<p>I have been a great student overall, im a junior right now with an uw gpa of 3.8 and a 27 first try on the act. I havent taken any ap's so far, but i am expecting to take 2 senior year.
How does this affect me? I was thinking about Univeristy of Illinois or uw-madison or purdue.Do you think i still have a shot???</p>
<p>It depends on how many AP classes your school offer and how other students in your school taking AP classes. The number of AP (and honor) classes would indicate how rigorous your course load is which may be used as a reference for your GPA and your effort in taking challenging courses. If you did not take any due to the availability at your school, the admission office would not hold you accountable on taking easier courses.</p>
<p>I only took 1 AP. I hope that is sufficient. All other were honors.</p>
<p>Only 1 AP? Get ready for community college. </p>
<p>jk. Yes, you still have a great shot.</p>
<p>I wondered the same thing about the importance of AP scores. In our case, I am wondering if it is more important for homeschoolers. I have already posted this question on the homeschool thread, but thought it might be appropriate here as well. My son who is an 11th grade homeschooler has taken 4 so far and scored a 4 and three 5’s. This year he is taking 4 additional AP courses in hopes of doing well enough to earn National AP Scholar and have that to put on his applications for colleges and scholarships. That being said, AP World History is tested the same day and time as his AP Macro. Yes, I realize I should have checked that before now, but it’s too late:( Chalk this up to a lesson well learned! We haven’t been able to find a school to offer the alternate test date for conflicts such as these so we were thinking of just not taking the AP World exam (He already took APUSH). Will this hurt him or does it not really matter as far as admissions and scholarships?</p>
<p>My question are more along the line of:
Do AP scores really matter?
How do you submit them to the schools?</p>
<p>CollegeBoard has the send scores capability for a fee($15) if the student has not bubbled a school code when he or she took the AP.</p>
<p>This is not part of the admission requirements based on the schools I checked. </p>
<p>Any best practice advice?</p>
<p>AP scores are self-reported (at most schools, someone will report an exception, I’m sure). You only officially submit them to the school you actually attend. </p>
<p>Because they are self-reported, there is always the possibility students are lying about them, so I really doubt they make all that much of a difference in admissions at most schools. (Yes, you would have to slip them by the GC as well, but some of them are ethically challenged as well. Or just don’t pay attention.) Lying about them could have consequences, but perhaps the less ethical among us think they could get away with it, by never officially reporting.</p>
<p>Bottom line advice - Report the good ones, 3 or above for most schools, 4 or above for some. They can’t hurt and may be a minor plus that may tip the scale.</p>
<p>I don’t think students would lie on CommonApp because it is self report. If one is accepted, he/she need to submit the official report at the end. If there is anything do not match up, one would need to explain the discrepancy.</p>
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<p>Actually I am not aware of a “requirement” to submit official AP scores to the college to which you decide to attend. You have to proactively do that. The scores matter in terms of possibly getting credit and/or meeting prerequisites. For the most selective colleges only "5"s will count for credit/prerequisites purposes. College Board provides a table (by University and Course) regarding minimum scores.</p>
<p>So returning to the original question, I doubt that admissions expects to see the grades (self reported or otherwise), and that if reported I doubt that they influence admissions decisions.</p>
<p>There are schools that use AP score for admission purpose and they will request the official score.
By the way, if someone lies about AP score anyway, why would he/she put anything less than 5.</p>
<p>so say I have not taken any ap classes, do I still have a shot at lets say uw-madison? or any other top 50 schools</p>
<p>The question was answered pretty well a little upstream. If your school offers many AP and honors classes and you chose to take one, that will look as if you didn’t take a rigorous course load. That will negatively affect your app at top schools. If however, your HS only offers a few AP’s then you’ll be ok. The number one point stressed at every college visit we attended was COURSE RIGOR. It was mentioned before GPA,class rank, test scores, EC’s, LOR’s…</p>
<p>Your chances of getting into UW-Madison with no APs will definitely be affected by whether or not you are an in-state applicant. I would guess few out-of-state applicants with no APs get in, regardless of whether or not their HS offers them. There are just too many applicants with APs and too few slots. In-state is a different matter, but it probably depends on what your HS offers.</p>
<p>Bigdaddy88- how many would you say is “many aps” and will it do me better if I take many aps senior year? Or is it too late for colleges to see my aps</p>
<p>Again. This is subjective. For argument sake lets say your school offers 10 ap’s and you take one. That’s pretty clear evidence that you did not avail yourself of the most rigorous courses at your school.</p>
<p>Yes, definetly take ap’s as a senior. Most schools look at your senior courses and many want midterm grades from senior year.</p>
<p>OP, you said you plan on taking two senior year. If you could up it to three, I think you’d be doing fine for all but the Top 20 or so schools. If you can take AP Calc, definitely do that, otherwise take one AP each in Comm Arts, Social Studies, and Science. I’d suggest AP Lang, AP Gov or USH, and AP Bio as a good trio. If you can do AP Calc, I’m not sure what I’d recommend you not take, but definitely include AP Lang.</p>