<p>None of the colleges sites I've looked at mention whether AP scores specifically are a factor in admission decisions. Are they?</p>
<p>While it may be unstated, here is a way that AP scores do affect applicants. One school with a good reputation in my area offers many APs. However, it's common for students to rarely score above 3s. One adcom mentioned how the AP English teacher's recommendation had grammatical errors and poor syntax.</p>
<p>It's inescapable that these call into question the rigor of the coursework at that school. In order to offer admits, the school REALLY needs to see something beyond As in AP classes at this school.</p>
<p>I'm no adcom, but if schools are so interested in "mastery of curriculum," wouldn't a bunch of 4s and 5s on AP exams (obviously from junior year and earlier) look awesome on an application??</p>
<p>This issue has been discussed on CC a bunch of times, and here are some points I take from prior discussions:
1. Many colleges do not ask for AP scores at all. At these, one can assume that they aren't considered very important for admission. That said, it can only help you to report high scores on your application.
2. Some colleges (several top ones) do ask you to report AP scores, sometimes in an area of the application marked "optional." There has been lot of discussion and speculation about what conclusions would be drawn if you took an AP course (indicated on your transcript), but did not report a score. It's my opinion that an adcom would draw a negative inference from this unless you somewhere in the application explain that you didn't take the exam for some reason.
3. A low AP score may not hurt you, especially if you come from a low-performing high school where most students get low AP scores. That would reflect more on the quality of the AP course than on you.
4. If you come from a good high school, I have to think that a low AP score will raise questions about your mastery of the material.</p>
<p>If you get an A- in a course and a 5 on an exam, but an A in a course and a 4 on the exam, would it be looked upon as the same? Also, if you get an A+ in a course but say a 2 on the exam, college would just think your school is easy. The score of the AP exam should be directly proportional to the grade in the course. My school offers several AP courses and is mediocre. I agree with Hunt that it pretty much depends on the school you come from.</p>
<p>A low grade and a high score would tell a college one of two things. Either a) the student understood the subject but didn't put much effort into the course, or b) the course was unnecessarily difficult or graded too strictly. A high grade and a low score tells colleges that the class, and maybe your school on the whole, was too easy.</p>
<p>Note that when we're talking about a "low" score on the AP, we're not talking about a 4. A 4 on the AP exam and an A in the course doesn't really tell you much, nor does a 5 on the exam and a B in the course.</p>
<p>How about an A in the class and a 3?</p>
<p>I think it's important to assess AP's on a micro level. If you're amassing several 5's while no one in your school has ever even taken half the number of exams you have, it shows you've fully utilized (or in some cases, overexhausted) the opportunities given to you in your area. Comparing an applicant relative to his socioeconomic status and comparing an applicant relative to his school's academic status are two different things. Some schools are in affluent communities but are dull and mediocre, which is why the "big fish in small pond" CAN work only if you're a...very big fish (aka, still competitive with kids from superior to elite schools).</p>
<p>yes (at highly selective colleges)</p>
<p>APs are now a category on Common Application...</p>
<p>I think it can help but one bad score won't mess everything up.</p>
<p>Self-studying for AP exams (and getting 4s or 5s) when your school doesn't have a strong curriculum is definitely a sign of academic rigor and motivation in terms of college admissions.</p>
<p>adcom at Penn told everyone that APs mean NOTHING as part of the admission process. It is only used to skip introductory classes if perferred.</p>
<p>The only way in which any piece of information can genuinely be said to mean nothing in admission is if the decisionmakers don't see it. It may be true that the policy is that they are supposed to mean nothing.</p>
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None of the colleges sites I've looked at mention whether AP scores specifically are a factor in admission decisions. Are they?
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<p>If AP scores are not factors (no matter how significant or how insignificant) in university admission, there wouldn't be space on the application for you to fill in. Use your logic :D XD. Despite the brouhaha college websites say, AP scores do play slight factors in admission process.</p>