<p>Hi, I'm a student in Korea(South), planning to apply for American colleges next year.<br>
What I want to ask is how important AP exams are when colleges decide which students to accept.
In my country, there are only a few schools that offer AP exams(my school doesn't), and I heard from college board that most of these schools only administer AP exams for their own enrolled students. I need to contact college board and see if there's any locations that offer AP exams to students from other schools, but I'm afraid there won't be many.
If I end up not being able to take any AP exams(or only a few), would it affect my chance of getting accepted in a college significantly? Would colleges consider at all the fact that few schools offer AP exams in my country?
I know it's probably a difficult question to answer because I'm not attending a high school in America, but please let me know what you think. It will be a lot of help! Thank you in advance!!</p>
<p>Nope.</p>
<p>AP classes are simply the most rigorous in the United States, and they culminate with a collegeboard sponsored exam.</p>
<p>IB classes are also prestigious, and culminate with candidacy for an IB diploma.</p>
<p>The only reason why AP scores look good (they are all self-reported, by the way, nothing official) is because it shows you took a difficult class and followed it through. If your school doesn’t offer AP classes, then I would just take SAT II’s.</p>
<p>My understanding of AP exam scores is that they are the “icing on the cake”, as I had one friend’s mom who is a college applications person. Of course, its not too selective a college. But your application will interest most colleges because you are south korean, and therefore a minority.</p>
<p>Circular, if this applicant wants to apply to a top university, being South Korean is definitely not a minority unless the OP is from a rural part of South Korea.</p>
<p>OP, AP exams are important and as other have said, they are “icing on the cake” yet it does demonstrate that you are willing to take on challenges to further your education. It might even look nicer if you took the tests (provided that you end up finding a test center and are financially able) since it you’ll be self-studying it. </p>
<p>What city do you live in? There are kids from Korean publics that self-study AP tests and take them at the school I go to.
As for your question, of course colleges will understand your situation.</p>
<p>As HYPhoper said, if you can’t find a testing centre I would recommend you taking SAT II’s. Although I think some colleges don’t allow you to report more than three scores (is this true?).</p>
<p>I’m a junior, so pardon me if I dont know everything about colleges. South korean sounds like it would be a minority to me.</p>
<p>Now if you were from North Korea, that’d be a trick.</p>
<p>No, Korean is not a minority when applying to colleges like HYP- just like Chinese isn’t. </p>
<p>Haha, HIGHreacNoob 
That would be a definite in if you were from North Korea 
Unless you were a top secret spy sent to kill all the important people who visited HYP while you were there :)</p>
<p>If you want to take the AP exams, now’s the time to write to CB and ask them where you can take the subjects you want. Try to write in before the end of January.</p>