<p>I read in a Collegeboard AP manual that top colleges like Harvard..Yale would like good AP scores (5's and 4's) and like to have students challenge themselves in school but surprisingly, frown upon students who take too many because an emphasis on APs often creates an imbalance in a student's extracurricular and family activities.</p>
<p>I was kidding, guys. The kids here can't think for themselves, but are smart as hell. Weird combo.</p>
<p>So ok, heres the situation: i took 8 exams this past year, but took only one ap class (calc bc ... got a 3), so i self-studied 7 of them, and actually did pretty good according to my standards (two 3s, three 4s and three 5s). Will this actually LOWER my chances?</p>
<p>passing rarely lowers ur chances</p>
<p>so is the general consenus that " colleges hate kids who self study ap tests and do well on it?" - its pretty hard to go back in time and fix my mistake</p>
<p>I would say that the consensus is that colleges frown on excessive APs. A few self-studied APs with good scores can look good. In my opinion though, colleges would probably prefer fewer tests with scores of 5 than tons of tests including self-studied ones with 3s. Quality is better than quantity.</p>
<p>Well it depends. You guys are all speaking in absolutes. If you take a bunch of APs with 3s ( or 5s) and still manage to have multiple extracurriculars that you excel at, I think that any college worth anything would look upon that highly. </p>
<p>However, a kid who who self-studys APs and gets 5s or even 3s and does nothing else is another story.</p>
<p>It's all about balancing. School is important...but so is having fun in ecs. Moderation is the key.</p>
<p>The thing is though, don't take a test unless you actually think that you're going to do well. Otherwise, why take it?</p>