<p>Does it matter if you take the AP test associated with a class? How much will it affect admissions? Let's say I take 9-10 APs but don't do so great on a lot of the tests. Will it hurt my admissions badly? Do different colleges have different rules on this?</p>
<p>Sorry if these seem like dumb questions guys, but can someone answer them?</p>
<p>First off, self-studying APs is not a bad thing. Just make sure that important AP classes are taken(Chem, Bio, Physics) as a class, but smaller ones(Enviro, Psych, Micro/Macro) are fine self-studied.
It also depends on your major. If you want to major in business, you want to take Micro/Macro. If your doing Engineering major but Business minor, self-studied Micro/Macro would be fine. </p>
<p>Not doing well on APs does hurt you, because colleges do see your AP Scores. You should want to get 4s and 5s if you take 9-10 APs, otherwise colleges will think you just took many APs to show you were smart, but your scores didn’t show it. </p>
<p>The ‘worse’(for lack of a better word) the college, the less it’ll matter. Ivies want to see more APs by junior year than 3rd tier colleges do. In fact, 3rd tier colleges would be impressed that you took that many.</p>
<p>The tippy-top schools will want to see that you not only took the class but did well on the exams (4s and 5s), whereas some schools couldn’t care less what you got on your exams. Generally, these are bigger state schools where decisions are made largely regarding GPA and SATs.</p>
<p>Ahh, I’m not trying for any ivies except Cornell. Would schools like NYU, Emory, Carnegie Mellon, etc. care?</p>
<p>All selective schools care. If you take on the “very most” rigorous program at your high school, with lots of AP classes, and your GC notes that this is the case, how you do on these courses matter. It says a lot about your approach to your high school education. So if several of your AP exam grades are 3s, and if there’s an occasional 2, it puts into question whether you’ve taken the right courses, and indeed what you’ve really learned in those classes. Skipping the AP tests altogether creates similar doubt – the notion is that you should embrace these tests to measure your knowledge.</p>
<p>The notion that self studying for the soft AP courses and taking the exam so as to provide an additional number for the admission committee is often misguided. Of course, there are times where this self study (or a class at a local college) is the only way to prepare for another (in school) course, as for example AP Physics C, where knowing the content of AP Calculus BC is a big help. But often this is not the case.</p>
<p>Ah god dang it.</p>