Worth reporting scores

[david_p]

For a school like Harvard, if your SAT IIs aren’t 700+ or if your AP scores aren’t a 5, is it worth sending them to the school? Assuming your SAT/ACT and GPA fell within the proper amount for Harvard

[gibby]

If you have the competitive GPA for Harvard – meaning you have an unweighted GPA of 95+, or an unweighted GPA of 3.9+ – you should have some 5’s on your AP tests. You don’t have any 5’s? Not one?

I’ve posted this before, but here it is again

If your AP classes will appear on your transcript, colleges expect you to have taken the corresponding AP test, as it’s the culmination of an AP class. If you don’t self-report your AP test results, Admissions may assume one of three things:

(a) You couldn’t afford to take the AP tests
(b) You didn’t take the test because you didn’t care enough
(c) You took the AP tests and scored badly – as in you got a 1.

While the first explanation is acceptable and can be easily verified if you apply for a fee-waiver for a college’s applications fee, the other two are not.

So, my recommendation is to always self-report all your AP test scores and let the chips fall where they may, as you don’t want colleges to think you are a slacker or that you scored a 1.

A grade of 3 means you are qualified, and 4 means you are well qualified – both of which are fine. See: http://professionals.collegeboard.com/testing/ap/scores
Each AP Exam score is a weighted combination of the student’s scores on the multiple-choice section and the free-response section. The final score is reported on a 5-point scale:

5 = extremely well qualified
4 = well qualified
3 = qualified
2 = possibly qualified
1 = no recommendation

If you fail to report the score, it appears as though you are hiding something – and you are. That’s a misrepresentation by omission. And, IMHO, it doesn’t speak well to your integrity and honesty, and doesn’t exemplify the kind of student the ivies are looking for. My advice is to submit all your AP scores. If you are rejected, it will not be because of your AP tests.

As SAT Subject tests are now optional, you don’t have to report scores below 700 as those scores will not move your application forward.