<p>Schools such as
USC
Cornell
Stanford
Duke
NYU
Northwestern
etc?</p>
<p>So far.. I have a 4 in all of these subjects: chem, U.S. history and English Lang and Comp.
Can the current scores I have hurt my chances of attending these awesome colleges? For next year, I'm preparing for these tests and trying to get 5's on all of them</p>
<p>Eng. lit
psychology
physics c mechanics
government
statistics</p>
<p>Those schools will never see your AP scores till after u are accepted… so they dont really affect anything.</p>
<p>You should self-report those scores on each school’s application, so they should see them. I don’t think your scores are going to either help or hurt your cause to these schools, so just focus on other parts of your application. Good luck.</p>
<p>A basketball player at my high school with an UW GPA of 3.9 got into Northwestern and from what I know of him (I was on the JV basketball team) he didn’t take every AP our school offers. That being said, try to put emphasis on things beyond AP classes/test scores because the key to being accepted does not lie entirely on stats. 4’s and 5’s are just fine for any school, just make sure you don’t define yourself by the the numbers on your transcript/SAT score sheet. If you do not show depth of character and an honest interest in what you do than alot of colleges will turn you down.</p>
<p>So do 4’s help or hurt you more in top colleges like Ivies/Stanford/MIT/other top schools?</p>
<p>They don’t really care all that much about your scores, it’s more important that you took the class.</p>
<p>AP scores do not carry the weight they should in the admissions process, to be quite frank. Your scores are fine, meaning they will neither help nor hurt you. I mean, a string of straight fives might raise an eyebrow or two but, overall, their impact is minimal.</p>
<p>Why shouldn’t they carry the weight they should in the admissions process? They should be treated like SAT scores… AP’s are equally, if not more, rigorous…</p>
<p>not every school has AP classes… it’s only fair that they aren’t used in the admissions process. </p>
<p>although i do agree, a string of 5’s will help you. 4’s won’t help or hurt. i wouldn’t report anything under a 4 though.</p>
<p>^ If you took the class though, you really should report the score. Otherwise it’s like you didn’t take the exam but took the class, which is the worst possible outcome. </p>
<p>Anyways, 4’s are not great but they’re good enough. Your transcript is weighted the most, so taking AP classes is great. Gettting 5’s is like an added bonus - in most top schools, APs don’t really compare to the actual class, so that’s why they don’t really focus that much on the score.</p>
<p>stephenn, it doesn’t matter how many high schools offer AP courses. If you think about it this way, no high school offers a “SAT” course. Ultimately, your school doesn’t need to offer any AP course if you wanted to take an AP exam, just like you don’t need to take a SAT course to take the SAT exam. It’s only fair that AP’s be equally weighted in the admission process as SAT’s… </p>
<p>What’s wrong with not taking the exam if you didn’t take the course? Recall that each exam is $86… it is an even bigger burder for internationals. Even if that did matter, I doubt the admissions people will notice- they don’t spend hrs scrutinizing your application =P</p>
<p>oh, and to answer the OP, my original opinion is that 4 is a great score and it’s more likely to help you in admissions</p>
<p>After thinking about it (more than I should XD), I’ve decided that at the best colleges, 4’s certainly do not hurt you and show that you have worked hard in high school. However, if you have a 5, they cannot assume where in the curve you lie, and therefore you could be very talented in this subject (ie top 1-3% in the country). This ambiguity/positive assumption makes 5s a very nice thing to have :), whereas with 4s, it is apparent that while you are good at the subject, 10-15% of the test taking population was better than you (and since most of these colleges only want the top 10%…). So, a 4 certainly does not hurt you and shows that you’ve put effort into your high school academics, but 5s are a benefit to your application & 4s really aren’t (on their own, but they do boost your academic rigour score I assume).</p>
<p>lol sorry that was horribley worded/structured, hopefully you understand what I was trying to say XD I’m really tired</p>
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<p>it does matter, because everyone takes the SAT/ACT. everyone has taken the SAT/ACT for decades. (well not everybody, just college-bound students) there are schools out there that refuse to offer AP courses. some schools only offer dual enrollment programs - that’s not AP. </p>
<p>sure you can self study, but why should that be *necessary *to be accepted? that makes no sense.</p>
<p>so no i think you’re completely wrong. it’s only fair that the APs aren’t heavily weighted in admissions.</p>
<p>I didn’t say it should be necessary (as in mandatory), but I think they should still be given equal weight, if not more weight, if AP scores are present in an application. So if Applicant A got a 5 in AP Calculus BC but only got a 720 in SAT Math I but Applicant B got a 4 in AP Calculus BC but an 800 in SAT Math I, Applicant A should be viewed as stronger in Math than Applicant B because of the AP score.</p>
<p>Oh, and USNAgolden2014, I agree with you that 4’s may not be able to help you in applications to top US schools, but that’s only if you’re not taking that many exams. </p>
<p>If you took 5+ AP exams and got 4’s on all of them, the 4’s will probably help you more than they will hurt you. If you think about it, it’s a lot harder to get 4’s on 5 exams than 5’s on 3 exams.</p>