<p>I have to make a choice pretty soon and although i'm currently on enrollment for AP classes, I still doubt my decision and capable of changing enrollment to the IB program.</p>
<p>So there are several things that bother me right now regarding the IB programs and i'm not sure if they are myths, misconceptions or actual trends that have been observed before. Perhaps, you can enlighten me a bit?</p>
<ol>
<li><p>IB students have generally been accepted into more prestigious colleges(i.e. Harvard, UPenn) more often than AP students at our school. The only person to be accepted into Harvard from our school this year was an IB student.</p></li>
<li><p>After talking to numerous Alumni of the IB program, Most told me that the real worth in IB was only in the fact that they learned how to learn and gained a huge sense of accomplishment which helped them later in college. Which really down plays the effort/pay off ratio in my opinion since i'm more concerned about getting in to a good college.</p></li>
<li><p>Not all students in the program have faired well in the IB program. Although our school has had all 100% of the original IB students receive their diploma, some of them often had their GPA's tanked. Some graduates only ended going to UCI(Not bad at all but i think i could've just gotten in with AP) and i have heard, sadly, some ended up at our local community college.</p></li>
<li><p>Either program doesn't really matter in the end. What matters is the person who is taking the program and whether or not he or she makes the most of that program.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Background: I've always wanted to do IB since freshman year but this past year i realized that my motivations were highly based on my insecurities. I often caught myself saying "If i do IB i'm better than him/her" or " If i do IB i'll probably be writing this guy's paycheck in 10 years." or " This guy can beat me in a fight but if i do IB i'll be a better person" and even one time "IB is gonna get me some hot girls" </p>
<p>Although most of that is probably true, it kind of made me think that i didn't know what i was going into. So despite ALL these things i've come up with (mostly against IB) i still can't seem to decide whether AP or IB i better.</p>
<p>Hello! I just graduated from an IB school this year and along with my response I will offer my own insight about the program.</p>
<p>Our school is pure IB, with only AP Calculus AB offered. While all of us take IB classes, many of us are also able to take the AP tests and do pretty well on them. I took AP Calc AB my soph year and got a 5, and then I took IB Math 3 HL my junior year and took the BC test and got a 5. Much of the material covered by IB goes into more depth than AP (when it comes to HL courses.)</p>
<p>IB also has extra stuff you have to do in order to get the diploma which are the EE, TOK, and internal assessments. While a majority of us thought the EE was a huge waste of time, TOK was actually pretty interesting and internal assessments actually teach you some very valuable skills. Ex. In IB Bio HL you have to write some labs and analyze the data which can be helpful during your college years.</p>
<p>IB is hard. While I might get flamed about this, I genuinely believe that IB is harder than AP. Harder in the sense that our tests are harder (the curves) and that we do a lot of work (much of which we find useless). But even though it’s hard, it doesn’t mean you won’t do well. As long as you’re pretty smart and do your work, then you should be fine. </p>
<p>I totally agree with point #4. As long as you make the most of whatever you’re doing, then you will succeed.</p>
<p>In the end I semi-regretted going to my IB school. I could’ve been #1 at my local high school and had a much better chance at going to the higher name colleges, but whatever, I’m happy where I’m going. Just as a sidenote, I graduated with a 3.88 UW, 4.512W GPA at 21/368 in my class. I had a total of 5 B’s when I was applying to college, 4 of which were from freshmen year. In other words, I’m trying to dispel the illusion that IB is crazy hard, because I just had a rough first semester. Other than that, I’ve had straight A’s =P</p>
<p>There’s my two cents. If you have any more questions, please don’t hesitate to message me.</p>
<p>My grades actually IMPROVED over the course of my junior year in IB. It’s not harder, it’s just more work, and GPA tanking happens only for those with bad time management skills, or those who were already struggling in the freshman and sophomore honors classes.</p>
<p>It seems like you have a choice within the same school, which is lucky. And it really depends on you as a student. If you have more of a lopsided skillset, like if you’re a “math/science” person, the freedom of AP to focus your classes more to your skillset might be beneficial (within the confines of graduation requirements, of course). Especially if you’re a math person, the huge amounts of written analysis associated with every IB class might be more of a struggle. Now, I’ve never taken an AP class and I don’t know about the class requirements, but I do know that the Internal Assessment papers required are unique to IB, so that’s what I’m basing this off of.</p>
<p>However, if you consider yourself a very well rounded student with a solid ability to write and analyze, you will most likely succeed very well in IB, because you are required to test in at least 5 of the 6 subject areas.</p>
<p>Another thing to consider is depth vs. breadth. Many IB classes are two year courses, which obviously allows for more depth than a one year AP course. But with AP, you get a fresh set of classes each year, which I find to be a very attractive aspect of the program.</p>
<p>So I guess I don’t know enough about you as a student to make a suggestion. But I am wondering. Do you necessarily have to choose one or the other? or does your school offer the option of taking partial IB and partial AP? That might be an intriguing route to consider.</p>
<p>It depends on which program is stronger at your school, but one thing to also take into account is how much credit you will actually get in college, which AP tends to be better with for most domestic universities.</p>
<p>My general rule of thumb is, if you plan on going to a university outside the United States, do IB, and if you plan on staying in the country for college, do AP. Also, if you plan on going into math, science, engineering, do AP, and if you plan on going into humanities, do IB.</p>
<p>^ as a current IB student, I have to say that is sound advice.</p>
<p>though I am interested in the natural sciences, and chose IB. </p>
<p>I think IB really teaches you how to write well. Also, IB history classes are more analyzing/discussion than memorization, which often makes the classes more fun.</p>