So I just got my senior AP scores today. Overall, I took 15 AP Exams throughout high school, got ten 5s, three 4s, one 3, and one1(AP Lit…).
Is that good enough to get the Sate AP Scholar this year? Also, when do people get notified about the state AP scholar?
What state?
It largely depends on your state’s population, school system strength, and of course sheer luck as to what other students are in your cohort. You may need as little as 7 or as many as 20 for state scholar.
I SPECULATE that the notification happens in the fall, when schools get notified about other AP awards. However this is totally not founded.
@1650mile Nebraska. Can’t find any records about past state scholar recipients…
Nebraska is not well-known for having an insane amount of AP’s to get state scholar. 15 exams, 4.4 average - I’d say you have a shot. Winners/schools get notified in September.
@duravative My son is similar to you but we live in Alaska. He passed 15 APs with twelve 5s and three 4s. The State AP Scholar award does seem like an afterthought to me. With 15 APs, you are probably a high school graduate by now and know where you are headed next year. The award is coming too late to have made any difference for college admissions and even for college waiting lists. When you apply to graduate or professional schools, I am not sure that this award would carry any weight. Having said that, it would still be a great honor to win if there are only 100 winners across the country.
@duravative I found the table with all the AP Scholar awards for each state. Here is the link for the 2015 data. https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/ap/ap-scholar-counts.pdf It looks like 7 Nebraska juniors were National AP Scholars then. That means they had passed at least 8 exams by the end of the junior year. So, it would depend on how many exams they took this year. I does sound like you are in the running with only a handful of students.
@mom22boys and @duravative can you tell me if the very high number of AP courses you (or your child took) were very helpful in college admissions and scholarships? I know what the benefits of national merit scholarships are, but not much about the focus on AP courses. My 2 oldest, now in college, have told their younger siblings to focus on great grades, a few activities (not a ton) with leadership, great ACT scores and just a few APs. This, they say, is the best combo for good options and scholarships. As such, child 3 is light on APs. Wondering if child 4 should load up a bit more. Can you share whether your APs, in your opinion, helped get you to colleges of choice and what AP Scholar ‘does’ for you? Thanks.
I apologize. I intended to tag @m22boys above, rather than @mom22boys.
@pinklinks @m22boys Thank you for your answers!
@ReturningFavor AP doesn’t help you much on college admission nor scholarships (taking AP class reflex that you are willing to challenge yourself, but college won’t treat 5 APs and 8APs differently when come to admission). To most important factors for college admission are GPA and ACT/SAT score. If you are aiming for top 15 or special program, you also need to show extracurriculars that reflex your involvement and ability.
The reason I took AP Class is to get college credits and learn new materials. By taking 15 AP Exams, I’ll receive 65 college credits and start college as a Junior, which enables me to double major and taking more interesting classes. Informations I learned from AP Classes also enables me to perform better during research.
The only thing AP scholar does to me is to make my family and teacher proud…
@pinklinks @duravative @ReturningFavor
I agree with you all 100%. 15 APs with great scores did NOTHING for my son. He did not get into any of the 7 schools he initially applied even though he was the valedictorian of his class of 360, a National Merit Finalist, won lots of school competitions and department awards, had high SAT/ACT scores, had teacher recommendations putting him in the top 5 of his teachers’ careers, was coming from a less populated state, 2 sport varsity athlete, 2 instrument musician, legacy of a legacy at one of the schools (Dartmouth), both parents went to med school at another of the schools (Tufts)… He was waitlisted at both of those schools plus 2 other schools. He was waitlisted at Harvard, but the counselor said it was because they took the salutatorian. She took maybe 10 APs and wanted to go to Stanford. She got rejected EA but got into Harvard RA. #4 got into Columbia. #5 got into UPenn. #6 got into MIT. My son was outright rejected by 3 schools and did not move off any of the 4 waiting lists he was on. So, he applied so several more schools after April 1 and got into all of them.
In retrospect, he should not have taken 8 AP exams senior year and done his sports. It took up a lot of time. He would have been better writing a stronger essay. Or he could have worked or volunteered somewhere. He did not have any leadership roles and he did not have a “hook.” He did not stand out. What the high ups told me at Tufts was that they are looking for people who will contribute to the school not just those who will excel academically at the school. In other words, it is not really about how good you are academically as these schools all have thousands of applicants who are qualified. As long as you meet a minimum standard, they are looking at more subjective data to make the final decision. You have to make a good argument as to why of the 1000s of applicants they have, they should choose you. Also, why of the 1000s of schools out there that school is the one for you.
I also agree that the PSAT was way more important for my son because he got a large scholarship. He would have gotten that scholarship based on that test result and that result alone. He could have had ZERO APs and still gotten that same scholarship. Actually, a 4.0 (all As but no APs) would have put someone around 25th in my son’s class. He probably still could have gotten into the same college where he is going with that ranking and GPA. However, with the APs, he has 64 units. His school only allows 60 “transfer credits,” so he will need to forfeit 4 units anyway. He will have the opportunity to double major or graduate early.
I think that if you do 5-10 APs during your entire high school career, that is more than enough. It shows that you can do college work. It gives you a better ranking in your class. State AP scholar is such an afterthought because it is coming way too late for anything else. But it is a State level award and there are not that many of them around in our not very populated state. It would be nice but definitely NOT a big deal if it didn’t happen. We have dealt with plenty of disappointment throughout this process and have made it through.
My son found out a couple of days ago that he won the State AP Scholar Award for Alaska. Although it did nothing for college, it is still an award that only around 102 kids get each year (barring ties). I am sure it will make his high school and the teachers proud too. They did a nice job.