Early applications are in already. Kid was lucky enough to get a seat for a Sept ACT (only SAT or ACT he’s taken), got a 36, sent it in. But we forgot about AP and SAT subject test scores. Kid had an A minus in AP Bio, got a 4 on the AP, and a 770 on Bio SAT subject test (which is, I think, only 84th%). Got an A in AP Psych, got a 5 on the AP Psych test last spring. All his other AP classes were also state flagship dual credit classes, so he didn’t take the AP for those, and last spring was so crazy, we didn’t even think of SAT subject tests at all.
Kid is applying early action to an Ivy and a state U, then may apply to two other Ivies, and a couple of other schools that are not quite as selective. No class rank, but grades put him definitely in top 10%, possibly top 5% at a good suburban high school, has a hook in that he’s won two international instrumental performance competitions. Not URM, not legacy.
Should we bother to send the AP scores and that Bio SAT subject test? No place is requiring them.
Does the college ask for a score report and/or did he self-report the scores in his application? Those are good scores. I would send them, at least the APs. You don’t want them to wonder if the reason he didn’t submit them was because he got scores of 1 or 2.
If they weren’t reported on CA, I’d send them, then have him add all test scores to his CA and you likely won’t have to send any directly until enrollment. Almost all schools accept self-reported scores. Our S has sent out 5 EA apps, all allowing self-reported scores, and the rest on the list allow them as well.
Also, don’t worry about the % on the subject test. It’s only lower bc only top kids in the subject take them. An 800 math II subject test is only like 80%. Our school’s CGO said report 750+ And above. Our S took 3, isn’t reporting 1 where he only got a 740. He is reporting a 770 and 800 related to his interest areas.
Okay, we’ve added them to the Common App, and we found out that we can upload them through the application portal to the schools which were early action.
Another issue:
Kid did not bother registering for AP exams for the classes which were dual enrollment for credit at our flagship state U (for which the kids are issued a transcript, with the grade they received in the dual enrollment class). There were two of those: English Lang and foreign language. Kid received A or A minus in both classes.
Is there any way for kid to somehow convey this to the admissions committes, that it’s not that he’s hiding a bad AP grade, just that he made a conscious decision at the beginning of the school year that AP exams were unnecessary in dual enrollment classes for which he’d receive a state U transcript? We wouldn’t want the admissions committee to think that kid was simply avoiding reporting a bad score, but we also don’t want kid to come across as making excuses. We just felt that it was an unnecessary duplicate expense, that it took some of the pressure off, and also were irritated with the College Board’s decision to try to force registration for AP exams by moving the on-time registration date to six months before the exam!
Explain it in the "anything else we should know section or ask your guidance counselor to include it in his/her report. Doing nothing is perfectly fine too, because the student doesn’t need to take the AP exam if he is already getting (or got) actual college credit for the course. The possible exception would be if the college accepts AP credits but not transfer credits from another college.
That said, I don’t know what your student’s plan is for this year, but we found that colleges were more likely to accept AP courses than DE classes. Many, many more hoops to jump for the DE classes. So, if they are wanting to use credits to place out of some gen eds, it may be useful to take the AP tests this year.
4s and 5s are good, 3s are strongly not recommended to be sent, and absolutely don’t send 1s and 2s. 770 SAT Bio is good, especially considering he’s applying for music----it’s the same score I had and I was applying for pre-med.