Like all of these aspects, depends on the kid and the goals. My oldest took it four times and ultimately went test optional. My second took it after 10th grade and got a 1520. Took it three more times and didn’t feel the need to study but more fine tune strategies and finished with a 1580. We spent about $3k on tutoring for kid #1 and none for #2. Oldest got a large merit award to Wisconsin TO. We don’t regret trying but in hindsight we should have known when to just move on. It’s all so much!
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It is all a tremendous racket, for sure.
But yes, the benefit of all this effort varies so much. Because my girls’ school limits APs to six total (D22 took seven by petitioning because she wanted to do the full AP Capstone for the experience, and it was well worth it for her), they felt free to take only the ones they were genuinely interested in.
And for both girls, I put my foot down on taking multiple SAT/ACT – I encouraged D22 to take a full practice test and score it every other weekend the summer before junior year, then go through and learn how to do the questions she’d missed. She did that, so she was one-and-done taking the ACT beginning of junior year.
D26 did the same in spring of her sophomore year, taking the SAT that June. Same strategy, same results. I didn’t pay for any prep classes. But both are pretty good test takers, so it worked.
S25 didn’t take any AP classes, and after taking the PSAT and pre-ACT at school, it was clear he was not going to achieve any sort of competitive score. So we just left it alone and focused on his strengths.
I have to say that even the limited APs – with 5s on the exams – were helpful for D22. She was able to finish her undergrad degree in three years, and she stayed in school this year just to take fun classes, finish a second major, and apply to grad schools. Plus she’s having too much fun to leave. 
I’ve always thought the APs were meant to show “rigor” though, to be able to get into selective schools, and not so much to get out of classes in college. Although I think that aspect is kind of a racket, too.
We did the same thing -and will save the visits until there are acceptances (Her visit to Miami was paid for by the school.) We’ve been lucky and have 16 apps out –and maybe $600 spent (free apps did help put the schools higher on the list). But we still have another 5 applications to go. At least the fees were paid for over a few months so that really helped.
And reading through this thread –my D26 goes to a decently rated public school -but it is a MUCH different experience from many on this thread! Usually there is one Ivy or Ivy adjacent attendee each year and maybe one or two other school attendees that CC might consider prestigious. As far as ACT/SAT – even among the NHS kids – it is rare for anyone to get above 30. The district has some more ‘prestigious’ publics -so she has friends applying to similar schools -but otherwise, most people attend the state publics.
I do appreciate the folks here from all walks of life – it’s been really helpful to get insights into different colleges -and also to “know” other parents going through the same kind of stressors.
For us - if she gets into her reaches, the NPCs say we can afford them (with merit and need aid). But you know -they are reaches -so who knows what her chances are of getting in. And many of them are need-aware, so there’s that.
I often feel like college applications is a game where I don’t really know the rules.
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There aren’t rules but guidelines. And because there are no rules, students/parents feel like they have to do everything.
There are so many videos by “ former college admissions directors” and they all say the same thing which is basically not much of anything other than it’s a “holistic” admissions process, take the hardest classes, and be “authentic”.
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Yeah I feel that is such a racket, we had 3 different counselors at school over 3 years. They would work a year at the HS and then go become a private counselor/guide and charge an arm and a leg for saying exactly that. It does help the kids to have someone who is not their parents keep them on track. But so many of these counselor shops charge $10k+ and I don’t think they provide much real value.
As an aside when S26 was a freshman I tried setting up an appointment with one of these shops, they wouldn’t even return my phone call but my wife who has an asian last name was getting constant calls/mailers to to enroll our kids there. It annoys me that they clearly target people who are not as familiar with the college application process.
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I have always thought it could be either or both depending on the student and the colleges they are hoping to attend. That said, AP classes and AP tests are different things but often discussed as if they are the same. One is free (I believe) while the other costs over $100 per pop. And, I do think there are some colleges where rigor can be demonstrated through taking the AP classes and doing well, without taking the AP tests, but I may be wrong about that.
I think that’s considered a “red flag”. But who knows. It’s like using ChatGPT and not knowing if it’s 100% accurate.
Is it really a red flag or just what “experts” claim.
I have also heard that’s considered a red flag because of rampant grade inflation. If they see a bunch of AP classes with good grades but no test scores submitted, they assume the grades are inflated which makes some sense. But who knows if it’s true or not.
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At D26’s high school, the school pays for the AP exam fee. But if you transfer to a different high school before graduation, you’re required to reimburse the high school for the exam fee for every AP exam taken while a student there. Usually by the start of 10th grade, nobody transfers out unless it’s for a parent(s)’ job change requiring them to move to a different geographic area.
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We have to pay $123 per IB test, so for the full IB diploma that comes to $738.
Then my kiddo took the SAT 3 times, so that’s some dumb amount of money too😂
For apps, I think we’ve spent about $650 or so for 8 applications.
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D26 took the SAT 3 times and ACT 3 times. She did better on the baseline ACT vs SAT, but opted for SAT to be her focus exam because it was shorter. She had no appreciable increase in scores despite doing hours of test prep in earnest. Decided for giggles to try a second ACT and she increased her composite score by 2 points. She decided to give it one last go, and got her target score for all the schools recruiting her. If I could do it all over again, I would’ve told her to go with the ACT in the first place.
