<p>At my high school only IB classes are offered. Would it matter to colleges whether I take IB or AP? Would someone who takes AP have an advantage over me (or vise versa)?</p>
<p>In general, for admissions, no, it will not hurt your chances. Colleges look to see if you took the most rigorous classes, and at your high school, that would be IB classes.</p>
<p>IB is better (and less “crammable”) than AP, honestly, and it’s highly regarded by US colleges (as it should be).</p>
<p>IB is not necessarily better for any given student. The curriculum is much more rigid, so students who are more than a year advanced in a subject (commonly math) may find it to be too constraining with respect to that subject.</p>
<p>However, IB courses are likely to be more rigorous than typical high school courses at typical (non-elite) US high schools. But most reports here indicate that they are a very large amount of work, relative to how advanced one gets in the various subjects (the IB HL courses are theoretically college frosh level, like AP courses, although many of both IB HL and AP courses are less commonly accepted for subject credit due to not being equivalent in content).</p>
<p>Does your high school offer other more rigorous and advanced options (e.g. taking courses at a local college if you are advanced to that level)?</p>
<p>Save yourself. I am a Senior and am doing the IB at an American International School and it will work out for me but If I had done things differently, I would not have done it. I could have gotten a $60,000 scholarship but the IB killed my gpa. If you are applying to American colleges, take AP instead and do well on your SAT. IB works perfect for people going to Canada or Europe. Most colleges still give you only credit for HL courses in the US. Find out a way to do AP, instead of doing useless and pointless IAs, study hard for the SAT/ACT and develop your extra-curricular activities such as leadership roles and you might even find yourself getting into better colleges than you would have if you did the IB. </p>
<p>Seriously, the IB is a gpa killer and your gpa is the most important thing. If you think you can handle it and you know how to do time management and enjoy taking countless amounts of worthless junk, go for it. I just saw the syllabus change for some classes such as Biology HL and SL and its getting even harder. Just do AP and enjoy the time of your life at a high school which only comes once in a lifetime.</p>
<p>You are not going to miss out on anything and you will instead be very happy if you avoided the entire IB diploma. Please send me a message if you have any more questions about the IB.</p>
<p>I think that they are both viewed equally. I am taking both AP and duel enrollment, and I’m really enjoying it. It gives you the power to choose courses that interest you and when to taken them. Granted, I don’t know much about IB (as I would have had to transfer to take it, and didn’t want to). But I definitely don’t regret taking AP.</p>
<p>My son was full IB Diploma and AP Honors with Distinction - as a parent I say go AP, I saw what the IB did to his GPA and thank heavens he took enough AP classes to help bring it back up but the workload is crazy ridiculous. Many of the kids going into IB already have the time management skills, they were mostly the ones that already were studying before playing so I’m not sure how much that helps. Again, I’m the parent - my son would say something totally different but I think it’s his pride that would be responding - I don’t think he would say he made a bad choice about something that he invested sooooo much time in. And my son did participate in other EC’s.</p>
<p>Having said that - I’m referring to 1 school…after reading through CC I believe each school may treat “class” differently - I certainly see more time alloted for certain things in different schools.</p>
<p>Every college my sons have visited, and all that we’ve researched, place the highest emphasis on taking the most rigorous course load your high school offers. If your school offers an IB diploma, a college might want to know why you chose not to pursue it. There are valid reasons, which most colleges will respect, such as a particular academic or artistic passion that interfered with the IB curriculum. Colleges all weigh GPAs. They will treat a B in an AP or IB class as an A. For that reason, it usually is not advisable to shy away from the more advanced classes on the hope of earning a better grade. Some schools offer AP classes instead of IB. This is particularly attractive, for instance, to very strong Math or Science students who want to take extra classes in those disciplines instead of some IB classes. Many colleges (including most public universities) award sophomore status automatically to students who receive the full IB diploma. </p>
<p>Agree that all highly selective schools emphasize rigor of high school coursework, so if IB are the most advanced courses offered by OP’s school, then taking IB matters. If OP has good reasons to do selected IB classes rather than full diploma (often a choice for strong math/science students who are doing dual enrollment or other courses), that can be an appropriate decision. </p>
<p>However, most schools that we have visited say the first thing they do is “unweight” the gpa to remove the bump for AP/IB courses and then compare rigor of course load. </p>
<p>There is also tremendous variation in how schools treat test scores for IB. Many only give credit for HL courses (the two year classes), other only give credit for 6 and 7 (highest possible IB score), not 5s. If the OP has specific schools, or types of schools, they may consider, then spend some time on websites to see how IB scores are treated. IB students can self-study for some APs in their IB subject matter, as getting a 4 in an AP exam can be easier to accomplish than a 6 or 7 on the HL exam, depending on the subject matter. My kid did IB certificate, and if he could do it over again, he would have self-studied some AP sciences to get some distribution credits out of the way at his university. </p>
<p>I do not mean to sound rude but I (and everyone at my school) take IB classes (not full IB for me because I did not have a desire for the IB diploma) but they are not as hard as these people are saying. They’re all HL classes. Talking to many many many colleges, they regard IB as the better of IB and AP, mainly because of how prepared the IB students are compared to AP students. Don’t get me wrong, IB classes are hard but not unmanageable. There are more requirements for IB students than AP which is another reason colleges like IB better. I am also a full time student athlete and involved in various ecs. The trick to IB is time management. Either way, take some form of IB or AP because those are both advanced programs which is what colleges look for. </p>
<p>Take AP. Do extracurriculars. Enjoy high school. IB is just unecessary stress that has no benefit in college admissions. Take AP I promise you’ll be much happier, IB will kill your gpa and stress you out.</p>
<p>Parent of IB students here – it really depends on the school. At my kids’ magnet school, IB is considered more rigorous than AP. But the IB kids are varsity athletes, deeply involved in time-intensive ECs, and get it all done without being crazy. Sure, the core classes – English HL, History HL, Bio HL – are tough courses with a lot of work. But they are not impossible. The language, art/music and math courses are not as tough and completely manageable. Ask around at your school, since it really seems to depend on the specific implementation at your school. </p>