<p>^are you kidding me? high AIME score shows mathematical ability. All the subjects I listed are generally trivial for people who are good at math. AIME is many times harder than the AP BC exam.</p>
<p>"National AP Scholar shows depth and breadth in terms of AP Education, and will qualify you for some prestigious scholarships (i.e Siemens AP award)."</p>
<p>Uh...ok, you certainly don't know what you're talking about. Getting National AP Scholar has nothing to do with getting the Siemens AP Award. And honestly, like what I said before, Siemens AP Award isn't all that hard to get for people who are good at math. Most of the time it just depends on how your schedule works out and which year you decide to take a certain AP. Someone from my school beat me for the siemens ap award because he took ap stats sophmore year and I decided to take orchestra instead.</p>
<p>i think the fuss about nat ap scholar is just because people get hyped up about it. im not sure that it would ever have much significance unless submitted on a college ap, maybe in some later ap if you were trying to show yourself as 'advanced'.
I can tell you that when i saw the list of AP awards, i decided i would work towards the Nat AP scholar. I was already planning to be on track to get it, so why not set my sights on it. if nothing else, its something to work towards - a motivator - even if it has little significance.<br>
besides being a motivator, and a piece of paper/achievement, i could only see it being used for an ego/boasting purpose. which, of course, a lot of ultra-high achievers have.</p>
<p>it can be used as an academic gauge, also. a school that pumps out many nat. ap scholars, obviously, can't be a terrible school. never graduating an AP scholar with honor might be a red flag. like the guy said above, also, it can show that whatever individuals achieve the award have reached a pretty advanced state while in high school, and have studied a good bit of subject areas at the college level. I dont think you could earn Nat AP scholar without being ready to take on college.</p>
<p>but ANYWAY.... my old question:</p>
<p>anyone know how many juniors get scholar with distinction??</p>
<p>scroll to the bottom to "AP Scholar Data" or something and it lists each state by number of each kind of scholar, and the grade level of the student when they take their latest exams.</p>
<p>So from my super late night calcs, in 2007, 717 people who explicitly said that they were 10th or 11th graders were National Scholars. So, that total doesnt include people 9-11 who did not report their grade level.</p>
<p>Not many for sure. But then again I think it could work to your disadvantage. I know a girl who received 5's on all the AP tests she took and received National AP Scholar and she got rejected for early admissions to the Ivies. She had great EC's and was successful at everything she did. Another girl who only took 4 AP's got accepted into Harvard, however.</p>
<p>I got a 3 on my APEC exam and am thinking of retaking it to get the National AP Scholar Award...that of course, will need much effort such as restudying the 18 chapters and also paying another whooping $92...is it worth it?</p>
<p>A 3 on APEC is completely fine for UCs I saw...so basically, the only reason for doing this would be to get that award...</p>
<p>Why is National AP Scholar so "unimpressive?" And why should anyone's actions and decisions in high school be completely oriented to impressive "adcoms??" I think Nat AP Scholar is awesome because it gives you something to actually work for and learn the material for the exams instead of BSing everything. I'm working towards it because it will definitely give me a sense of accomplishment, regardless of what colleges think. I mean, learning is fun and the AP program is pretty awesome seeing as you can take such a wide variety of classes and learn so much in them. The AP classes I've taken/taking are: European History, Art History, Chemistry, Calculus BC, English Lang, Spanish Lang, Psychology, and US History. I have enjoyed EVERY single one of these classes and it just gives me a sense of achievement to know that I can actually get a 4 or 5 on the national exam...you guys shouldn't base everything you do on college admissions..it's actually only a very small part of your whole life...</p>
<p>there were only 4 in 2008 in SC. My D just got after senior year (in VA) and is attending USC (yes, South Carolina). She starts with over 70 hours! </p>
<p>Hope you are considering the Carolina Scholars Program at USC- it is awesome.</p>
<p>The 2008 stats is listed below, these awards don’t carry much weight anymore due to the LOW standard. No one with average <4 should be considered any awards. For Distinction or National, anything less than perfect score should not be considered. On top of that, National Scholar should have >=10 APs, and Distinction should have >=8 APs.</p>
<p>AP awards are by all means still impressive. Considering the self-selective nature of taking AP exams, it’s not that easy getting one of those awards. Honestly, one could easily kill 500+ hours going for AP honours, so the time spent would be way more than the time spent on any one EC. And AP’s are something that not everyone can handle; it’s sort of like how not everyone be a athlete. </p>
<p>I see AP awards as a bonus/motivator, not something for admissions/resumes/scholarships, and not something I’ll toil through years studying for. Learning is supposed to be fun, not something to dread about. For example, it’s not worth it to practice piano thousands of hours just because you want to be a famous pianist for the prestige, but if you like playing piano anyways, then I don’t see anything wrong with that. </p>
<p>As for whether self-studies should replace EC’s/ recs (btw, I don’t see how self-studies could be detrimental to recs, unless your teacher is a super duper hard marker and it’ll make him/her look bad if you self-study for an AP and get a good mark when you’re getting low marks in his/her class), I personally believe in doing whichever you like. If you like learning stuff, then by all means, go self-study the AP’s. However, I don’t think you should be doing a bunch of EC’s instead of studying for those AP’s (which you actually like to do) because that’s just totally illogical. There’s more to life than getting into a top college. </p>
<p>Honestly, I haven’t even heard about AP’s until I was in Grade 10 (though I’m Canadian). ???!!! Doesn’t that give me a huge disadvantage? And I know a lot of other smart Gr. 12’s (not to mention university people) who still don’t even know what AP’s are until I started a conversation with them. But they’re still smart, right? </p>
<p>I think it would be interesting if CB introduces awards that are not cumulative, like a special distinction awarded to people who takes x number of AP’s all in one year.</p>
<p>um, getting National AP scholar as a junior is a big deal.</p>
<p>there just aren’t that many people who get it by then.</p>
<p>yes, there are schools which don’t let students take APs until a certain point or limit the number of APs. But students from those schools are viewed in that context. If their school offers them only a few APs and they only take those few APs, they’re pursuing the most rigourous courseload they can. If you’re in a school that offers dozens of APs and only take a few, you’re going to look a lot less favourable than a student in the previous example</p>
<p>Yes, I officially got the award(national ap scholar) from college board. I am one of the 11 students in South Carolina who got national ap scholar by the end of junior year in 2009. I hope, it has some value.</p>
<p>Hmm…Only 11 students got National AP Scholar in South Carolina? I’m one of 7 students at my SC school that got National AP Scholar at the end of our junior years. Hmm…</p>