AP, IB, or Dual Credit?

Pre-College Topics High School Life
1
  • PAP/IB = Pre Advanced Placement/International Baccalaureate

Background: I’m aiming for Ivy League or accelerated MD programs, basically the more competitive colleges >:D<

My school has the option of taking AP classes, doing IB Full Diploma, or taking dual credit classes via a community college. I’m trying to decide which path to go.

Freshman year schedule: AP Human Geo, Bio PAP/IB, Eng 1 PAP/IB (GT), Art 1 PAP/IB, Geometry PAP/IB, Spanish 2 PAP/IB, Boys Tennis 1 (JV), Medical Terminology

Next year schedule: AP World History, AP Bio, Eng 2 PAP/IB (GT), Algebra 2 PAP/IB, Spanish 3 PAP/IB, Chem PAP/IB, Boys Tennis 2 (hopefully varsity this year), and a mandatory privilege period.

If I do the AP/PAP path junior year: AP/GT Eng Lang Comp, AP Span Lang/Comp, AP US History, AP Physics 1, AP Chemistry or AP Psychology, Pre-Calc PAP/IB, Boys Tennis 3 and privilege period

If I do the DC path junior year: DC Composition I and II, DC College Algebra and Plane Trig, DC US History I and II, DC Biotechnology I and II, AP Physics 1, AP Span Lang Comp, Boys Tennis 3, and privilege period.

So should I take the AP path, DC path, or IB path?

2

College courses taken while in high school and their grades will be included in GPA calculations when you apply to medical schools. Can be good or bad, depending on what grades you earn (A or A+ = good, B+ or lower = bad, for medical school purposes). Some medical schools do not like pre-med science courses taken at community colleges unless more advanced courses in the subject area are taken at a four year school (the same applies to using AP credit to skip those courses in college).

IB diploma is generally considered a lot of work, and has fairly rigid course selection and scheduling, compared to typical US high school scheduling (with or without AP or college courses).

3

Thanks for the tips, @ucbalumnus

4

If you took IB Diploma…would you be happy with the level of Math you could take ? The sciences you could take?
IB Diploma can give you extra credits at college, for example:

SUNY Binghamton:Students in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program may receive up to 32 credits. To receive the full 32 credits, the following conditions must be met:

The IB Diploma must be completed with a score of 30 or more points; and
The student must complete at least three Higher Level exams with a score of 5 or higher.
Diploma holders who meet these conditions receive credit for their individual exam scores plus additional liberal arts elective credit to total 32 credits.

So this is a years worth of credit potentially. Would it matter for pre-med? Would it work with a BS/MD program?

5

In my high school you can get a potential of 24 credit hours transferable to any Texas public college or university. Also, I’m not sure completely whether it would work for a BS/MD (I think it should, if you transfer your science credits). Thanks for the tips. @bopper