<p>I would say they’re more for just college credit after the fact, but getting a couple 3s won’t necessarily kill your chances if you did well in the classes. </p>
<p>AP scores are self-reported and not verified until/unless the student turns in a score report - and I think that only happens after the student enrolls.<br>
So my guess is the admissions will look mostly at coursework and grades and not factor in AP scores since they could be “puffed” a bit just like ECs.</p>
<p>However that brings me to a great comment made above by @awcntdb who said about his kids’ successful college apps:</p>
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<p>How refreshing!!! - I love hearing about kids who march to their own drummer rather than try to figure out what they think some “dream” college “wants to see”. </p>
<p>While my kids aren’t at Ivies or top 10s - they were admitted to an amazing array of top 50 schools that let’s face it: many kids don’t get into! Mine had decent GPAs and test scores but in each case I believe what gave them an edge with selective schools was that in both S and Ds cases their authenticity came through as with awcntdb’s kids and that’s what helps them stand out from a crowd of students who all have similar GPAs/ACTs/SATs/etc.</p>
<p>I am an admitted senior to ivy leagues and top 10 schools and I wanted to present a different view of AP exams.</p>
<p>I think that AP exams certainly help with college admissions though not always in the typical manner. I come from a non-competitive school and I took AP classes because they were challenging and I wasn’t spending my time during regurgitation-based review work sheets. In my opinion, AP classes are valuable if the student is interested in and learn the material. My school only offers APs in humanities (every single AP science is gone now) and since I do enjoy humanities and science, I enjoyed taking AP US Gov/ Macro/ Art History for electives. </p>
<p>So how can APs help? If you actually learn the material, APs give you a lot of information that can be useful. I have learned so much from reading the psychology textbook that I use psychology and biology information in a lot of essays I write. </p>
<p>Especially if you are interested in science, AP Chemistry/Physics/Biology give you absolutely the NECESSARY background for doing research and unless you attend a governor’s school or the like, APs are the only classes that will give you the knowledge for you to do research as a high school student and research (if you truly enjoy it and devote time to it) will get you into a good school. </p>
<p>Once again, the key is to enjoy what you are doing and understand that while a 5 at the end of the AP is good, what matters is what you learn and how you use what you learn. I enjoy taking APs so I took a total of 12 (a total of 10 excluding senior year since I am doing IBs this year) with mostly 5s and quite a few 4s. Other than the required APs for my program, I have enjoyed all of the APs I took. </p>
<p>@SleepingAway - Thank you for your point-of-view. </p>
<p>You clearly took the AP courses for the right reasons, as you stated in your final paragraph - you enjoyed what you were doing.</p>
<p>Taking the courses for the challenging material is the definite way to go and the key is to take courses that you like in general, which you did. Good luck at you school of choice.</p>
<p>@jym626 - Please excuse the delayed response. I understand your approach and your high school’s rules. The way we looked at things was our kids were going to high school to get to college, not to satisfy the high school. So, if colleges and universities said something was not required, then we often not do it even if the high school was and spent the time doing something unique.</p>