<p>I am posting this for my DS. He is going to be a Senior and is looking to apply to Vanderbilt (ED1), University of Michigan and several other competitive schools. He is ranked 11/515 in his class and has an unweighted GPA of 3.7 a weighted GPA of 4.9 and a composite ACT of 33. He is a Varsity baseball player, NHS member, Student Government Parlimentarian....etc.. He is currently doing a 6 week summer program at Vandy.</p>
<p>Here is the question, he does not do well on any College Board Exams. His SAT (1890) was not nearly as good as either of his ACT scores (32/33). His SAT 2's are mediocre (690 bio, 660 chem) and his AP exam scores are fairly unimpressive (two 4's, four 3's and a 2). He is an AP Schoolar though and can report that. He is also taking 5 AP's next year.</p>
<p>Anyway, he is going to try to bring up the SAT 2's but is wondering what to report. Should he report his AP scores or will that hurt him? the SAT 2's are not required at most of the schools he is applying to so if he doesn't bring them up should he not report them? He is concerned that not reporting will make it look like he didn't bother taking the tests and/or did worse than he did.</p>
<p>Any imput would be helpful.</p>
<p>Don’t report the APs, besides possibly the 4s (but even then…). A Dean of Admissions at a competitive school said that he didn’t understand why people sent in poor AP scores when they don’t have to. Generally 4s won’t count against you but they aren’t exceptional, and you don’t want to leave them with the impression that two 4s out of the 7 classes he’s taken (supposing none were self-studied) were the best he had.</p>
<p>Kind of rambly, sorry, but in summary there’s no point in reporting the 3s or the 2 because they would be a negative if anything and most schools wouldn’t give credit for them. I’d only report the 4s if you really want credit, but they probably won’t impact the admissions decision.</p>
<p>Thank you. That’s what I told him. He hopes to bring the SAT 2’s up to over 700. With the 33 ACT, 7AP’s (plus an additional 5 Senior year), I don’t think he should report any of them. He can report being an AP Scholar so they know he at least didn’t have 1’s and 2’s.</p>
<p>He doesn’t care about the credits and most of the schools he is considering don’t give credit anyway. His concern is that they may wonder why he didn’t submit them but do most people submit them? I think what is more important is that he took the classes and his 4.9 WGPA.</p>
<p>Thanks again, your reply helps.</p>
<p>I don’t think they’ll assume that. If none are submitted, they might figure that he didn’t take them at all.</p>
<p>And yes, they care about success in a challenging courseload far more than singular tests. Your son should be fine.</p>