colleges expect you to have taken the corresponding AP test, as it’s the culmination of an AP class. If you don’t self-report your AP test results, Admissions may assume one of three things:
(a) You couldn’t afford to take the AP tests
(b) You didn’t take the test because you didn’t care enough
(c) You took the AP tests and scored badly – as in you got a “1”
While the first explanation is acceptable and can be easily verified if you apply for a fee-waiver for a college’s applications fee, the other two are not.
So, my recommendation is to self-report ALL your AP test scores when an AP class appears on your transcript, and let the chips fall where they may, as you don’t want colleges to think you are a slacker or that you scored a 1.
A grade of 3 means you are qualified, and 4 means you are well qualified – both of which are fine. See: http://professionals.collegeboard.com/testing/ap/scores
If you fail to report the score, it appears as though you are hiding something – and you are. That’s a misrepresentation by omission. And, IMHO, it doesn’t speak well to your integrity and honesty, and doesn’t exemplify the kind of student the ivies are looking for. My advice is to submit all your AP scores when the AP class appears on your transcript. If you are rejected, it will not be because of your AP tests.
Specifically in answer to your question WILL IT LOOK BAD: when you apply to college, your guidance counselor submits what is called “A high school report” that details, among other things, how many AP classes students at your school are allowed to take AND how many AP classes a competitive applicant normally has under their belt when applying to college. So, the WILL IT LOOK BAD question is really dependent upon what other students at your high school are taking (and submitting to colleges). So, I would ask you GC the “Will it look bad” question, as no one here can answer it, as it’s school specific question.
One teeny add. If OP’s looking at stem, they might be ok with not reporting a soph humanities score. The 1 is that bad.
But OP, you need a much more solid understanding of what H looks for. And you need to try to understand just how crazy fierce the competition is for admits.
Nobody’s senior year AP scores will be available. Also Harvard does not offer ED; it offers SCEA.
With a 95% rejection rate, I’ll go out on limb and say the number of applicants that got accepted with a 1 is minute. But as @lookingforward says, you really need to research what Harvard looks for in its applicants. Good luck.
It’s not rocket science folks.
Use the search term “Harvard what we look for”
Written by those actually on the admissions committee, aka “the Horses’ mouths”, the “deciders” . . .
I’ll admit I’m always sorry when a kid wants some tippy top and someone else has to tell him how to research. The real point is being the sort who knows to look and gets down and does it for himself. If you want to be Harvard, you need to have the thinking and skills Harvard wants. Not follow someone else’s lead.
Noone submits scores for tests that they haven’t taken yet! 
Is there a reason you got a 1, meaning, were you sick, did you panic, did you need accommodations that you got later, etc. etc.? If so you can write a note to enclose with your transcript when your guidance counselor sends it or have your guidance counselor write something.
The fact that you got the 5 on the other exam makes the 1 a bit of a mystery. If there is a good reason, share it with Harvard. But even a good reason leaves a 1 pretty hard to understand in light of your obvious academic skills.
"If your AP classes will appear on your transcript, colleges expect you to have taken the corresponding AP test, as it’s the culmination of an AP class. If you don’t self-report your AP test results, Admissions may assume one of three things:
(a) You couldn’t afford to take the AP tests
(b) You didn’t take the test because you didn’t care enough
© You took the AP tests and scored badly – as in you got a “1"”
What about
(d) Was ill that day and could not take the test
(e) Did not think target schools would give credit for the course
My older D skipped an AP exam because of (e), and so had no score to report but had good results as far as admissions go. Does an AO really make a negative inference for a missing score when there might be “innocent” reasons the score is missing?
For (d), there is a make-up date ~ 2 weeks later. For (e), I’m not sure that’s a valid reason. Some realch schools might not give credit, but most match and safety schools would.
“Negative” might be too strong a word. In the 12-15 minutes that an AO reads an application, I doubt they are overanalyzing which AP scores are reported. Having said that, I am aware of several instances where the AO contacted the GC and/or the applicant for further explanation, but I seriously doubt they would do that over one non-reported score.
If it’s any consolation I was admitted into '20 with a 2 on AP Physics and I reported/sent my score on the Common App
Very strange to get a 1 in one history AP and a 5 in the other. There must be an explanation. Is a retake available? Otherwise, submit it and explain it if you can.
I have two children who went to/are at Harvard. One submitted all nine AP scores, mostly 5s and a couple 4s. The other meant to send AP scores but forgot and realized after receiving the acceptance email. Both had very high ACTs and SAT2s, and As in AP and IB classes. Neither planned to take Advanced Standing. I think it doesn’t matter all that much whether you submit them or not if the rest of your application is strong. Move on.
Uhh I don’t know how qualified I am to answer this, but I was a Class of 2021 Applicant (haven’t been on CC since March, decided to check it out again since I’m bored at work rn). I got ultimately got rejected from Harvard but I was accepted to Columbia/Yale/Stanford/Princeton/Cornell/UPenn(Dual Degree LSM)/Duke/etc etc as a STEM applicant (neurosci/biology) and I didn’t submit any AP/IB scores (mostly because of how poor they were lol). So in my opinion I’m not sure how much they matter or if I was just lucky but I wouldn’t worry too much about that as a main focus. I also didn’t submit any SAT IIs for STEM related subjects other than Math 2 (Chinese w Listening was my other).
Just to add one caveat. My D is a freshman who submitted the 3 APs she took prior to admission, but only submitted a few of the APs she took senior year. The website was clear that students could choose to take Harvard’s qualifying exams to enable the college to assess their abilities in a particular subject instead of reporting AP scores. I wish I could find it now on the site to help you. It was definitely there in May.
So she did not submit at least a couple scores, and that was permissible. She was already admitted though.
Ah. Here it is:
In response to “should I enroll in AP exams even if I’m not seeking advanced standing” the response is:
“A: Ultimately, the decision rests with the individual student. As outlined here, there are benefits to taking AP and IB exams since they fulfill a variety of purposes, but some students may wish to take the Harvard placement exams to accomplish the same goal.”
https://fdo.fas.harvard.edu/ap-ib-exams
So-- I don’t know. If they don’t require the scores once you’re admitted, maybe they don’t care about them as much from prior years?-- which would be consistent with their not requiring the official report?
I leave it up to anyone else’s interpretation. Only know my D’s situation where, after acceptance, she chose to either not take or send in a couple of exams.
While true, note that Harvard only offers placement exams in certain subjects. E.g. math, bio, chem, foreign languages for starters. So a student who wants to place out of intro econ or intro psych would need to take the AP exam. Of course, one needs to get admitted first.
However, I think that’s off topic to the poster’s question, who is asking about not reporting past scores.
1 Like
You’re probably right and the standard practice seems to be to send in the scores, but I think the fact that they a) don’t want the official report and b) don’t require students to conclude AP courses taken senior year with the test-- as opposed to their finishing all other graduation requirements satisfactorily, (keeping up grades, not changing course load…) indicates that they care less about AP scores than all the other stuff.