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<p>College adcoms do NOT think this way. Hence, I will neglect it.</p>
<p>State AP Scholar sure is heck of an award. But do you want to portray yourself as someone who just takes ALOT of tests all the time? </p>
<p>If you’re a state AP scholar, i highly doubt you can do THAT much in terms of EC’s. You’re prolly going to be studying for a majority of the time.</p>
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<p>The funny thing about this statement is that people would love to have a scholarship for “a few hundred bucks” but when it comes to spending it, it’s not THAT big of a deal. ■■■■■. The irony.</p>
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<p>Why in the world would you want to sit through old material for a second time when you have an opportunity to sample a cross-section of some of the finest college courses anywhere? To “enhance” your GPA? What a wimp! Try studying a little!</p>
<p>You’ve got 4 years and maybe 35 or 40 classes total out of a course catalog of thousands of fascinating possibilities. Each class will cost you upwards from $6000. It’s worth it to you to spend $6k on taking intro to calculus a second time?</p>
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<p>Not retaking the introductory course which you already know the material for well (5, not 3) means you get an extra free elective later. Would you rather spend time and tuition money repeating something you already know well, or taking some interesting course that you otherwise would not be able to fit into your schedule?</p>
<p>That said, a lot of AP subjects are not very useful, and the proliferation of low value AP tests (e.g. Physics B, Environmental Science, Statistics, and others which are not commonly accepted for subject credit or placement, and which are common topics of “can I self study AP ____ in 2 months?” threads) devalues the whole concept. Also, many AP courses are less rigorous than the university level equivalent course, due to teaching over a year what is usually taught in a semester in university.</p>
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<p>If you come from a family where a few hundred dollars is a significant amount of money, you don’t have to pay for the AP tests, you can get a waiver. We did – for 8 exams last year.</p>
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<p>I’m currently the valedictorian. Guess what? I took the hardest courseload. And guess what? I’m going to do it all over again. But GUESS WHAT? I’d like to save my time and energy on a little something i’d like to call GRAD SCHOOL. Grad School is where you learn the COOL stuff everyone talks about. Undergrad does teach you this but GRAD SCHOOL IS WHERE THE PARTY IS AT. So I’d prepare myself for that. Anyhow, it’s a little off tangent to what we’re discussing. So i’ll leave my motives alone.</p>
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<p>I don’t come from a family of this nature. But as a student and a teenager, I sure as hell would want scholarship money, aka free spending money, of a “few hundred bucks.”</p>
<p>@meursalt, I (and probably the majority of the posters on this thread) think you are handling this question in a very immature fashion. There’s no need to bash on others’ opinions and quite frankly, I’m surprised you are valedictorian with that kind of mindset…</p>
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<p>That’s fine. You go on and think that. It won’t change much. I am only regurgitating the truth. As much as these people will sugarcoat the importance of taking AP exams, in reality, the exams aren’t A BIG DEAL. They probably never will be.</p>
<p>I wasn’t looking for an argument, I was simply stating that you should be more considerate of others’ opinions. </p>
<p>No offense to you, but it seems like you are just bitter about the whole admissions process because you were rejected from all the Ivies. You know, it could have been because you never took any AP tests 
And from reading your previous posts, you were Sal, not Val…</p>
<p>I live in California. I wasn’t rejected from all the ivies. I applied to 4 only. I took 5-6 AP Exams. And I got bumped up to Val. </p>
<p>Anymore stalking you’d like to do? Or would you rather just ask me?</p>
<p>Unless you’re pretty sure that you won’t get a good score on a test or two, there’s no reason not to take them. If you don’t take your AP tests, you probably aren’t getting into Harvard anyways. You can probably skip them your senior year though when they won’t make a difference in any college decisions.</p>
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<p>You’re so right. I guess, aside from these three pages in the thread, there’s ABSOLUTELY NO REASON AT ALL.</p>
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<p>My son took 8 AP exams last year, 4 of them for subjects which he self-studied. Brown specifically mentioned both his community service work and his initiative to self-study multiple AP exams as being two major factors in why he was admitted.</p>
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<p>Do you mean graduate school in an academic subject, or medical or law school?</p>
<p>If what is said about medical and law school admissions on these forums is correct (that they do not care about whether applicants choose tougher or easier versions of courses in undergraduate, or differences in grade inflation and student competitiveness in various undergraduate schools and subjects), then they incentivize students to seek the “easy A” route in undergraduate (including repeating courses for which they have AP credit, rather than using the AP credit to take more advanced courses, as well as choosing courses and majors which have the most grade inflation or which are the least academically rigorous while still meeting the stated requirements).</p>
<p>@meursalt</p>
<p>I was just poking fun, calm down… People look at each others’ previous posts to check the validity of their statements. It technically isn’t stalking, or at least not by my standards. If you are so against AP tests, why did you take 4? Just kidding, I don’t think I even want to know. Good luck in life with your pessimistic attitude!</p>
<p>Oops, I meant 5. Or even 6?</p>
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<p>Yup you hit the nail right on the head. Thanks for confirming my opinion!!!</p>
<p>LoremIpsum, the voice of reason, I agree with you wholeheartedly. </p>
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<p>That’s a contradiction, my point was clearly that the person with the high AP scores (and the grades, perhaps I wasn’t clear on this?) would have the advantage. You completely rejected this point, and then supported it a few lines later. </p>
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<p>Um, last I checked the “performance” in the AP class shows the ability to handle AP material. As you’ve stated, AP tests simply show how well you know the AP material, or in other words, how well you’ve mastered the AP material; oh wait, wasn’t that the point of the class?</p>
<p>Colleges do care. Look at LoremIpsum’s son, he clearly received an advantage for his AP scores. </p>
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<p>Obviously schools don’t want to lose money either. Colleges are businesses, and the more classes students take, the more money they make. To meet graduation requirements, a student would have to take a certain number of courses anyway, true. However, if they could get credit for the AP classes, the university would be loosing a large sum of money. Why would they want to? </p>
<p>I don’t deny that it would be advantageous to take the class from an expert, but introductory physics is introductory physics. I doubt the Ivies care from whom you learn it. </p>
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<p>Now to meursalt. Before I start quoting you to rip apart your biased, close minded (and sometimes outright rude) statements, I would like to point out that you don’t need to make a new post for every sentence. </p>
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<p>Seeing as you didn’t get into any of the Ivies you applied to, nor have qualified for these awards, you are in no position to judge what is considered prestigious. Not everyone qualifies, and those who do have an advantage (however small). </p>
<p>Also, what is left besides subjective and objective variables? AP Scores are objective variables. I thought that should be pointed out. </p>
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<p>Not sure what sort of painful experiences you have had with APs, but studying for AP exams is stressful for a month or two at most, and it has NEVER interfered with my ECs. Nor have I passed any up because I elected to take the exam. If you take the class, taking the exam is not that much more work. </p>
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<p>Besides the fact that you’ve contradicted your previous statement, you are wrong. Plenty of students who have high scores on AP exams have solid ECs. It’s not as if you have to choose. Perhaps some people are better at balancing they activities?</p>