Hello everyone! I am wondering what else I can do with AP credit at Harvard?
I understand that you can use AP exams to gain Advanced Standing (allowing you to graduate in 3 years rather than 4) but I’m not necessarily interested in that. I also don’t necessarily want to just skip the Intro courses to classes that I will be taking next year. Given this, is there any benefit to taking AP exams Senior year? Can I do anything else with the 5s I have already been given? Will Harvard be “disappointed” if they see my score report with sub-4/5 scores from this year? Do I even have to send a score report in my case?
So many questions… :)!
Also, do most people opt to take the general courses first instead of trying to place into all of the advanced classes? Could I be at a disadvantage?
Other than placing out of intro courses (maybe; depends on the subject) and getting an exemption of the foreign language requirement? Nope. No benefit, other than you challenged yourself in HS.
Nope.
Nope; admissions won’t even see the score report (it goes directly to the registrar’s office), and the clerk processing the scores in the registrar’s office won’t care.
@skieurope Thanks! Do you know where I could find a list of the AP classes Harvard would accept for placement out of the Intro class equivalent? I have looked around online but can’t seem to find anything.
I’m not sure what this means. Some, but very few, departments have placement tests to skip out of intro courses (e.g. music). If the department does not offer a test or if you don’t have the AP score to skip the intro course, there is no opportunity to “place into,” although in a very exceptional case, the adviser or DUS for the department could override, but it’s highly unlikely.
There are several ways an offer of Admission might be rescinded:
The Common Application Final Report, sent by a student's guidance counselor. contains a student's final transcript, GPA and asks additional questions including if an applicant's disciplinary status or criminal history has changed since the submission of the original application. A deep plunge in grades -- say from all A's to all D's or D's and C's might cause a student's acceptance to be rescinded. Likewise, if the applicant's disciplinary status or criminal history has significantly changed that might cause an acceptance to be rescinded.
When a student is admitted to a university, their Common Application becomes the basis for their official school file, which Admissions passes on to the Freshman Deans Office. The Freshman Dean's Offices holds a student's file during their freshman year, and passes it on to the master's office at a student's residential house during a student's sophomore, junior and senior year. When a student graduates, the official file is kept in the university archives. If a student requests an "Official AP Score Report" to be sent to the registrar's office, those AP scores are also added to a student's file. Over the summer, if the Freshman Dean's Office finds a discrepancy between the student's self-reported AP test grades on the Common Application and the "Official AP Score Report" sent by the College Board. that might cause an acceptance to be rescinded. For example, if a student claimed to have taken 4 AP tests scoring a 5 on all of them, but in actuality only score one-5 and three-3's -- that would call into question the student's honesty and might result in an offer of acceptance being rescinded. The person who would catch that discrepancy would be part of the Freshman Dean's office and not the the Admissions Office, which is why Harvard has this disclaimer on their website.
@gibby pretty much covered in in depth. If you’ve been accepted, the school wants you, and it will take a lot to get rescinded. In general, don’t get a D, don’t get arrested, and don’t get caught having lied on your application. AP scores are just not a part of the equation.
