You’ve been told about AP Exams being something very important for your application. However, not many people take the specific academic environment of Andover into account. Andover is a unique place, especially in how other colleges see us. Typically, our curriculum is considered to be significantly more rigorous to colleges than many other schools, which was mentioned by my advisor, who is also a college counselor. Our school’s curriculum is practically to the AP level at its base requirements, and most students go beyond that. However, the looming lessons we have all been taught about AP exams remain, in that we must take them.
Many students over the years were taught that getting a 5 in AP exams would significantly boost our applications. Many people in Andover still resonate with this insight. Talking to many of my friends, they say they want to take APs to help their applications, believing that it will be a simple way to make your application stand out, even when many counselors or teachers tell us that simply doesn’t apply to us. It’s better to listen, especially to teachers who explain that the class can cover the AP material, but there would be little to no reason to take the AP.
After having a long discussion with my friend about this, I realized my own desire to take most of the APs I had wanted to was simply just to feel better about my applications. I looked at every opportunity I could to take AP, and when I was questioned about it, it became shockingly clear that there was no benefit in taking the APs. While APs feel safe, like something that you could easily fall back on, they’re hardly impactful to your career at Andover.
Notably, there are a few very specific situations in which an AP could prove beneficial to your resume. One would be taking AP like Environmental Science, as there are not many courses here that go into that. Though, it would only prove relevant to your application if you plan on going into Environmental Sciences.
Doing badly on those exams, then, is a different story. It may show colleges you apply to that you are less capable than you appear to be. So then, is there a point in the risk? Why take the risk if the results are uncertain? And if you do not, you will have to pay a seemingly small fee. It’s $10 for each college you choose to withhold scores from. However, this cost can quickly add up, especially considering the fact that this is only per one AP score, so if you do poorly on 2 APs and you choose to send scores to 5 colleges, you have already spent $100 dollars on withholding scores for two exams you also had to pay $200 to take. That’s $100 for each exam you take as well.
Notably, there are a few very specific situations in which an AP could prove beneficial to your resume. One would be taking AP like Environmental Science, as there are not many courses here that go into that. Though, it would only prove relevant to your application if you plan on going into Environmental Sciences.
Taking APs is, in the end, typically useless to your application. While it may feel easy to fall back on, it wastes a lot of your time in Andover. Time you could spend working on one of your classes may be spent cramming for an AP exam that does nothing for your application. However, in most circumstances, APs aren’t at all necessary and exist much more as a comfort than an actual addition to your application.
