I am curious what anyone thinks about this. That is, if you score well (say a 5) in certain subject areas (Calc, Euro), do admissions officers consider that to be impressive by virtue of the difficulty of the subject?
I’ve never heard of AP scores being considered impressive or having an extra affect on an application.
Usually, AP scores only matter if you are going to a very elite school and you have very low AP scores.
Sadly, no. Too many students have too many 5s in a range of APs for AdComms to be impressed enough to tip a decision. Also, the AOs are alert to a bunch of other aspects of APs, including the disparity in the number and kind of APs available to students (some schools offer lots of APs/ others few or none; some limit when / how many APs students can take; APs are not financially viable for all students, etc); an awareness that how students do on a standardized test is only one measure of their academic potential; and not being interested in an AP arms race.
APs are generally seen as a way (but not the only way) to show rigor in your HS curriculum, but conventional wisdom says that there are diminishing returns (6-8 seems to be a common opinion).
AP scores aren’t considered impressive.
In fact they’re self reported and some students don’t report them at all if they don’t want credit.
Of course it’s better to score a 5 than a 3 or a 2, and of course adcoms know AP calculus, AP euro, AP French, AP physics C (for instance) are harder than AP stats, APES, or AP Psych.
Top colleges expect 6-8 AP (or dual enrollment, IB, or AICE…) Over all of high school, including AP English language and a choice among the core APs (calculus, foreign language, us/euro/world history, bio, Chem, physics) plus choices from favorite subjects (economics, music theory, art history, computer science…)
“I’ve never heard of AP scores being considered impressive”
My experience as well. I have seen far too many 5’s from “average excellent” students (the straight A students who don’t impress the elite schools) that I can’t see any AP scores impressing or surprising anyone.
However, there are advantages in showing up at university in September of your freshman year with some credits already “in the bank”.