AP test scores- submit a 3 or no?

[Anonymous]

My kid with 1520 SAT and only 3s and 4s reported- he had a total of 14 including senior year.

Substantial merit from Pitt plus Honors, UMD Scholarship. I have no idea if it helped or hurt but I figured better to be straightforward.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is one area where conventional wisdom seems all over the place and it's hard to get helpful advice. I wish more AOs would weigh in.

Except they DO weigh in. The large majority of AOs will tell you that while AP
classes carry great weight in college admissions the scores on the exams don’t. They generally matter very little. They’re all about college credit or getting waived from intro courses once you’re enrolled.

But that does not stop posters on this website from obsessing over the scores and wasting their time. There is just no reasoning with them. They will continue to think they matter no matter how many times you try to tell them that they don’t.

Except colleges DO ask for AP scores as part of the application. Self reporting is fine, but they will be checked upon enrollment.

That's the thing. If they didn't care, they wouldn't ask the question. AOs are happy to say nonsensical things like 'reporting your AP scores can help you but won't hurt you.' Like what does that even mean? If the people from my school who reported high scores were helped then pretty much by definition I, who didn't report scores, am hurt because the pie stays the same size and those others now have an edge.

I find that 90% of parent advice here can be summarized as:
My kid did it, and colleges love it.

Or the converse:
My kid didn’t do it, and colleges don’t care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi- we're in the midst of applications on the common app right now and were wondering if my DD should submit AP score results that are 3? We're looking at schools like Penn State, VT, Pitt, Ohio State, Wisconsin, UMD, Delaware, etc. I keep hearing to only submit 4s and 5s but was wondering if that's really the case. Will she look bad submitting a 3? thanks

Depends on the selectivity of the school. For a school with acceptance rates below 30% for that specific major (if you have that info), I would not recommend submitting a 3.

So Penn State, Pitt, Ohio and Delaware, I would submit, but even if you did not it is no big deal. Assuming your GPA and scores are in the high end (75th percentile) of their acceptance.

Wisconsin and VT are debatable. UMD depending on major can go either way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid with 1520 SAT and only 3s and 4s reported- he had a total of 14 including senior year.

Substantial merit from Pitt plus Honors, UMD Scholarship. I have no idea if it helped or hurt but I figured better to be straightforward.

What major?
DC with higher scores and only got a small scholarship from Pitt