Will 4s hurt my chances to get into prestigious colleges?

Applying to College
1

In sophomore year, I got three 5s and one 4. However, in junior year, I received three 4s and a 1. Will this hurt my how colleges view me, especially prestigious colleges like Stanford?

2

you self report AP exams. Don’t report the 1. Report everything else. You’re fine.

Don’t worry about a trend. It’s common to take fewer and easier ones earlier so the scores are often higher.

3

Don’t report the 1. If Stanford rejects you it won’t be because of the 4s

4

You have 2 threads basically asking the same thing. Your not getting into Stanford. Move on and look at other colleges to apply to. BTW - anyone applying to Stanford gets the same advice ?.

5

I am a little worried about my AP exam scores and whether that will affect my chances to get into certain colleges. Last year, I got mostly 5s, but this year, I got mostly 4s and a 1. Will prestigious colleges see this downward trend as a red flag? More specifically do college admission offices see 4s and 5s as the same, and will a single 1 destroy your application?

6

I merged the threads.

7

@Knowsstuff Did I do something that would make Stanford immediately decline my application? Or are you just saying to keep my expectations low so that I don’t get disappointed?

8

@skieurope I stupidly sent my scores to SLO already through college board’s free score send. I made another post about this, but is it really true that something like this will not stick out to the admission offices, especially if I am going for a engineering degree there?

9

Asked and answered. @gumbymom is the resident expert on CA schools. She said it won’t impact you. It is what it is. What else do you want? For someone to tell you that you’re screwed?

10

So Standfords acceptance rate like like around 4% correct???

So that means just about everyone that applies is rejected. Like 96% of 100 people get rejected, correct.

Any person applying should understand that a 4 % chance of getting anything is very low, correct.

So, my chance of telling you that you won’t get in and being correct is pretty good, correct?

No one I know thinks applying to Stanford, MIT etc is a slam dunk. It fact to me with all the students that get rejected with better stats, Ecs, etc its most likely just luck.

But it’s great to be lucky sometimes, correct? ??.

Apply to many safeties.

11

AP scores don’t carry much weight in the application process. 5 and 4 scores are fine, just don’t report the 1.

12

If it helps, my son just got into Stanford and he had not taken any AP’s at the time he applied.

13

@NESCACDAD - that’s incredible. He didn’t take any AP classes? I know Stanford normally cares about rigor. Is he an Olympic level athlete or does he have some other outstanding achievement?

14

Thank you for all your responses.

15

@MrsJayBird- He had no hooks whatsoever. He went to an excellent high school and was a strong student. He did very well on the SAT. He was well rounded and worked hard on his essays. Overall, I think he was just a relatively good applicant.

16

AP Classes
Fret not…colleges are much more concerned about your grades in those classes as opposed to the AP tests.

Why is that?

  1. Doing well in a class shows you can learn over the year and work hard over a period of time. That is what they want in college.
  2. Not all HS have many APs.
  3. Many people take AP tests senior year which is too late for admissions

For example, Stanford says:
Students currently enrolled in AP courses are not required to submit AP scores as part of our admission process. AP scores that are reported are acknowledged but rarely play a significant role in the evaluation of an application. Grades earned over the course of a term, or a year, and evaluations from instructors who can comment on classroom engagement provide us with the most detailed insight into a student’s readiness for the academic rigors of Stanford.
http://admission.stanford.edu/basics/selection/prepare.html

Let me state clearly: we do not admit students solely because of their AP courses/scores. There is no minimum or recommended number of AP courses. AP scores are not part of an admission formula… What we are saying is that, despite what you may have heard, college admissions isn’t a game of whoever has the most APs, wins.
https://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/on_aps_1/

Where does this leave you?

  1. It tells you that you cannot place out of those classes in college…you will need to take them in college like many many other people do.
  2. Do not self-report your scores if they are below a 4