Does Cornell University require Advanced Placement (AP) exam scores? (2024)

FAQs

Does Cornell University require Advanced Placement (AP) exam scores? ›

Applicants to Cornell University are not required to submit Advanced Placement (AP) exam scores. Students who have taken AP exams and wish to submit their scores are welcome to do so.

What Ivy League schools value the most are your transcript, extracurricular activities, essays, and recommendations. However, strong AP scores can indeed be a positive addition to your application, as they show your commitment and ability to handle college-level courses.

While you are not required to take AP classes to be admitted to Cornell, you must report your scores if you take the AP exams. Some schools do not offer AP classes. However, if your school does, you should take them.

Cornell's individual academic departments determine whether to award exam-based credit. In all cases, scores must be at the highest level (i.e., 4 or 5 for APs; 6 or 7 for IBs). Some departments administer their own department exams to determine credit and placement instead.

How Many AP Classes Should You Take for Ivy Leagues and Other Top US Universities? For students aiming for the Ivy League and Top 20 schools in the United States, a good target is to take (and pass) 10-14 AP classes throughout your high school career — or 3-4 each year.

Advanced Placement for Cornell Credit

A score of 3 usually merits exemption, and scores of 4 or 5 usually entitle you to one or two course credits as indicated in the "Credit" column. Be sure to have an official AP Score Report sent to Cornell.

If you want to report AP scores, you should definitely report tests on which you received a five, and for many schools, a four is also very impressive.

The Hotel School in the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business is the least competitive with an acceptance rate of 30% The School of Human Ecology has a 23 % acceptance rate, the second-highest acceptance rate of all the schools at Cornell.

Cornell University

Out of 49,114 candidates, Cornell accepted 5,330, for an admission percentage of around 10.9%. This acceptance rate is more than twice as high as the rates for our top two universities, Harvard and Columbia, and as a result, it offers prospective students the best chance of getting accepted.

Academic record: Students should have a GPA of 3.5 or higher, and should have excellent analytic and communication skills. Extensive, sustained record of public and community service: Students are asked to list public and community service for both high school and college.

Does Cornell ask for q1 grades? ›

Showing articles from first-quarter tag

As an early decision applicant, first quarter grades and the Midyear Report are not required and will not appear on your application checklist. Once your first quarter and/or midyear grades are available, you are welcome to ask your school counselor to submit them to Cornell.

Most applicants to Ivies tend to have 8-12 AP classes, so you should aim to reach that number as well to be considered competitive. Additionally, 83% of admitted students at Cornell are ranked in the top 10% of their graduating classes. You'll want to aim for the highest GPA you can achieve in your classes.

For schools like Brown and Cornell, the middle 50% SAT score range is 1510-1750 for Brown (https://admission.brown.edu/explore/brown-facts) and 1470-1510 for Cornell (https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/colleges/cornell-university/admissions).

In short, all scores of 5 on AP exams should be reported to elite colleges. However, for scores of 4 or 3, submitting the scores is dependent on the student's coursework and other AP results. Scores of 2 or 1 should never be shared.

Students who take IB classes in high school have higher acceptance rates into Ivy League schools, but this doesn't necessarily mean a higher acceptance rate than AP students; it just means that IB students have a higher acceptance rate than the general application pool.

Harvard Admission Statistics

Harvard is the oldest institution of higher education in the US and consistently ranks #1 hardest Ivy League to get into. Founded in 1636, Harvard offers students a world-class education from some of the most brilliant professors in the world.

Harvard only accepts AP® scores of 5 for course credit. If you have 4 scores of 5, you can opt to obtain Advanced Standing. You can use AP® credits to opt-out of lower-level classes. Harvard has general academic requirements that all students must take.

Colleges and universities use AP exam scores as a factor in the admissions process, but they do so while considering them alongside the student's GPA, extracurricular activities, and other application information. Said differently, AP exam scores are just one factor in making admissions decisions.

Test scores are most often reported as the middle 50% of scores from students who enrolled during that class year. Pre-COVID, all eight Ivy League schools required the SAT or ACT be submitted for undergraduate, first-time, first-year applicants. During the pandemic, all these schools instituted test-optional policies.

Advanced Placement exam scores are not eligible for course credit at Brown, but students may use certain AP scores for placement to enroll in higher-level courses and/or to satisfy concentration requirements.