How will a bad AP score affect my college admissions?

Just got my AP Stat exam score back, and it is a 2. I realize this is a pretty bad score, so I was wondering how much of an effect it’ll have on my chances of getting into a more selective college, like Duke or Cornell? I’ve taken five AP tests in total, and have gotten a 3, 4, and two 5s on the others, and will probably self-report all the scores (including the 2) so it doesn’t look like I’m trying to hide anything from the admission officers. Would it be better to not include the 2? Or if I do include, will it stop me from getting admitted to those schools?

In the case of 1s and 2s, I would say don’t report it, assuming you didn’t bubble in any college choices while taking the exam.

@ProfessorPlum168 I’m not sure how this works…is there any benefit of bubbling in college choices while taking the exam?

Yes there is - whichever ones you bubble in would get all of your AP scores. No need to send it in separately and pay extra costs.

Graduating seniors may know which college they will attend, so using the included score send to that college means not having to pay to send it (and in that case, the score will be used for determining advanced placement, rather than admission).

We don’t know the other AP courses (with scores,) your major or more. So we can’t advise on what to report.

In general, when we say not reporting can be suspicious, it refers to the courses related to the possible major and certain other cores. You could not report stats and likely have no issue. But give us more detail, including what the 3 is for and major. Youmay also want to thrown in your GPA and maybe ECs.

@lookingforward For the other AP scores, it was a 3 for chemistry, 4 for world history, and 5s for lang and apush. I’m not sure about my major yet, but it’ll likely not be mathematics-based (which hopefully means the 2 for stats won’t matter as much). I did finish with a 95 in stat, but the 2 definitely makes me nervous about how that’ll be received by admission officers. As for my GPA, it is a 3.9 unweighted and 4.5 weighted, which is nearly all As and one B, but I only rank in the top 11% of my class. I got a 1420 on the SAT and 31 on the ACT (though I will be retaking those since I didn’t study very extensively the first time).

My ECs include president of a language tutoring club (I also have a separate tutoring business), vice president of DECA (state finalist as well), vice president/treasurer of my school’s leaders club, social media director of a charity club that raises money to donate to elementary schools, and one of the founders of the hunger relief club at my school. I also volunteer at the local hospital and summer camps, so I have over 400 service hours (though is that something that is included on applications?) I’m pretty confident I’ll be able to write a good essay, but based on numbers alone do you think it would be possible for me to be accepted at a selective college like Duke? And does this 2 drag my application down enough that I should omit it?

Also to clarify, I am a rising senior so my GPA and scores are mostly from my junior year, which I’ve heard is the most heavily considered in admissions.

Sometimes, life comes at us in snapshots, while we wait for a fuller picture to fom. This is where you need to take a breath, sit back, and think. If you want a math-based major/stem, you do need strenghts in all the stem topics.

It’s often better to research some admit data efore setting one’s heart on certain highly competitive colleges. You look at the mid-50th percentile on, eg, scores. Unfortunately, Duke’s is 1490-1560. Cornell’s is 1390-1540. In general, you want to be at or above that 75th number. Yes, you might bring it up. Or try the ACT. If you can, I think your shot is better, with regard to the stats score (and physics.) You might be able to not report the stats score, not worry about it. Maybe not physics, either.

Of course, we’re just talking scores now. There’s a lot more they’ll consider in their holistic reviews. If you can learn more now about what any of your targets values and looks for, you’ll have a better idea how to present, in many respects, how to self assess.

Best to you.

@Senior374
Do not report 1,2,3’s. Leave them off. It will hurt you if you report those to such selective schools.