worthless AP scores

Applying to College
1

<p>Obviously they’re not worthless, but in terms of college admissions? </p>

<p>I e-mailed some of my schools recently and learned from them that the scores are not used as part of the application review process. </p>

<p>Why not? As you might guess, I did great on the AP tests, but mediocre to low on SAT I’s and II’s.</p>

2

<p>They just aren’t. AP scores play a very small role in college admissions (if any). Lots of students don’t even send their AP scores until after they are admitted.</p>

3

<p>Yeh they don’t really care about AP scores. Its just good for you…save a couple thousand bucks.</p>

4

<p>i disagree. AP exam scores can help you if you do well on them just like any other test score. if you send in your SAT, SAT IIs, and ACT, colleges will look at them all, so i’m not sure why they wouldn’t look at AP scores you reported on your app/transcript/score report. it’s probably not right to say that colleges “don’t care about AP scores.” i think it’s one of those things that can only help you.</p>

5

<p>This is the response I got when I e-mailed Stanford: “Since AP courses are not available to all of our applicants, AP scores are not used as a determining factor in the admission process.” Similar response from Harvard.</p>

6

<p>So when colleges tell you that a supplement is completely optional and will not be used as a determining factor, do you just not write it?</p>

<p>Send the AP scores if they are good. They can only be used to your advantage.</p>

7

<p>^supplements may be optional but they are also factored into your application</p>

8

<p>They may not be used in the way your GPA and SAT are used, but I visited a college where admissions officers from quite a few top colleges were giving various presentations for the day. One of the presentations was a case study where an admissions officer walked us through four different applications and made comments on the strengths and weaknesses of the apps. They essentially use AP scores to detect grade inflation/deflation. A high AP score with a low AP class grade shows that the class was hard and maybe grades were deflated. A low AP score with a high AP class score is bad and shows grade inflation.</p>

9

<p>lol i think AP scores can only hurt you. If you have straight 5’s that’s not so outstanding, everyone basically has it. It you have 2’s and 3’s, however, that mite hurt you =O</p>

10

<p>^^^
not true at all…</p>

<p>

same with AP scores. almost anything you send to colleges will be considered but, like Stanford and Harvard said, few of these additional things will be determining factors.</p>

11

<p>I think part of the issue is that the teaching quality of AP classes varies greatly. So a good score on your AP test may reflect more on your teacher than your own ability, and vice versa.</p>

12

<p>My point was just because the admissions folk say they don’t use AP scores doesn’t mean they don’t factor that in.</p>

<p>AP scores are standardized. If you have good AP scores, which I had previously stated as well, there is no harm in submitting AP scores. It’s just more concrete proof about your academic stability.</p>

13

<p>^^^exactly…</p>

14

<p>Some colleges want to hear about your scores. </p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/371690-colleges-request-ap-scores-their-application-forms.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/371690-colleges-request-ap-scores-their-application-forms.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;