What if I don't have APs?Answered
I belong to a low-income family and I cannot afford to pay for the AP exams. Being an international student, would having no APs in my coursework affect my application?
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3 answers
Hey @mmkdp,
I actually answered a similar question a few days ago here: https://www.collegevine.com/questions/15176/course-works
I'll paste the most applicable part of the response below though, so you won't have to read through the whole thing ;)
Basically, schools should be understanding of your lack of educational opportunities because you are low income, especially with the holistic review process. "Also, your chances should not be impacted by this. In your application, you should be given an opportunity to explain any extenuating circumstances (economic hardships, no AP courses offered by your school, etc.).
If you are taking some other sort of advanced-level courses, either provided by your school or a local university, they will likely be viewed as the same or better as AP/IB courses because you took initiative despite having low access to these sorts of opportunities."
Hope this helps!
You should be able to take AP classes without taking the exam. Also the college board has fee waivers so if you can't afford it you can be exempt from paying. (At least in the US but I'd imagine it's like that everywhere you can take it since it's still run by the same organization)
If selective schools aren't your goal not having any won't be a problem as long as you do well in your regular classes. If you do want to go to selective schools they will want to see rigor, Aka AP classes. This of course doesn't matter if your school doesn't offer any AP classes. If your a senior rest assured the application should have a section called something like special circumstances where you could explain why you didn't take any or anything else like not having EC's because you have to work or babysit your siblings.
Not necessarily. As long as you take the classes they should see that you of course put some effort in. If you feel like it would affect your chances of application I would include in any essays that you possibly can or any additional information sections that you, unfortunately, didn't have enough income to afford these AP tests.
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