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<p>All the “proof” I know are anecdotal, although when I was applying to colleges the Yale recruiter I was speaking to said self-studying APs is a big plus. I can ask the MIT adcoms for you, since I blog for them.</p>
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<p>What I’m trying to emphasize is that although it’s great that you can get Indep. Study credit for it at school, it’s not the case for most students. My school had a really strict 6 academic class cap per semester, and you’re not allowed to go over. In this case, should I be limited in what I self-study? Should I sacrifice taking a regular course at school to self-study some AP as Indep. Study? I think self-studying APs is the best way to be able to break out of the traditional academic boundaries that your school has (because of the curriculum, because of the resources available…etc.) and show your true academic potential.</p>
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<p>I think you’re being too cynical. My question again still stands: if they don’t trust you on the self-studied AP scores, then why would adcoms trust any part of your application at all? Why would they not require photocopies for your awards? Why would they not require written proof from the school principal/administration that you actually did all the things on your ECs?</p>
<p>Of course they would have to request an official reporting of the SAT scores because EVERYONE applying to the college needs a SAT score - even the liars, the cheaters, the morally corrupted :P…etc. etc. Having an SAT score transcript ensures quality control for all applicants and they don’t have to waste time deliberating on whether the scores are real or not. Even if the admission office doesn’t have the time to go through all the ETS-reported scores, the fact that they ask for an official score reporting is like a moral mechanism so the applicant will more likely put down accurate scores on the self-reported SAT score blanks.</p>
<p>The reason why I think colleges don’t ask for AP score reports is because not everyone takes APs in high school, and asking for AP score reports will elicit unnecessary questions from students that don’t have AP scores, or encourage the conception that students who go to high school without AP courses are disadvantaged. Therefore, all the AP work that you do is perceived as extra academic work, just like how extracurriculars are the things that you do outside of the school setting. </p>
<p>You have to note that actually self-studying for APs is a relatively rare phenomenon in the college applicant pool outside of home-schooled students and the ultra-competitive applicant pool. Most high school students don’t have the academic drive or motivation to do self-studying outside of school, and it’s unlikely that you’ll get a huge number of applicants having self-studied AP scores*. This is why I’ve been pushing self-studying APs as a way for you to “stand out” academically for these years. I really don’t believe that there is a proliferation of liars who will outright lie about AP scores that don’t exist. </p>
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<li>Based on surveys that I conducted with “How to Get Into HYPMSC” seminars (to ~300 students yearly) that I conduct through MIT Splash and Spark twice a year with motivated high school students in Mass. Most (more than 90%) have not heard of the concept of self-studying APs.</li>
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<p>Also, if you really want to be paranoid about the whole thing, just send the AP score report in! Then don’t you have concrete proof that you did those self-studies? There’s no rule that says you can’t send in an official score report, and the admission office will not throw away anything you send in. It’ll all be logged within your file for reference for the adcoms.</p>
<p>The issue I take with valuing AP courses on your school transcript as more “important” than self-studied APs is that honestly, your school transcript doesn’t mean all that much. So what if you did APUSH at school? If I were the adcom, I would view an APUSH course at school as equivalent to self-studied APUSH, if both applicant had a 5 on the national exam. The problem is that there are so many non-rigorous AP courses in the American high school system that I don’t think an AP course taken at school relatively means more than an AP course done on your own. Just ask many home-school parents why they decide to home-school their children. Are the children then at a disadvantage because they don’t have formal academic transcripts to send to colleges? </p>
<p>The keys to this whole self-study thing are that:</p>
<p>1) You need to be the master of your own academic destiny. Don’t let the course offering of your high school limit your choices of what you can take and what you can’t take. If you can handle more work, self-study APs to prove your academic capabilities.</p>
<p>2) You need to do well on the self-studied AP exams. The truth is, for most academically talented students, you should be able to get a 3 on most AP tests even if you walk into the test cold. If you self-study, you need to be able to get 4s or 5s (really, 5s, not so much 4s) if you want it to make a difference. Therefore, you also need to begin the process in advance and plan out how you’re going to prep yourself leading up to May.</p>
<p>3) I don’t think self-studying is for everyone. You’ll have to have the discipline and the forethought to plan the course of your self-study out. </p>
<p>To use an analogy, I see self-studying APs as the cream on top of the cake - it’s the garnish on top of everything else. You’ll have to have a solid base already in your academic studies (a good GPA at school, good SAT scores - the “cake”) before your self-studied APs will make a difference - the same way that eating cake with a poor base will not make you full even if you put a mountainful of cream on top.</p>
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<p>If you have the time and energy (and the interest), then go for it! You might get some form of college credit (if not the corresponding credit for Intro to Gov then you might get some kind of elective credit). At the crux of it all, I still want to emphasize that self-studying APs should be something that you WANT to do as well. If you hate the subjects that you’re self-studying, then don’t do it! Life is too short to do things that you hate, even if it’s things that you’re doing to get into college.</p>