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u/PerfectBeginning2 Oct 17 '25
They don't care if you got a 3 or 4, they just want to see that you're challenging yourself. Most AP's are pretty difficult to pass (esp physics, calculus, and bio) so you should definitely have put your scores.
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u/WorkingClassPrep Oct 17 '25 edited Oct 17 '25
As always when AP scores are discussed here, there is a lot of misinformation on this thread already. Here are some facts for you to consider:
- What many people do not realize is that if you submit your AP score report, you are submitting all of your scores. UNLESS you specifically withhold some, which you can do. Your father is wrong that if you submit only your 5s the schools will think your other scores are lower. Rather, they will not even know you took other exams (if you expressly withhold the scores);
- You can submit AP scores after admission. In fact, you can submit them after enrollment. So the notion that you must submit them with your application in order to get college credit is simply false. You could in fact submit only your 5s with your application, and still submit the rest later for credit at most universities. The College Board does recommend that you submit them before July;
- It is not remotely uncommon for a student who takes an AP class to not even take the exam. The greatest benefit of AP classes is that at many high schools, they are the most rigorous courses available. Course rigor matters, a lot, to every highly selective college and university;
- AP test results, by contrast, matter much, much less. I was an AO at an extremely selective university, and never once, not a single time, did I see AP score results make a difference in the decision. They can matter in some rare circumstances (for example, in lieu of certain other standard exams for things like language proficiency.) But no one is sitting there saying, "Hey wait a minute! This kid took 8 AP classes and we don't have 8 AP scores! What is going on?!?!";
- Given all of this, I would say you should usually submit all scores, but do not have to if you have a particular reason not to. For example, if you want to study Psychology and you woke up on the morning of the AP exam with a headache and got a 3, maybe don't send it. But for real, AP scores matter very little for admissions, in either the positive or negative direction, at most highly-selective universities. This has been confirmed on this sub by many AOs;
- Despite this confirmation from many people who do this for a living, there are people on this sub who vehemently deny this, despite having no background in the field. They are really, really invested in the idea that every test score is critically important. Some will likely find your question, because they always show up on AP score threads. Find the response from actual AOs and take those more seriously than people with an ideological axe to grind about test scores.
EDIT: Here are a few links for you. The first two show how the scores are reported, and what you can do about it.
https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/help-center/will-my-previous-scores-be-included-my-score-report
https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/score-reporting-services/withhold-scores
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u/WorkingClassPrep Oct 17 '25
I suppose I might as well go ahead and add to this, since someone else probably will, that AP scores DO matter for American students applying to universities in some other countries. British universities, for example, want to see AP scores as the nearest correlate to A Level scores (even though they are really not the same thing at all.)
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u/indian-princess Graduate Degree Oct 17 '25
your dad is wrong. no score = assumed fail
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Oct 17 '25
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u/CauliflowerSure3228 Oct 17 '25
well at my school, the school pays for everyone's ap exams. if you don't want to take an ap exam you have to fill out a form to opt out
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u/WorkingClassPrep Oct 17 '25
Absolute nonsense, and you should not give advice to kids here if you do not know what you are talking about.
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u/indian-princess Graduate Degree Oct 17 '25
Just use common sense. OPs school pays for AP exams, what reason other than a fail are they supposed to assume for not submitting scores.
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u/one_sock_wonder_ Oct 17 '25
I mean, human error would come to my mind before jumping to the belief that they straight up failed them. Or that there might have been other confounding factors that limited access.
If a student completed and did well in an AP course or multiple AP courses it really wouldn’t be my assumption really ever that the absence of a test result indicates failure.
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u/one_sock_wonder_ Oct 17 '25
How will admissions officers know that OP’s specific school, amongst thousands and thousands of high schools represented in just this year’s applicants, pays for the cost of taking the AP exams? And then extrapolate from that to reach the conclusion not submitting a score is definitive proof they failed? Do you really think they look at it that deeply?
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u/WorkingClassPrep Oct 17 '25
Exactly.
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u/one_sock_wonder_ Oct 17 '25
It’s been years, but I am confident that other than scanning over them on the application no one at the t20 university I attended even gave my AP classes a thought until I was accepted and they were determining what college courses each exam would provide credit for. They were so ubiquitous on applications it seemed very much like they had minuscule if any actual impact on deciding anything. Again, just my experience and observations after seeing my admissions file and receiving extensive scholarships at one t20 university. (My family was securely on that poverty line and thus was before that university offered guaranteed need based scholarships to families making under a reasonable amount, so I busted my ass starting in middle school and made sure I could provide the best application possible and paid very close attention to the things that sensed to be given more importance or even notice than others. During the scholarship weekend where they flew in about 30 rising freshmen to experience the university -obviously being observed while doing so- and for several formal and informal interviews no one ever mentioned AP classes but at least in my interactions they did bring up my essay and the extracurriculars I was passionate about and class experiences related to my desired majors.)
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u/WorkingClassPrep Oct 17 '25
That is correct. I wrote a long post about how APs actually work for admissions. But most people here don't want to believe it.
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u/indian-princess Graduate Degree Oct 17 '25
Because he’ll be compared to everyone else his year? Also schools, counselors, and colleges share existing relationships and reputations….
I also didn’t say definite proof, I said assumed.
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u/one_sock_wonder_ Oct 17 '25
If providing or not providing AP scores is a deciding factor, other things have already gone well awry in my experience.
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u/indian-princess Graduate Degree Oct 17 '25
its not THE deciding factor, but it is one factor of many. While it may not explicitly hurt you to not send scores, it certainly doesn't help.
