How to submit AP scores?

So I’m a rising junior and I’m wondering how do we submit AP scores to colleges? Do we submit them after college admissions or with the college admissions? I heard from some people that we should submit the scores after admissions since you don’t know if you’re admitted yet so it’d be consider a waste of time to submit them? I plan on applying to the Ivies, so I want to have this all cleared up. Thank you.

And I also want to know how much do AP scores matter? I do have a solid GPA and a fairly involved List of EC. I took 2 aps my sophomore year and I did fairly good but I’m afraid I won’t do as good next year since I’ll be taking more. So I was wondering should I withhold those scores from colleges if I happen to do poorly? I plan on only reporting 4’s and 5’s.

You do not have to submit AP scores to any college until you are accepted and have decided on which college to attend. You will fill out the AP score sheet with the college you will eventually matriculate to and they will be automatically sent at the end of your Senior year.

For Top schools, AP scores can matter, but how much is anyone’s guess??? You can self-report some, none or all AP scores so if you want so reporting only 4 and 5’s is fine. Schools are more interested in the grades you get in the AP courses vs. AP test scores.

All AP scores will be sent at the end of Senior year (after you received your acceptance) so it will not matter if you have any low scores once you have matriculated. You will just not be given AP credit for the lower scores based on each schools AP credit policy.

@Gumbymom thank you! I was just worried.Will colleges take away your acceptance if they saw that your AP scores were low? I mean it’s fine if I don’t get the AP credit, but would it affect my admissions? Would reporting my scores during the admission be better than not reporting (meaning I’ll report it after my acceptance)??

No they will not rescind for low AP scores unless you lied about them when you self-reported on your application.

Rule of thumb for top/elite schools is to report 4’s and 5’s. Up to you if you want to report some or none, but some schools may question why you are not reporting your scores (do you have something to hide like really low scores?)

@Gumbymom I haven’t received very low scores YET. But I think I will in my junior year since I will be very busy, so I just want to plan ahead. I think I will report my AP scores to the colleges after my acceptance and only report 5 and 4. And I have a question, what do you mean by self-reported scores on applications? Do you need to do that?

The common application along with other school applications will allow you to report your AP scores without sending the final AP score report (meaning self-report). You can choose to report them or not.

@Gumbymom ohhhh I get it now. So would it be better if I report them or should I wait until acceptance? Because I heard from my friends that I should report it along with my application since college admissioners would assume you if bad? But since you can report it after acceptance, I was just likeeeee lol

Again, it is up to you. Many posters have stated they reported no scores and got an acceptance and many other posters stated they reported their scores. It really depends upon which schools you are targeting. Both my son’s reported their scores to all schools they applied, but also had only 4’s and 5’s to report prior to Senior year.

You cannot predict how admissions will perceive your omission. Report any 4’s and 5’s and you should be fine.

@Gumbymom yeah. I think I might be applying for Ivies (prob going to get rejection but going to try anyway XD) but thank you! I very appreciate your feedback! :))))))

If you are admitted in EA/ED, you may choose to send free AP score report to that school with your senior year AP exam registration and save that $15. You only need to submit the score report to the school you matriculated.

@billcsho yeah I’ll be applying EA for some. I just wasn’t sure if we needed to submit ap scores to colleges when we apply