I’ve been seeing in other forums students asking whether or not to report 4s. I’m getting the sense that many students think 4s should not be reported, particularly if the exam is similar to their intended major.
When I was in high school a hundred years ago, a 4 was something to really be proud of, and even 3s were reported. Has that changed?
I appreciate your advice about the current thinking on reporting.
I can think of no valid reason not to report a 4.
Unless, maybe, when all your scores are 4’s and you’re applying to Yale.
Our CC, a few years ago, recommended reporting 4s and 5s.
Seems like it is implied here that the desired colleges are super selective ones that also do not allow advanced placement for 4 scores.
I was about to ask this. Are there colleges that will only accept 5s as a general rule? D19 didn’t aim at tippy tops but the ones she looked at all took 4s or 5s.
Yes. But that’s for credit. Which is a totally separate conversation than whether to include on the application
That might be why students themselves seem confused in these postings about whether they should only report 5s. I can definitely see that being the cause of the confusion. My son’s teachers are telling their students that 4s are very good scores indeed, and that’s why I’ve been surprised to see so many other kids (primarily on reddit) asking whether or not they should report a 4.
ETA - I also think since the score breakdowns are published, students see that 30% or more get a 5, and they suddenly think their 4 “looks bad.” I don’t know if AO are viewing 4s in the context of the score breakdown from year to year, or not.
It’s the rare subject where 30% + get a 5.
I seriously doubt AOs are cross-referencing score charts, but they likely know that the percentage of 5’s in AP Lang is quite low vs Calc BC which is quite high. And that the subjects with a high percent of 5’s Is due to self-selection, in part.
That said, I personally think that the student who gets a 4 on BC and is applying to MIT might want to cast a wider net for colleges.
Several of these schools don’t allow it for 5s either so maybe that’s not always the best bar.
As should the one who gets a 750 in math. But it’s not the 4 itself that is the issue, it’s the fact that the strength of fundamental knowledge is not where it needs to be for the subsequent coursework.
You actually might be better off reporting 4s to Yale. According to their admissions podcast, their AOs recognize when students don’t report AP scores and assume it’s because they did poorly on the exams. If you don’t report most of your scores, the implication is Yale might assume you received 3s (or worse). They then will question how good an A grade is in many AP classes when you submit few scores. A bunch of 4s might be viewed as a negative at a place as selective as Yale, but the lack of scores could be perceived as worse than 4s.
Either of which probably means the applicant is not getting into a university with a 4.5% acceptance rate
Anyway, I used the qualifier “might” in my initial comment referencing Yale. Since that likely doesn’t apply to the OP, I’m not going to get caught up in whataboutisms.
I’ll hazard a guess where you saw people (almost certainly students) saying you shouldn’t report 4’s. It probably rhymes with Shmeddit.
Yes, report the 4’s.
Yes, that’s right. Is this an ongoing misconception with the students that might be frequently posting in the AP forums?
The challenge with some of those subforums, and full disclosure, I post a lot there, is the average age of the users is a lot lower than here. Which is great when they’re asking questions. But when they’re giving responses on some of these questions, it becomes evident that some simply don’t know how much they do not know.
That said, there are many who have been through the admissions process that do have good feedback. But the questioner often has to separate a lot of wheat from chaff.
It’s mostly students feeding off one another’s angst.
Depends on the school
Care to expand with your experience and insight? For a long-time prolific contributor such as yourself, this “No Kidding, Sherlock” response seems lacking in helpfulness for the OP.
For logicians, the recursive aspects of this suggest that even 3s should be submitted.
Sure.
If your school gives credit for a four, its make sense.
OP didn’t give a lot of context other than maybe not in same major but if you took AP Psych and major in it, why not ?
Now that doesn’t mean you have to take the credits or placements. But a 4 shows you’ve achieved competency. And it takes away any potential doubt of a grade on the transcript vs doubt of actual competency….ie they took the course, why no test score ?
Ok at some you might have to take the credit but you can ask the school during the app time bcuz in that case maybe you don’t want to send in if they’ll not allow you to repeat at the college level.
It’s different at Delaware (takes 3s and I’d submit) vs Dartmouth (4s in some) - hence school dependent.
For Harvard - they only have 5s on their table so may not add value there and I could see not sending in - which equals what OP is insinuating - although I personally would to remove any doubt.
But I could understand that someone wouldn’t. But that someone might discredit their course grade by not doing so.
So school dependent.