“few students earn it before they graduate”
Actually, according the the AP link posted earlier, more than 26,000 students, most of whom were seniors, were AP scholars in 2014, vrs only 7500+ National Merit Scholars. So relatively speaking, being a NMF is rarer. And the NM $$ certainly comes in handy!!
Earning National AP scholar as a JR does set you apart.
There were quite a bit of seniors I know who earned it, but my brother and I were the only ones at my school
as juniors
@skieurope “AP scores carry little to no weight in the admissions process”
I see that sentiment a lot, but at top admissions offices it just isn’t true. With top applicants AP scores do matter a fair amount. I can refer you to the “ask the Dean” column on the subject on this site for confirmation. I also watched a video yesterday from a woman who used to be in admission at Stanford and for every single applicant she remarked on how many APs they had and what their score was.She spent more time talking about APs than GPAs.
With top applicants schools are looking for anything to set the students apart and AP scores are one of those items.
http://www.collegeconfidential.com/dean/low-ap-scores-elite-college-deal-breaker/
This is what the Stanford admissions office CURRENTLY says about AP classes:
“We want to be clear that this is not a case of “whoever has the most APs wins.” Instead, we look for thoughtful, eager and highly engaged students who will make a difference at Stanford and in the world beyond. We expect that these students have taken high school course loads of reasonable and appropriate challenge in the context of their schools.”
It doesn’t really matter if they earn it as a senior, college apps go in long before 12th grade AP tests and the College Board doesn’t announce the AP awards until mid August. If they earn it as a Junior then I think it’s worth while.
so mostly AP scores are important for the top tier schools in regards to admission
“so mostly AP scores are important for the top tier schools in regards to admission”
^^
No. that would be making an assumption that cant be verified.
We really dont KNOW what is important to top tier schools re AP scores.
Follow what Stanford says they look for. Its wont be that much different from what other top schools want.
After all, top tier schools receive applications from 10X’s the number of students than they can admit.
And admittance is Holistic at all of them.
As Stanford says- the student with the most AP’s doesn’t automatically win.
I’m thinking you shouldn’t put “National AP Scholar” in the Honors section for the CommonApp. Couldn’t they just look at your AP scores and assume you received it (especially if you’ve taken 10+ APs and scored more than 4 on all of them)?
I’m going to put it, just to make sure that the schools I’m applying to see I’ve earned it
MIT echoes Stanford.
are certain ap exam scores more important than others?
AP scores are not really considered in the admissions process. Further, the important thing with course rigor would be that you could check ‘most rigorous available’. Whether that means 20 APs or 2 does not really matter to highly ranked schools’ adcoms, as they have stated. So, OP, it will not really set you apart as much as other selective awards do, because for these you ‘win’ the category as long as you take as many rigorous courses as your school allows.
What are more important then, subject tests or AP’s
There are around 3500 national AP scholars at the end of 11th grade who will be applying to colleges - lot fewer than 16000 national merit semi finalists (26,000 is not relevant since what you have earned after 12th does not mean much for the admissions process)
Whether a specific college cares about a specific honor or not means nothing during the admission process since the honor belongs to the kid and they are only able to name 5 of them on commonapp and this is up there with any academic honor one wants to name. Unless common app has a list of specific honors the student is allowed to name vs not, it is a moot point what one is allowed to list for their honors.
One can omit low scores and so adcoms are not going to sit around trying to figure out if you reached the average by omitting a couple of 1s while getting 8 4s etc.
On a side note, i have noticed that despite what the colleges claim they value or don’t, both Stanford and MIT seem to value academics a lot more in their application process.
You should definitely put it unless you read my second paragraph. It summarizes your AP scores in one sentence. The Schools will say whatever is convenient for them to protect them from lawsuits…as they also put in a lots of kids who do not have too many APs (may be athletics, legacies, development cases etc.) as well as many kids from small towns where the school does not offer a lot of AP classes. They want to see whether you are challenging yourself or not compared to other kids in your school/area.
The common app allows upto 5 awards to list and the only reason I will not put it if I have something better to list…for example Noble Prize, Intel/Siemens Awards, Olympic Medals etc.,
Just to prove my point about AP here is what posted by Princeton:
“Whenever you can, challenge yourself with the most rigorous courses possible, such as honors, Advanced Placement (AP) and dual-enrollment courses. We will evaluate the International Baccalaureate (IB), A-levels or another diploma in the context of the program’s curriculum.”
@skieurope should I submit my 3s on APs?
Go ahead; I can’t think of a valid reason not to submit 3’s
I know you are supposed to have taken what is considered a challenging course load for your school. However, I go to a large competitive public high school where kids take 15-18 AP classes maximum. In comparison to this, will only 10-12 AP classes seem unimpressive?