Ok, so I am going into 8th grade in August, which means preparation for high school. The school I am districted to only offers AP classes. They are also allowing us a choice to redistrict to another high school if we decide to take the IB classes. I have no idea which one to pick. Is one better than the other? The con about going to the school that offers IB is that I will probably have to leave most of the relationships I have made and kept in elementary and middle school. The pro about it is that my parents told me I will get my own car (when I’m 16) if I go to the IB school because they don’t have time to drive me that far. Do colleges recognize one more than another? What if I wanted to go out of the country for college, which would be better then?
I’d try to get data about how students score at the two schools. How you do is more important than which you take.
While the IB may be a bit more recognized in some countries, for admission not credit, one advantage of the AP in the US is that if you don’t take your IB exams till the end of high school, you cant use your IB scores to deminstrate your mastery in time for admission to US colleges, without a gap year.
But it doesn’t matter…for US Schools, you use GPA/SAT like everyone else. If you are super awesome in your IB scores, you will be super awesome in your GPA as well. IB may get you credits (and prepare you well) at your college.
Both are good. No need to go out of district unless you have a personal interest in IB. Colleges will see both as challenging curriculums.
Agree, from the US colleges perspective, the word of mouth is that they are equally respected (even if IB takers feel that theirs is more challenging). For schools abroad, they are “more familiar” with IB, but it does not mean that they do not consider APs. In fact, if you look at Oxford and Cambridge, they specify the number of AP tests that you need to get a “5” on to apply to their university
So in my opinion, the more critical questions for you to answer are: 1) which school performs better on college placement; and 2) which style (IB versus AP) better fits your personality/talents/strengths.
While friends seem important to you right now, 9th grade allows everyone to have a “clean slate”, so you will meet new friends that may even be better than your old friends. Also, you are not really leaving your community, so your old friends will remain your friends, especially in today’s social media world. I would not worry too much about this aspect when making your decision. Now, if you were thinking of transferring on your 11th or 12th grade, then that is a totally different matter–your community and social support should be strongly considered.
Hope this helps somewhat!
@Oliviadakota Ok, so I’m an IB kid. I’ve been to multiple colleges and have asked admission officers if AP or IB is more attractive on their transcripts. Their answer? There is virtually no preference, at all. They both look good if you do well in the classes.
The thing that I personally like about IB is that it’s an actual program. So like at my school, you’re in with the same 100 or so kids also taking IB so it’s like a little “family”; it’s much easier to make friends like that. Furthermore, they go easy on you your 9th and 10th grade. By “easy” I mean you only take pre-IB classes, which are basically honors classes but they’re called pre-IB because the workload is way more than a regular honors class. Last year as a sophomore, I took all pre-IB classes and two AP classes.
Junior and senior year is when things start to get real. You HAVE to have good studying habitats and be dedicated to your work. It’s a little complicated but all you need to know is that once you hit junior year, you’re officially in the IB DP (diploma program) program. Freshman and sophomore year you have the opportunity to drop (50% of people drop out freshman year) and then more drop out sophomore year; it’s highly discouraged you drop out junior year.
AP classes are really great, too, though. I personally would choose the IB school because IB kids typically get accepted at a much higher rate to the colleges they want to go to, however. If you look at the stats, you’re more likely to go to an Ivy if you’re an IB student (keep in mind that the likelihood isn’t a huge jump, though; you still have to work really hard). Also, since you want to go out of the country, and IB is an international program, it would probably look more familiar to foreign colleges than AP classes do.
So, all in all, I’d go to the IB school. You get a car, it’s easy to make friends, and I like being part of a little program like that. I mean i was a new kid this year and it was still fun for me. But if you feel more comfortable with the AP school, that’s cool too.