Do AP scores affect admissions to Columbia University or any other selective university?

Question

Do AP scores affect admissions to Columbia University or any other selective university?

Answer 1

i think ap scores only count for getting college credit.

Answer 2

It depends whether you are a junior or senior in high-school. If you are a senior, you will have already been chosen to attend a university by the time the AP exams roll around in May. So, if you apply, say, Early Decision or Early Action, then your AP exams that you will take at the end of your senior year won't hinder your ability to go to the university that had accepted you. Even if you bomb an AP exam in the May of your senior year, your accepted university will NOT decline you admission; however, you will not receive any credit for your course in which you took the AP exam. However, be aware that some universities give placement tests; so, even if you fail an AP exam and do well on the school's own placement exam, you will receive course credit for that particular school. Top tier schools do have these kinds of tests.

Now, if you are a junior or, perhaps a sophomore, and take the AP exams, that is different. If you do well on the AP exams, it will help you (certainly won't hurt you!) in your admission to selective universities. But, in the eyes of many admissions officers, AP and SAT II scores are seen somewhat equally. Strange, yes. They are totally different, yet they sometimes get put into the same category. However, AP scores give automatic credit with a 4 or 5, while SAT II's generally do not guarantee placement. SAT II's just show that you are well versed in a particular subject. However, if you do poorly on an AP exam and, say, you were applying to Columbia, then you would certainly want to get your college counselor to make note of that. To offset this imbalance, however, you need to do extremely well (in the mid 30's) on your ACT or score very highly on your SAT. Having a high PSAT score and having a National Merit qualification title will certianly help your chances also. The majority of students applying to these types of schools hold this title. Getting in to an Ivy lower than a 32 or 33 will put you effectively in the minority. So, if you are a junior or sophomore, doing well on the AP exams can only help you. For the most part if you slip up, they won't hurt your admission. Just have a counselor write a reason why you didn't perform well on that particular test. But keep in mind, at selective universities, your ACT and SAT scores are the most important. Even if you have all 5's on APs and over a 650 on 5 SAT II subject tests BUT have a 26-ish ACT score, good luck getting into Columbia or an Ivy. Advice to getting into Columbia: Not only have an extremely powerful academic record, but also have large amounts of community service, great teacher recs, well-thought and sincere essays, several leadership positions, and partake in research/internship opportunities at local area colleges in your community. AP exams are a little part of a big scope of things!! Good luck :-)

Answer 3

Everything counts.  The only problem would be if your AP was in physics or math and you were applying to the journalism school.  You would have to explain why you are "changing majors", often a symptom of immaturity.

Top-tier schools look for your ability to pay and those things that make you outstanding.  Of course, this is in addition to an unblemished record of academic excellence, unless you are a drunken slacker like GW Bush.

Answer 4

Not as much as your grade in the class does. They wont recieve your ap scores until after you get into their college and when they do they just use it for credit if you passed.