Dartmouth give credit…but this does not reduce the required courses needed to graduate from Dartmouth.
Dartmouth will grant credit on entrance for AP or IB examinations. In many subject areas, these courses will be used for exemption and placement. Credit on entrance appears on the Dartmouth transcript, but it does not count towards the 35 credits required to graduate
This student doesn’t need to send AP scores with their applications. They can decide to do so AFTER acceptance and choice of matriculation IF this will benefit them at their college of choice.
There is also a very popular college advisor who strongly suggests not to send 4s to highly selective schools since she believes it doesnt add to the application, so it isnt just the kids.
What one has to weigh is - in my opinion - if you take a class and we’re talking 11th and prior only - and don’t send in the score (even a four) - does it have the potential to invalidate the grade - not in calculation but in perception? In other words, is a 4 better than…I wonder if they got a 1 or 2…if you’re an AO.
Not to go too far afield, but a point of clarification, Harvard gives no AP credit. Period. A 5 can be useful for fulfilling their foreign language graduation requirement or for getting a waiver for certain classes (and even then, these can be achieved without AP scores). But that’s all done off the score report sent after committing.
But even for Harvard, my first response would still be my advice in terms of listing on the application.
This person was an Ao and claims (strongly) that if there is no info it isnt considered, if there is info it is. So they make no assumptions about missing grades but if there are 4s in classes that the student got an A they consider that a minus (again this is only for highly selective schools)
Fair enough - that’s why it’s in my opinion but no one can state with fact (I don’t think).
I’d assume but don’t know - AOs at different schools see things differently.
I suppose it’s not much different than the - I’m just below the 25th percentile on an SAT - should I send or not?
And you’ll get all sorts of opinions.
I imagine the AO you are talking about has a valid opinion for their experience. Another AO (I don’t know) may think differently…so many schools so it’s hard to know.
Of course, for most schools, a 4 is a great score - so it’s really only those top schools that the question would come in play.
Just because they are a college counselor doesn’t always mean their advice is sound. Just because they were an AO doesn’t mean their advice is sound. What they say may have been the case at their particular school at that particular time. But some of these people haven’t worked in admissions in years (or decades). While the rest of academia seems to evolve at a glacial pace, the same can’t be said for admissions. What was valid then may no longer be applicable.
Of course, the same caveat could be applied for anonymous posters here. 
The user needs to decide given sometimes contradictory advice.
agreed. She seems to have an in with many AOs and was at a highly selective school for many years. And as @tsbna44 said this is for a small number of schools
Yep.
Helpingthekid might be talking about a quote by Sara Harberson (posted in another thread recently) from a few years ago stating a 4 would be seen as a negative at one of the schools where she had worked (Penn, F&M.)
Her stance has not changed
But would a 4 be seen as more negative than the omission of a score, which could leave the admission reader wondering if it were a 1 or 2?
But also, would a pattern of A grades in AP courses with low (3 or lower, especially 1 or 2) AP scores reflect more on the high school than the student?
Does it matter? The end result is the same - no confidence that the student can do the work. And doing the work, isn’t just can you add 2+2. It’s can you handle the workload, the reading, the time management.
You’d have to ask Sara Harberson.
As one who reads apps, I don’t make the assumption that no AP score means a low score, as plenty of students don’t sit for the tests.
Of course, as her first hand opinion could not have changed as she hasn’t worked as an AO for a long time.
the thought is that AOs don’t read anything into information they do not have. They do use information they do have and a 4 does not help.
One can’t make that leap to cover all schools, nor all highly rejective schools. A 4 is a fine score at many schools annd would never be seen as a negative or a ‘demerit’…even at some highly rejectives, including the school where I read apps. It’s all in context.
I think Emory’s point of turning to APs to suss out grade inflation is valid. As @skieurope pointed out, admissions is fast changing and grade inflation is a reality AOs are dealing with. Maybe an AO doesn’t assume a bad score, but finds they are lacking information that sheds light onto other parts of the application.
Agreed, there is a lot of variability out there.
I know this is just our experience, but my son’s school doesn’t have AP classes. It also doesn’t have psych classes and that is his intended major.
He thought he wanted to go to a school in the UK (and those schools care A LOT about APs) so he self-studied for a lot of AP tests, including psych. He got some 3s, some 4s and one 5, including a 4 on AP psych.
On the advice of his school’s college counselor, he reported his 4s (and his one 5). He did very well in the college process. He’s about to start at Stanford (no hooks) and was also awarded an incredible full-ride scholarship.
I think it is pretty rare one wouldn’t report 4s.
I am in a paid group run by a number of former AOs and this comes up all the time. This is high-level advice from there…(take with a grain of salt)
If you are aiming at Yale/MIT and top SLACs or what not, reporting 5 5s and 1 4 is fine… If you have 4 4s and 1 5 they will say not to report any and leave AOs guessing. I gather their logic is having lots of 4 rules you out pretty much automatically, and having no scores leaves wiggle room for other things to take over their decision and they might give you benefit of doubt you didn’t take the exams at all…
Once again, it is a big of a guessing game and you almost certainly aren’t getting in to these schools with all 5s regardless… I have mixed feelings on this logic, but I was never an AO personally…
At lower tier schools they generally recommend sending 4s…though there is some nuance.