For general college preparation:
- AP: more a la carte selection of courses (which ones varies by high school), more aligned with US high school and college frosh courses.
- IB: the DP is a relatively rigid curriculum with limited options (check which courses are offered HL and SL); courses are a lot of work, but may be less well aligned with US high school and college frosh courses.
- College/DE: if taken at a college, can give the student a taste of how college courses are run, easing the eventual transition to college later. Transfer credit is less predictable beforehand, except perhaps from community colleges to same state public universities.
Pre-meds have additional considerations:
- College courses taken while in high school and their grades must be reported on medical school applications. They will be included in college GPA calculations for medical school applications.
- Repeating college courses or AP or IB credit will require marking “repeat” on medical school applications.
- Many medical schools dislike seeing pre-med course requirements fulfilled by AP or IB credit or community college courses. It is often recommended that pre-meds take additional higher level courses in the same subject area if they skip lower level courses this way.
More on this subject: FAQ Pre-med courses, AP/IB/etc. credit and college/DE courses, etc.