AP exams… Paid for 10. Here, you only get your AP class grade weighted IF you take the AP exam. Such a racket.
D26 only applied to 3 schools. Hoping she gets into her ED1 so she doesn’t have to resume recruitment…
To confirm no one knows what the AO’s will do. I asked ChatGPT a college admissions question.
It said: “It depends……….” and then listed a bunch of possibilities.
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No idea if the “red flag” some of you have heard about is pure parent rumor or if there is any legitimacy to it. As someone with no skin in the game on that either way, it seems that someone could legitimately want the rigor of AP classes with zero interest in shelling out hundreds of dollars to the college board racket for a bunch of tests that may or may not actually have any benefit for them. If I were a kid or family who took that approach, I’d probably ask my college counselor if we should make it known on the app that we took zero AP tests for philosophical or financial reasons.
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YCBK recently discussed AP scores. It was an interview - I think maybe from Connecticut College? He said that they don’t care much about the score there as they do about seeing a student’s willingness to try for that rigor and the willingness to grow and challenge themselves. He did say that if he sees the scores, obviously he can’t unsee them. But he said if he sees a lot of low scores, he questions the environment of the school where the student took the class because some teachers teach to the test and some do not at all. They also talked about how each college is different in how they evaluate them and obviously some care a lot about the scores. And that the higher selectivity schools tend to care more. APs are pushed at her school and the state (or county?) pays for the test. I think we have to pay if she chooses not to take it.
Our state colleges do not look at AP scores at all. D26 did not submit hers to any college because she does have some low ones. If a school assumes she did poorly on them all because she didn’t submit and doesn’t accept her because of that, then it probably isn’t the right school for her. I have had some worry about it, but have kept it to myself.
Our state is SAT/ACT required and D26 took it several times. She got the score she was aiming for, thankfully. Her score is “enough” for all of her schools except her reachiest reach.
Appreciate hearing everyone’s perspectives. I wish this process was less waiting. It is nerve wracking! The posts keep my mind away from worry 
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An anedoctal story:
We knew someone whose kid was the valedictorian of a large (3,000 + students), well funded high school in Texas. She took a bunch of AP classes but didnt take a single AP exam. And it was obvious because she didnt submit any AP scores. Really strong leadership, local/regional awards, 1580 SAT - didnt get accepted to a single T20 school.
School context, this was atypical. The school typically sends multiple kids to T20’s, as she was one of the only valdectorians in recent years to not get accepted to any.
Her parents suspected it was because she didnt take any AP tests and colleges felt she was just trying to boost her GPA because the AP classes offered a higher grading scale.
Is that true? No one knows for sure but it was certainly an anomaly relative to the school’s admissions history.
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I obviously don’t have a clue why this student did not get accepted, but this logic of the parents makes zero sense to me. The top colleges were like “well, we think this kid was just trying to boost their GPA by taking harder classes and getting top grades in them, so we’re going to reject her for choosing to take the harder classes rather than the easier ones.” I don’t buy that. Seems improbable that a bunch of highly selective schools would have thought that. Could they have thought she took and did not do well on AP tests? I suppose. Or they just got squeamish because they’d never seen a valedictorian from that school who took no AP tests and that made them nervous because they like patterns that make sense to them? Sure. But the padding GPA rationale seems unlikely to me.
Of course equally likely (which I know you acknowledge, but I feel compelled to say) is that her lack of AP tests had zero to do with it and there was some other reason that either nobody has any idea of, or that the parents actually do but do not want to share with anyone for any number of reasons.
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I probably wasnt clear. That was the reason she took so many AP courses. She was padding her GPA because she thought being valedictorian would be enough (based on the school’s history of where previous Valedictorians were accepted). Being #1 out of 800 graduating kids is incredibly difficult and competitive.
She didnt want to deal with the actual tests. Her parents felt that colleges could also sense that but only thought of it after she was rejected everywhere and was trying to come up with a reason why. Obviously there could’ve been a ton of other reasons but that was their conclusion.
Thanks for the clarification. The parents conclusion still sounds like bunk to me. It still means they would have rejected her for taking the harder classes in order to try to become valedictorian. They weren’t free grade boosts I assume. I assume they required her to take on more work. Even if the lack of AP tests had something to do with the student’s rejection (which I suppose is more plausible if they didn’t have an SAT or ACT score or one that was in range that the schools could rely on), the parents reasoning sounds faulty to me.
She had so many ECs and leadership responsibilities that she just felt she didnt have time to study for multiple AP exams. And she thought why take the AP exams since the Ivy league schools didnt accept them.
But of course no one knows.
My D visited Northeastern this spring. On paper, it should have been a winner (direct entry nursing, urban campus, etc.), but she got a very weird vibe. All the different campuses, programs, co-ops, etc., really undermined any kind of community feeling from her perspective. Kind of a high-end commuter school…. She wouldn’t even apply despite no fee and no essay!
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