<p>I'm currently a junior, and I'm planning to apply to Stanford next year (possibly SCEA-definitely my top choice; I'd do anything to get into Stanford)</p>
<p>I was wondering if AP scores are really important in the admissions process. I have a great GPA, very rigorous classes, etc., so I was wondering if low AP scores will hurt me a lot in the application process.</p>
<p>Bad scores certainly can’t help. TBH, I really don’t know how much AP scores are factored in. I’m sure they are considered, but just how much I don’t know.</p>
<p>yeah, i know they’re definitely not a positive haha…
but if I get like 3s on all of them but A’s in all the classes, will that hurt my chances?</p>
<p>I know that the only people to get into Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, and Dartmouth from my school (they were actually only 3 people) had obtained perfect scores on at least 8 AP tests by the time they applied to colleges.</p>
<p>(I was one of them!)</p>
<p>Yeah, it hurts your chances. Really, the only thing that doesn’t hurt is if you get a 4 or 5, seeing as that is what they deem is sufficient preparation to pass out of classes. Just how much, I don’t know.</p>
<p>Here’s how I would look at it if I were an adcom. The 3s, at least IMO, throw into question your grades in the class, unless one of your trends is being a bad test-taker. I think that someone with an A in a class should be able to get above a 3, unless your school isn’t that great (maybe I’m just used to my high school, where getting As is difficult). So, the discrepancy would really make the adcoms think a few seconds more. I think that if you actually deserved the A, your teacher rec would remove some doubt. I really don’t believe that adcoms follow my personal logic that much, though. They seem to not really care much about AP Tests. People with 3s get accepted all the time, and people with all 5s get rejected all the time.</p>
<p>Eating food- your anecdote doesn’t really mean much. It could very well be that the only people smart enough to get into those schools were those that were able to score all 5s on the AP Test, while lesser students (who couldn’t get a 5 on the test) didn’t get in simply because they were lesser students. If you got a few 4s, I think you would have still been accepted.</p>
<p>Yeah, I’m really not that great of a test taker…especially standardized tests and stuff =/
My school’s pretty well-known…sends a good amount of kids to top-tier schools each year…</p>
<p>Hopefully it won’t hurt too much aha…the rest of my app should look pretty good hopefully (fingers crossed)</p>
<p>I didn’t take AP so I’m not sure, but must you include your AP scores in your application?</p>
<p>I believe you do if it’s Stanford, as they use the Common Application which has a section for such information. Oh, and since it’s Stanford, their supplemental application is pretty extensive to, so hope you all like writing essays about what you’d like to tell your first year roommate.</p>
<p>Umm. I know Common App has a section for it, but I thought that the only compulsory requirements are SAT scores and school grades. As I said, I didn’t take AP, so I didn’t fill in anything.</p>
<p>I was under the impression that AP scores are optional and only included for added consideration and extra credits (if you did well).</p>
<p>I have followed the regular decisions thread for different top universities, and apparently people who have a 4.0 AND 5s get a considerable nod over the 4.0ers with lower scores. A lot of 5s on AP tests pretty much show that you do not coast by just to get a 4.0 (or that you are very very smart to do minimum and yet comprehend the material to the whole depth). It also helps universities to distinguish between the students who get 4.0s because of the easiness of their workload. If you have a 4.0 with 2s and 3s on the test it’s not a good sign.</p>