AP vs. IB?

<p>Hey everyone! I am a very involved student and my school offers both IB and AP. I was wondering, if I take AP classes instead of going for the IB Diploma, will college admissions penalize me a little bit because I didn't take the IB courses, even though it was offered at my school?</p>

<p>I’m not sure if the adcoms will even know if your school offers the IB program. They get thousands of applications a year- I don’t think they have the time to check to see if each applicant attended an IB school. There’s another thread that was started a few days ago about the benefits. Check it out to see if the program is for you.</p>

<p>Don’t be silly. In “Admissions Confidential”, Rachel Toor indicates that anyone going for the full IB Diploma at Duke gets the max score in curriculum rigor — and for good reason (IB is the shizz). This is almost definitely true for all colleges. </p>

<p>But the IB Diploma Program is comparable to taking lots of AP classes (4+). Says the book. Colleges don’t outwardly express preference for either program.</p>

<p>Philovitist- I think you missed the point of what the OP was asking. They were asking if there is a penalty for not doing the IB program if it is offered at one’s school. They were not asking if colleges consider the program to be rigorous.</p>

<p>Have a sit-down meeting with your counselor about this. Your school should have thorough records of where students applied from the IB and non-IB tracks, and where those students got in.</p>

<p>Hey thanks for the comment, can you send me a link to the thread you were talking about? thankyou :)</p>

<p>Hey everyone, I wanted to know which was tougher/more rigorous. Going for the IB diploma or taking 5 AP classes in one year? Thanks :)</p>

<p>IB Diploma is very rigorous.</p>

<p>1st, you must take 6 courses PLUS TOK. Other than that, you have IAs in almost every class, the extended essay, IB orals.</p>

<p>This is what I have had to do for the IB:</p>

<p>IBH Chemistry - labs every two weeks, made up of 3 parts (Design, Collection & Processing, Discussion). 2 sets of the best 3 parts (i.e 2 design, etc.) will be sent to the IB as my internal assessment (IA) which is approx. 26% of my IB Chem grade. 3 Exam papers take in May 2012 making up the rest of the 74% of my grade.</p>

<p>IBH Physics - Same as Chem.</p>

<p>IBH English - 2 World Lit papers are sent to the IB, one comparative piece and one creative, both with analytical aspects. Combined account for 20% of the IB Grade. An Internal oral presentation must also be prepared, which accounts for 15% of the grade. An unseen internal oral commentary must also be conducted, accounting for another 15%. After this 2 papers taken in May 2012 will account for the following 50%. </p>

<p>IBH Italian - For italian, the internal assessment is an oral presentation with two papers also taken in May 2012.</p>

<p>IBS Psychology - I did this in one year, but it was basically two years of material condensed into one. The IA was a independent psychology experiment/study which accounted for 26% of my IB Grade. There were then 2 papers, taken in May 2011, which accounted for the remaining 74%. No orals.</p>

<p>IBS Math - The IA consists of 2 math portfolios on unseen topics that you will have covered. They are usually pretty difficult. Don’t know the percentages. Then there are 2 papers, one a calculator, one a non-calculator exam, both taken in May 2012.</p>

<p>On top of this there is TOK, which is usually a two year course that applies to all your courses of study, and in order to pass the IB, you must prepare a presentation and also write a TOK essay. Then you must write an extended essay on any topic. I chose Chemistry, but you can choose anything that you study. Together, EE and TOK can give you up to 3 bonus points in the IB.</p>

<p>Of course, class marks came from things my teacher graded, like tests, labs, essays, etc. Altogether, I am happy with my performance so far and would not have traded IB for anything. Hope this helped.</p>