Will these AP scores help or hurt me?

It’s really up to you. Since you self studied, there’s no corresponding class on the transcript to cross reference. If it were my application, I would omit them.

But the now published guidelines do provide a quantifiable floor in test scores for the Academic rating:

  1. Summa potential: Genuine scholar; near perfect scores and grades (in most cases) combined with unusual creativity and possible evidence of original scholarship.
  2. Magna potential: Excellent student with superb grades and mid-to high-700 scores (33+ ACT).
  3. Cum laude potential: Very good student with excellent grades and mid-600 to low-700 scores (29 to 32 ACT).

Card (Harvard’s expert) does include AP tests as one of the 200 factors in his model, but it appears more in the context of assessing the applicant’s high school and neighborhood.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/breakdown-of-the-harvard-admissions-process-1540287000

So yes, everything is holistic, and there is a mini-holistic assessment when determining each of the 4 main subcategories (Academic, Athletic, EC and Personal), especially the latter 2 where the guidelines are particularly subjective, e.g. the guideline to grant a “1” Personal rating is 1 word, “Outstanding”.

@ahighschool_student Your ACT of 34 is consistent with your overall AP scores. As @allyphoe pointed out, I was referring to the internal rating system used by Harvard to rate applicants, which you can find in other blogs here on CC and are very enlightening to read. You could get a good idea on how to evaluate yourself. But as @skieurope and @lookingforward said, don’t be discouraged yourself by your own scores.