That’s actually a very interesting conversation and what I also touched on earlier in this thread, in the “is a 4.0 a 4.0” thread they discuss what exactly a good GPA is and how much it’ll help in a sense. Grade inflation is a HUGE thing in high school, especially nowadays where highschools are competing with eachother on to send the most students to the highest ranking schools. What happens is, colleges accept 4.0 GPA kids thinking they’re ready and they aren’t. Whether it be because the teachers are handing out As to their favorites or what, it’s getting harder to differentiate between 4.0s. Even with APs because all classes are different and not everyone takes the AP tests, no one knows the quality. With yet another test gone, it’s even harder to know the quality of education a student has. That’s why people speculate that T20s will be leaning on their feeder schools more than ever this year, because they know the quality of education that is being given at those schools and how it translates to the college classroom.
Exactly! This is what “holistic” review means!
Agree! I also think that If someone had applied test optional, AP scores or SAT Subject scores (if any) would be really helpful for admission officers. Especially since AP was online this year and most people had an assess to it. So, applying test optional but with couple of 4s or 5s on AP exams could be really helpful!
is sending 3s on AP tests a bad choice?
I feel like colleges will be grateful for any measure of our education at this point, so probably not… but will colleges even get them for TO people? I know on the Common app all standardized tests are grouped together so if someone were to apply TO would their AP scores even be visible?
yes AP scores are still visible for TO candidates.
i see your point about relying on feeder schools although i really hope this is not the case. i definitely think schools love standardized tests because of the ability for them to compare a diverse set of applicants, and in the absence of standardized tests, doing so is more difficult. i refrain from being too specific here because i don’t want to induce any sort of speculation or make anyone feel as though their chances are lesser. all we can really do is wait and see what happens in 7 hours. i’m sure eventually, probably in march or april of 2021, schools may release more info about what test optional meant this past year and what it might mean going forward. only then, will we know
There was an article that came out a few days ago where the Guttentag wrote that Duke TO students will not be as a disadvantage and strongly disagreed with those who said TO leads to an disadvantage.
I saw you on the Tulane blog yesterday. We were both deferred probably because Tulane knew we ED’d somewhere else. It doesn’t matter, because this is the big day! Good luck 
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Good luck to you too!
I don’t think my high school is highly ranked but I’ve taken 9 APs, and 12 Honors courses. I got 5s on 3 exams and one four but Duke won’t have those scores bc I applied TO
if they were on your common app, then they see them even if you applied TO
I think he meant it, the way he describes making the acceptances representative of the pool leads me to believe that the TO peeps are viewed separately from the non-TOs so they aren’t competing with each other and being TO wouldn’t be a direct disadvantage
so would TO’s be competitng against TO’s then?
Wouldn’t you have put AP Scholar w/ Honor in your awards section so they get the gist?
That’s what it sounds like to me, idk though. It makes the most sense in my head
yeah that would make sense, thanks for clarifying it!! good luck:)
You too!!!
This is a hard question. Since Duke does not give any credit for a 3, I will say yes, it is a bad choice (Duke sees 3 as not a good enough score). I think this could be a disadvantage, especially if you had an A in this class and then received a 3. If you are not from a feeder school, this can make admission officers woulder if AP classes in your school are challenging and if you tried your best studying for the exam. However, this year, it will show that you at least tried and somewhat “passed.” (This is just my guess, so I could be totally wrong)
yeah i see what you are saying. i submitted two 5s and two 3s, but personally i think duke acknowledges the extreme changes with AP testing this past year and will take these scores with a grain of salt