<p>Should I take AP or IB courses in order to get into MIT? Some people told me that it doesn't matter, but I'm not sure.
Can someone please help?</p>
<p>To avoid confusion, I meant whether I should take AP OR IB. I will take one of them, but which one should I take?</p>
<p>I don’t know about MIT specifically but my son took AP classes and graduated with an IB Diploma. He got college credit for both AP and IB scores on scores that were 5 and above for AP and IB tests where he scored a 6 or 7. But since just finishing his first semester of college (he is at Rice) he said he has had classes where stuff he studied in IB are the same things he is studying in college classes so he feels like it is easier for him. Also, he had little trouble adapting to the college workload because of the time management skills and organization of classes that IB taught him. He maintained his high GPA at college where many of his classmates GPA was lower on this first semester because of the transition from high school to college.</p>
<p>Thank you, that helps a lot. :D</p>
<p>IB is challenging, but fun if you like the courses you selected. I don’t know much about AP seeing as I don’t and never will take it, so I am biased, but I thoroughly enjoy IB. </p>
<p>I take IBH Chem, IBH Physics, IBH Italian, and IBH English, along with SL Math and SL Psych and of course TOK (just to show you my courseload). Both systems allow you to mix and match, but I think IB, along with having a large selection of interesting courses, FORCES the student to broaden their outlooks due to the core areas along with TOK. So in that way I think IB is less limiting than AP, but again I don’t know much about AP.</p>
<p>So, I’m actually in a (somewhat) unique position of having attended an IB school and transferred to AP, and here’s what I can tell you:
I personally consider IB to be more creatively oriented. More philisophical thinking and LOTS of writing. When I say lots I mean you will write papers in math class… -___- AP is much more straight forward, but I think just as rigorous, just in different ways. I also think that AP is actually less limiting, but this could depend entirely on the school you attend. In my experience, I’ve seen a wider variety of APs offered than IB classes. The other thing to consider is that IB has very strict requirements to acheive a diploma, so AP may allow more flexibility in scheduling, etc.
You may be able to tell, I prefer AP, however I think IB has it’s merits for sure. I have heard that colleges prefer IB slighty for admissions, but tend to give class credit for AP courses more easily. I know the second part is true for a lot of my friends, but the first may just be heresay. </p>
<p>If I were you I’d pick based on the variety of classes offered to you by each program and how much you value a writing/creative type of program.</p>
<p>I take both IB and AP courses (IB Diploma Candidate though). Besides what the rest of the other posters said which I mostly agree with, what you also have to consider is the many parts of IB that are required, which include: Extended Essay (basically a college-style/length research paper), CAS hours (Community and service, i think a minimum of 150 or 200 for the last 2 years of high school), ToK (philosophy class), Internal Assessments (varies per class, but mostly more papers to write for each class, but I know for sure that chemistry has labs and lab reports instead of papers, oral commentaries for english are stressful too), and then the final exams at the end of the year (either May or November). So there are a lot of parts to IB, and it is definitely a program instead of AP which are just classes. That being said (and what B52swi said), there are much more constraints in IB than you have for AP classes. For instance, you must take at least one class for each of IB six group subjects (primary language, secondary language, social sciences, science, math, and elective) and you have to take ToK and finish all the assignments in order to get your IB diploma (however, you can also just take IB classes without aiming to get an IB diploma). You also need to take at least either 3 higher levels and 3 standard levels or 4 higher levels and 2 standard levels.</p>
<p>So, I hope now that I’ve given you all the details, you can now know and have some insight why IB readies one for college so much, everything is paper and examination base, which is what colleges use for assessments. And I think a big difference between the two courses is their coverage of subjects and method of learning. IB focuses more on a few subjects, but goes very in depth with each subject (this year, we are spending a whole year just on biochemistry for HL chemistry), while AP covers a lot of subjects but not very in depth (superficially in my opinion of course). And IB focuses much more on analysis and being able to approach a question (in HL math, the test can literally ask anything that you’ve learned throughout your school career. From algebra to stuff that you didn’t even learn but must use other previous knowledge to assume the answer) as the IB tests are mostly if not all written answers. On the other hand, AP mostly has people memorize vocabulary and concepts, which is more straightforward, easier, and much less tedious, but is ultimately not that effective later in life.</p>
<p>This is just my spiel on IB vs. AP. I’m definitely bias towards IB though.</p>