To send or not to send? A 3 on AP Comp Sci

<p>I took 2 APs. Comp Sci - 3 and Psychology - 5. </p>

<p>I want the admission officer to know that I am good at computers and programming. But the AP test went really bad because I accidently bubbled the wrong bubbles and it wasted a lot of time. As a result, I got super panicked and did not perform as well as I expected.</p>

<p>In Barron's tests, I constantly got 4s (3 times in a row).</p>

<p>I think sending Comp Sci AP Score will make them question my ability and passion of computer science and may harm the chances of me getting accepted. What do you think? Should I send it or not?</p>

<p>My school doesn't provide any APs. I am an international student and hence had to self study.</p>

<p>Colleges:
Stanford (ED)
Harvard
Yale
Cornell
Dartmouth</p>

<p>Major: Comp Sci minor: Psychology or Economics</p>

<p>Send it because schools will assume that you got a 1 or a 2 if you didn’t send it. AP scores are primarily used for credit purposes though, not admissions. As long as you succeeded during the year, do not worry too much about it. </p>

<p>@Eniam666 They have no way of knowing that I took Comp Sci. It doesn’t show anywhere. I self-studied it, hence it doesn’t show on my school transcript. If I send in just Psychology then they will think that I just took Psychology and got a 5.</p>

<p>I don’t know how you think that they’ll assume I got a 1 or a 2. Can you explain?</p>

<p>From what I have heard on this site and from admissions websites, it is almost always better to self-report scores. One CC member quoted an admissions dean from Yale (I believe) saying that if you don’t report a score then she just assumes you did not do well on it. Obviously not all schools are as elite, but I still think it would benefit you to get credit for the exam. I would recommend talking to your guidance counselor for more specific help because I have just heard these things second hand. Best of luck! </p>

<p>Since you self-studied the test, don’t report it. What @Eniam666 is referring to is when you do take the class and choose not to report the AP test score, it does look bad. Otherwise, @thezealot - you are correct in saying that the admissions officers will never know you took the test (until you send in official score reports which you don’t need to send in until you are admitted). Hope this helps answer your question! :)</p>

<p>But won’t 1 AP look bad? I mean ONE AP??</p>

<p>Putting 1 AP (Psychology: 5) will show that I knew that APs existed and had the CHOICE to self-study for APs. </p>

<p>Why not skip APs all together? As I am from India, many of us internationals don’t even take APs. One guy from UK got into Stanford without ANY AP. His excuse was that his school doesn’t offer APs</p>