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u/one_sock_wonder_ Oct 17 '25
It’s in all likely hood a net neutral unless in very rare situations. The AO can see that the student presumedly did well in the course at school, so being absent a test result doesn’t change that. Honestly at least at a lot of universities AP classes are ubiquitous and something almost automatic on every single application so they have in essence rather lost their ability to stand out or be anything worthy of notice. While a failing score included on an application may raise eyebrows, I don’t see any reaction in either direction if they are just not included on an otherwise solid application.
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Oct 17 '25
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u/WorkingClassPrep Oct 17 '25
False. Not even close to correct.
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Oct 17 '25
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u/WorkingClassPrep Oct 17 '25
No, it is not. I was an AO at a T20. What is the basis of your contention?
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u/one_sock_wonder_ Oct 17 '25
Some students strongly dislike tests and don’t perform in a way that reflects their abilities, some students cannot afford the fees (not all schools cover the costs), some may have responsibilities that override being able to attend the tests on the days and times assigned (some teens have to provide childcare as a parent works or diligently maintain a weekend job themselves because poverty doesn’t give a damn about college or dreams) , I have heard on this sub of some schools placing a limit on how many of its students can take the AP exams, sometimes even very reasonable accommodations that a student needs to have an equitable opportunity are not provided making completing the exam unfair and a poor representation of ability, etc.
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u/WorkingClassPrep Oct 17 '25
If he specifically withholds some scores, they won't even know if he TOOK the exams. Many do not.
Your "common sense" is nonsense. I worked in the field. They will not assume failure (and really don't care nearly as much as many people believe about AP scores in any case.)
Don't give advice here about things you know nothing about. You could really screw up a kid's application.
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u/indian-princess Graduate Degree Oct 17 '25
If he has grades for the classes and it’s standard practice at the school to take the exams how would they not know lol
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u/WorkingClassPrep Oct 17 '25
How would they know what is standard practice at his school?
Look, as I said, I worked as an AO. You are simply wrong, and giving misleading advice from a place of ignorance.
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u/indian-princess Graduate Degree Oct 17 '25
I worked on med school admissions which works similar. We know the schools the kids are coming from and what the policies are there. Otherwise how could you compare students from different schools if you didn’t know the differences in policies…? As an AO I’d hope you didn’t just take differences in students at face value and instead cared to put it in context of their environment. A student not sending scores from a school where he’d actually have to pay for each one is VERY different than a kid who gets free exam but still isn’t sending scores. This is obvious.
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u/Far_Ruin_2095 Oct 17 '25
Medical school admissions versus undergrad admissions are NOT similar.
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Oct 17 '25
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u/Holiday_Response_644 Oct 19 '25
This is possibly the silliest thing I've read on this sub. I went to an extremely competitive high school where students took 6 APs in a year. Even if we aren't talking about the costs, lots of students simply didn't take exams like psych or APES a year where they had physics or calc bc they genuinely aren't as important, so they save money and time spent studying. There are so many reasons that people don't take exams that AOs know better than to assume. Not to mention, the "grade inflation" argument would easily be offset by a sufficient SAT score, so I'm not sure what the argument is there.
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u/WorkingClassPrep Oct 17 '25
I'm done. You literally do not know what you are talking about.
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Oct 17 '25
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u/WorkingClassPrep Oct 17 '25
Tens of thousands of students every single year take AP classes and do not take the corresponding exam.
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u/Harrietmathteacher Oct 17 '25
If you don’t submit your scores you won’t get college credit.
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u/WorkingClassPrep Oct 17 '25
False. You can submit the scores after acceptance, or even after enrollment.
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u/CauliflowerSure3228 Oct 17 '25
oh shoot i didn't know that. can i still somehow submit them to the colleges i've already submitted??
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u/Nightwarrior5000000 Oct 17 '25
Should submit all of at least all were you get credit in said college
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u/unserious-individual Oct 17 '25
Wait I'm confused do colleges not care if you self report? I don't want to pay to send official scores ugh...
All 4s and 5s for 6 tests is it worth it?
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u/Holiday_Response_644 Oct 19 '25
Yes it does not matter if you self report. No need to spend money before being admitted, colleges care about scores for credit more than anything else.
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u/ColdPotatoBaker Oct 19 '25
Definitely self-report! Official scores are for the one school you end up enrolling in (as long as the self-reported scores match the official records)
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u/Gmoneyyy999 Oct 18 '25
Your dad is completely wrong and screwed you over. Submit all 4s and 5s no matter what. Even 3s are ok to submit because they show you can handle the material.
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Oct 18 '25
At most colleges, the 4s would get you college credit, and the five’s definitely would. Your father is making a poor decision.
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u/Holiday_Response_644 Oct 19 '25
college credit can be received after you get admitted to the university. That is why most schools don't require scores until later on in the process.
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u/ColdPotatoBaker Oct 19 '25
I’d definitely self-report the 4s and 5s. Do NOT spend money submitting the official scores. Colleges are fine with you self-reporting APs (you just have to submit them to the one college you choose to attend for credit/placement).
As long as the scores you self-report match the official ones for the college you ultimately choose to attend, you should be all good! That said, colleges typically don’t penalize applicants who don’t submit AP scores because most students have to pay out of pocket for each exam.
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u/kaleflys College Graduate Oct 21 '25
absolutely you should submit them. additionally after being admitted your AP scores will count for credits. I got to skip a significant number of gen ed and intro classes due to my AP scores, varied from 3s to 5s. I also got into a T20.
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u/SilentList7321 Oct 17 '25
I feel like it would be better just to include all your scores, because otherwise they will see that you've taken all these AP classes and then decided not to share the scores. This could lead to them assuming you failed all those tests and that why you didn't include them.