<p>Are AP's/GCE's/Abitur really that much important in college admissions?</p>
<p>The following is quoted from a college's CC thread:</p>
<p>
[quote]
AP scores really don't even matter that much in the admissions process. (The college) rarely gives credit for most of them, as do other prestigious institutions.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I am a bit worried as I think I have taken only four subjects in the Abitur.</p>
<p>coincidentally i just put up two pages on this today!</p>
<p>[Advanced</a> Classes & Credit | MIT Admissions](<a href=“http://mitadmissions.org/apply/prepare/apetc]Advanced”>Advanced classes & credit | MIT Admissions)
[Advanced</a> Placement Credit | The MIT Wiki](<a href=“http://mitadmissions.org/wiki/Advanced-Placement-Credit]Advanced”>http://mitadmissions.org/wiki/Advanced-Placement-Credit)</p>
<p>Thanks! However that doesn’t answer my query completely. How much weight does APs or advanced courses have in the admission process?</p>
<p>In the [Advanced</a> Classes & Credit | MIT Admissions](<a href=“http://mitadmissions.org/apply/prepare/apetc]Advanced”>Advanced classes & credit | MIT Admissions) it says the college will consider the courses taken after the admission for placement. But does the AP make up an admission factor like the SATs and other admissions paraphernalia?</p>
<p>Decibel, there are too separate and related questions here, which are often blurred and confused by applying students.
<p>The answer to 1) is “Hardly any at all”, and the answer to 2) is “quite a lot.”</p>
<p>Keep in mind that students apply to MIT in the autumn of their last year in secondary school, with the application complete in December. However, most of these students will only sit the bulk of these exams in the Spring term of their last year. In some countries, such as the UK, the top universities solve this problem by offering conditional acceptances, that is to say, that the offer of admission is contingent upon the student getting the grades that were predicted of them, and so until the test results come out in the summer, then nobody really knows which school they are going to. The top American Universities do not do this. Anyone offered admission to MIT in March is offered admission, regardless of how they do on their Abitur, A-levels, IB, AP’s or whatever. As a result of this, test scores on these exams do not really count for much in admissions (although some students will sit AP exams in years prior to their last, etc.).</p>
<p>Now while exam results in these classes mean little, one thing that does matter is that MIT students, as a rule, tend to enjoy challenging themselves academically. As a result, one of the things that correlates tightly to success at MIT, and hence to admissions, is whether the student is taking the most challenging subject matter offered by their secondary school. This is evaluated in context, so their is no minimum, but at most schools, this includes A-levels, IB, Abitur, AP’s etc. So for example, if your school offered three AP subjects, and you were enrolled in all of them, then that would be great, whereas if your school offered final year students all 37 AP subjects, and again you had enrolled in 3 of them, then that is much less great.</p>
<p>You mention the Abitur (of which there are 3 very different varieties in Finland, Germany and Estonia), but if you were taking (for example) a Finnish Abitur, while you only need 4 subjects to “pass” the Abitur including </p>
<p>So a slew (7) of 3’s and 4’s won’t hurt my chances in admissions, even if I took them before applying? I mean, I did take/self-studied these classes/tests because I was interested in them and because they were challenging but did not particularly score well. Will this hurt?</p>
<p>^ Your slew of passing and good grades on self-studied APs definitely will not hurt you :)</p>
<p>How much weight does a self studied AP carry compared to an actual class? I’ve heard things ranging from ‘just as good’ to ‘completely useless’.</p>
<p>Mikalye said it best: </p>
<p>"1) What influence does my advanced test scores have on MIT admissions? and
2) What influence does my taking advanced classes have on MIT admissions.</p>
<p>The answer to 1) is “Hardly any at all”, and the answer to 2) is “quite a lot.”"</p>
<p>Although, I’m going to go ahead and add – in the case of a school like MIT, assume you’re not getting in even though you’re having a shot, and note that at a lot of schools, getting 4’s and 5’s greatly helps you in terms of getting some requirements out of the way at the beginning. Now you shouldn’t be overeager to pass out of everything, but having several credits helps you have lots of breathing room initially.</p>