The College Board offers several AP awards that recognize students for strong performance across multiple AP Exams. These range from the basic AP Scholar award (requiring scores of 3 or higher on three exams) to the AP Capstone Diploma and the AP International Diploma, each with progressively more demanding requirements. Here’s what each award requires and how you receive them.
AP Scholar Awards
The three AP Scholar awards are the most common recognitions, and they’re based on how many exams you pass and your average score across all AP Exams you’ve ever taken. If you retake an exam, only your highest score counts toward the calculation. Subscores, like the Calculus AB subscore from the Calculus BC Exam, don’t factor in.
AP Scholar: You need scores of 3 or higher on three or more AP Exams. This is the entry-level recognition and the easiest to earn.
AP Scholar with Honor: You need scores of 3 or higher on four or more AP Exams, plus an average score of at least 3.25 across all AP Exams you’ve taken. That average includes every exam on your record, not just the ones where you scored a 3 or above, so a low score on one test can drag it down.
AP Scholar with Distinction: You need scores of 3 or higher on five or more AP Exams, plus an average score of at least 3.5 across all AP Exams taken. This is the highest tier of the standard Scholar awards and signals consistent performance across a broad set of subjects.
Your average is cumulative, meaning it’s recalculated each year using every AP Exam you’ve taken throughout high school. That means you might not qualify one year but earn the award the next as you add more scores to your record.
AP Capstone Awards
The AP Capstone program is a two-course sequence, AP Seminar and AP Research, that focuses on research skills, argumentation, and independent inquiry. Completing these courses and their associated exams can earn you one of two recognitions.
AP Seminar and Research Certificate: Awarded to students who score 3 or higher on both the AP Seminar and AP Research Exams. You don’t need any additional AP Exams beyond those two.
AP Capstone Diploma: Awarded to students who score 3 or higher on AP Seminar and AP Research, plus score 3 or higher on four additional AP Exams of their choosing. The four extra exams can be in any subject. This is a more substantial credential because it combines the Capstone research sequence with breadth across other disciplines.
Not every high school offers the AP Capstone program, so check whether your school participates before planning around these awards.
AP International Diploma
The AP International Diploma (APID) is designed for students studying outside the United States or for those who plan to send their AP scores to a university outside the U.S. To qualify, you need scores of 3 or higher on five or more AP Exams, and those exams must cover four specific content areas.
- Content Area 1 (Languages): Two eligible AP world language or English exams across two different languages. You can’t use both English Language and English Literature to satisfy this, and you can’t use two exams in the same world language (like Spanish Language and Spanish Literature).
- Content Area 2 (Global Perspective): One AP Exam from a list of courses with an international focus, such as Comparative Government and Politics, Human Geography, Macroeconomics, World History: Modern, Art History, or Environmental Science.
- Content Area 3 (STEM): One AP Exam in math, computer science, or science. This includes options like Calculus AB or BC, Statistics, Computer Science A, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and several others.
- Content Area 4 (Additional Exam): One more AP Exam from a broad list of eligible subjects. English and world languages (other than Latin) don’t count here, but nearly everything else does, from history and social sciences to arts and STEM.
A single exam can satisfy only one content area, so you need at least five distinct exams to cover all four areas plus the overall five-exam minimum. This award is specifically geared toward international contexts and carries weight with universities abroad.
How Awards Are Announced
You don’t need to apply for any AP award. The College Board automatically evaluates your scores each year and determines which awards you’ve earned. If you qualify, the awards appear on your score report starting in mid-July, and you’ll receive an email notification in late summer or early fall.
To view and download your award certificates, sign in to the College Board’s online score reporting system with your account. Any awards you’ve earned will appear after your exam scores. You can download a PDF containing certificates for every award you’ve earned throughout your AP career, which is useful if you want to include them in college applications or a personal portfolio.
Do AP Awards Help With College Admissions?
AP awards don’t carry the same weight as your actual AP scores and grades, which admissions offices review directly. Colleges already see your individual exam results on your score report. That said, listing an AP Scholar award on your resume or application provides a quick shorthand showing you performed well across multiple subjects. The AP Capstone Diploma can stand out more because it signals research and writing skills that go beyond standard exam performance. None of these awards guarantee admission advantages, but they’re a low-effort way to add a credential to your record since they’re granted automatically.