<p>The only thing that’s standardized about the AP Test is the test itself. Students taking these classes have had different teacher/class quality and school funding. I’m not saying they don’t matter at all- but relatively speaking, they aren’t of vital importance. SAT, GPA, EC’s, and even SAT II’s are more important. I went to this open event once where some admissions officers from top schools, including Penn, specifically stated that an SAT II score is more indicative of proficiency in a specific subject than an AP score.</p>
<p>I’m also going to have to disagree with the SAT-ACT comment. Sure, some of it requires an education… But no top-notch private school education is going to make a huge difference in SAT score. You either are good with tests, or you aren’t. No matter how bad the teacher/school is, if a student is as smart as he/she thinks he is, his/her SAT/ACT score should correlate with that. You have to remember, not everyone on CC comes from a rich private school and has parents that pay for $1000 sat prep classes. Some of us, whether you call it innate ability or test-taking ability, do well on the SAT regardless of our socioeconomic status. I’m not going to get into a “who has the poorer school” argument, but I also go to an underfunded public school with huge grade inflation-- one in which some members of the top 10(gpa) have sub-1900 scores. Yet, there are at least 3-4 people in the top 10 that have high SAT scores; (2360/2360/2270/2210). And there’s one that isn’t in the top 10 with a 2320. (We had one ivy admittance, the valedictorian(2340) to Yale. Also has one accepted to MIT)</p>
<p>And btw, mega congrats on wharton, philly. That’s amazing.</p>