Importance of APs?

Applying to College
1

<p>Greetings all,</p>

<p>I'm an expat studying as as a senior in an American school in Indonesia. The school is attend is a fairly small missionary school—with about 120 students. I started attending the school in seventh grade and hence my entire high school, too, has been done here. I, like many others, desire to attend one of the top schools—that are, some Ivy leagues, Stanford, Cal, and UMich. </p>

<p>As mentioned before, my school is a diminutive one and effectively a missionary feeder. My school does NOT offer any AP courses; it does, however, offer a few "honors" courses. Nobody here, at my school, aims high for college, and we weren't even told about the SATs till our junior year. I've always enjoyed learning, so I took the most rigorous courses our school had to offer. Just to clarify, these are NOT AP courses. I, mostly out of naivete and egotism, took higher grade level courses starting ninth grade—in all honesty, I didn't do this for college applications at the time. </p>

<p>I took 10th grade biology and 11th grade chemistry in my freshmen year; 12 grade physics, psychology, and US History in sophomore year; Advanced Literature (Honors), Calculus (Honors) in junior year. In addition, these courses are made freakishly hard because they are the highest our school offers, so I sustained a reasonable GPA for these higher grade level courses as well. </p>

<p>My GPA now: 3.73. Including this semester: 3.78</p>

<p>On the topic of GPA, I've taken a really hard blow in ninth and tenth grade Bible. Bible, our school being a Christian one, is obligatory and I performed poorly on it—I don't subscribe to the Christian doctrine, nor do I come from a Judeo-Christian society. If I factor ninth and tenth grade Bible out, my cumulative GPA, including this semester's, jumps up to a 3.84.</p>

<p>My SAT scores read as follows: CR-590; Maths-790; CW-680
SAT II scores: Maths II-780; USH-740</p>

<p>Yes, they are not all that impressive and I've only started taking the SAT very recently; to add, my SAT preparation was severely limited: good night sleep before the test day and sharpened pencils. I have decided to retake the SATs in December and January. </p>

<p>Are AP (the lack thereof) going to play a major role in my application? Does the fact that I attend a small school taken into consideration when looking at my transcript—I have taken all the hard courses my school has to offer? How much will the SATs contribute to my chances of being accepted by one of the top schools? </p>

<p>In case you guys are curious, I'm planning to study Mathematics. As of now, I'm taking a course (specifically made for me) called Advanced Maths, which incorporates various maths curricula: statistics, multivariable calculus, and differential equations. I might start linear algebra in second, but that's not a surety yet. </p>

<p>Sorry for the long post, but I felt that contextualizing my questions will help you—the readers—to better understand my situation. </p>

<p>Thanks,</p>

2

<p>If it is an option, you could try to take the ACT. It requires less specific test preparation but rather tests how much you know, and the science part may appeal to your math inclination. It’s basically reading tables and logical thinking. The writing is also more straightforward.
If your school does not offer AP, then admissions won’t count this against you. However, have you thought about self-studying for some AP tests (maybe Calculus?).
Also, many colleges will remove the bible class grades anyways.</p>

3

<p>Thanks for the suggestion. I have considered the ACT, but they don’t have a testing center around my place. </p>

<p>Regarding the APs, yes, one of my teachers signed me up for AP courses; however, I didn’t have any AP specific prep whatsoever. I scored as follows: </p>

<p>USH - 3
Literature - 4
BC - 5
AB (Subscore) - 5</p>

<p>This year, with some AP-specific prep, I will surely take Macro and Microeconomics and statistics.</p>

4

<p>Schools say that they want you to take the most challenging courses available at your school. If APs aren’t offered, they won’t hold it against you. </p>

<p>I agree with the prior poster – you should consider the ACT. Otherwise, if you are thinking of highly competitive schools, your SAT-CR is rather low.</p>

5

<p>They take into account what your school offers so it won’t hurt you at all, they just want you to take the best classes your school offers. But your sats and grades are very low for HYPS and the other ivies</p>

6

<p>Yes, I do realize that my CR is the biggest hindrance. I am retaking the SAT Reasoning Test again on December 3. It would be helpful if you can tell me what’s a reasonable score for which I should aim—even more so in regard to CR and CW. </p>

<p>I was quite surprised by my CR reading score given that English is my first language and my performance in English courses is quite respectable. I see writing to be a strength of mine, but it was a disappointment to see a paltry nine of the SAT essay.</p>

7

<p>Do these schools expect 3.9+ GPAs (unweighted) from their applicants? And what about SAT scores? I looked at the IQR (mid 50%) range of some of these schools, and my Maths and CW fell in that range. Moreover, I’m repeating the SAT this weekend and expecting a better score. I’ll also have another go at the SAT Subject tests in January. </p>

<p>I’m not too hung up about Ivies, to be honest. I want to attend prestigious school, but that’s not the end of the world for me. </p>

<p>Thanks for your feedback though. I’m open to any suggestions / comments.</p>

8

<p>For SATs </p>

<p>600 is a good score – roughly 20% of the students score above this on any test.
650 - is an excellent score and will be the average for many prestigious schools.
700 is an average score for many of the “top 15-20” schools. (Roughly 5% of students score above this on any test).
Over 700 on ALL sections (and to be honest 750 would be better) for HYPSM.</p>

<p>Scores enough are not alone – for example, Northwestern (#12 in USNWR) reported that it rejected several thousand students who had averaged 750 or more, even though 750 is clearly higher than the average for this institution.</p>

<p>GPA – Say 3.5 for a good school; 3.75 (or higher) for the Top 15 or 20 schools plus a predominence of honors and AP courses. HYPSM – Probably close to 3.9-4.0 in most cases again with a predominence of honors and AP.</p>

9

<p>Hey, thanks for your thorough answer.</p>

<p>So, basically I need 700+ at least to stand a realistic chance in good universities—including and especially Cal and UMich? </p>

<p>I have friends and acquaintances at Stanford; most of them made the cut with 2100-ish scores. As far as I’ve heard, Stanford is slightly non-traditional in the importance it places on standardized tests.</p>

<p>I suppose good essays can also help the application, right? </p>

<p>And would you please address the importance of teacher recommendations.</p>