Can a good AP score make up for a bad grade?

AAdmissions readers who want to champion a file need arguments, and in the Stanford office we learned from, the hardest grade to argue past was a B in the very subject the student said she wanted to study. A B in chemistry from a future chemist raises a question the rest of the committee will ask, and the advocate needs a sentence ready before anyone does.

Most families respond to that grade with explanation, an essay paragraph or a note about a hard semester, which tells the committee only what the student believes about herself. Readers trust something else more, and the tool they relied on has changed since the advice was first given.