<p>I got to paxon, and I'm a senior in IB.
To answer your question IMHO with the gpa you have now you wont make it. But Say you drop IB, Take only the classes you are good at. Try to take around 5 AP's by the time you finish, and work on extra curriculars, and SATs you can do it. It's still not too late.</p>
<p>You're going to have to work really hard. Dropping IB can help you focus if you feel overwhelmed. </p>
<p>I started with a 3.8 UW freshman year, and dropped slowly to 3.36 now, which makes me about borderline for UF.</p>
<p>IMO IB is pretty much for your own self benefit, to shape who you are...and make you a hardworking well rounded person. Not to help you get into a good school. If that's your goal, then AP would be a better route. </p>
<p>Dont worry too much about SATs now, but take some of the prep classes that are offered as electives. Its a good way to get you to study if your not motivated to do so yourself. (like me :) )</p>
<p>But if you are serious about getting into princeton you need a couple of things: good GPA I say about 3.8 unweighted. Pick a school sport, and try to become captain, talk to the coaches, get to know them etc this is important. Join a lot of clubs and try to hold offices in them. There are summer programs that are free that you can do, go to the guidance office where that college stuff is and i think you may find some there, if not ask ms bennit or whatever her name is about summer programs. (For next summer) Or talk to your counselor: Brietenbach/spivey</p>
<p>you guys all seem to have taken more than 3 HL classes for IB!!!
OUr school only allows us to take 3 HL classes and 3 SL classes.
Plus, HL classes, we have to take them for two years, which leave us with no other options for scheduel in our senior year.</p>
<p>Isn't this how IB works?
Maybe, I was all deceived by the school this whole time!</p>
<p>From the admission office perspective, it's a wash -- IB and AP are both viewed as evidence that you're challenging yourself as much as possible.</p>
<p>When I was reading apps, however, I always did have a soft spot for IB because it was more of a coherent course of study than is a random selection of AP courses -- success in an IB program does provide evidence that you'll be able to handle meeting the requirements of your major, for instance.</p>
<p>i am a 2nd year IB student myself and well i have a friend who did 1st year IB and then dropped it and now is doing AP...in her own words..she finds IB much harder than APs cuz when it comes to IB, its not just all about exams, you also have a ot of assignments like 4000 word extended essay, 1600 word TOK essay and then you have world literature assignments and on top of that, each subject has an internal assignemnt...for instance, economics has 4 eco commentaries to be done while math has 2 math portfolios etc... so overall, IB is definitely an enriching experience...tho you have to work your @$$ off over the 2 years if you want a good grade.....i myself like IB ...so yeah..</p>
<p>and zzibuya, in accordance to the IB rules, you have to take ATLEAST 3 HL classes and 3 SL classes if you want to get your diploma....but you are alowed to take more than 3 HL classes....provided that you can handle all the xtra work and pressure...plus u can take more than 6 subjects....for instance, i have this friend in my school, who takes physics, biology and chem HL and math, english and french SL....and she also takes eco HL, but eco HL is her certificate course......so you can go around the rules a bit and take more than 3 HLs..but provided that you are exceptionally good.</p>
<p>Well, I think it varies from school to school, but at my school, IB is generally known as much harder than AP. There are about 35 juniors in IB out of about 500 in our class, and people kind of think we're insane. Everyone in the top 10 in my class is in IB. Technically I think colleges have to say IB = AP, but I do think some colleges secretly value IB more since it is so all-encompassing. I don't know. Just my opinion.</p>
<p>Another option to keep in mind is that you don't have to take the AP course to take the exam and therefore qualify for credit/prove you're motivated, what have you, and most of the material will be covered in the IB course.</p>
<p>I love how my 2 year old thread has been revived.</p>
<p>Update: I'm a junior now. I decided to go with IB, and I'm actually done with my first year. (hahaha talk about OLD THREAD). I've also put my goals in a realistic perspective (those quixotic freshman dreams...) and I'm not considering Ivies anymore, lol.</p>
<p>I take it you all are into rigor of academic courses. If you want an idea of how Adcoms work (this is for UChicago, but it should be quite similar in many other schools) go up this site (I got it from an old CC thread):</p>
<p>I would reeeeeally like IB to be secretly weighted more...It would make all of this extra work I'm doing a heck of a lot more worth it. IMO IB is a lot harder then AP, and I've found that AP is more memorization of facts(excluding AP Calc BC) and IB is more learning concepts. Then again I've only taken history and science AP tests(besides calc) so I'm no expert on them.</p>
<p>IB is the college-level linguistics with several college acceptance requirements made into IB requirements, on, usually, the high school subjects.</p>
<p>I personally don’t think that IB is difficult per se, but sometimes I wish there was an IB language dictionary (aka college dictionary), despite my fluency in English. Perhaps it’s the textbooks my school uses, but it’s a small hindrance.</p>
<p>However, it is the real deal in terms of college prep. You get constant assessment, major writing works, the development of presentation, inquiry, full schedules, standard EP reminders, etc.</p>
<p>who knows of the best IB schools like the United World Colleges everywhere in the world? Try connecting your IB expectations with an international dimension…may be take the Italian Maturita or the German Abitur PLUS your IB…by the way, is that legal at the IBO head office in Zurich?</p>
<p>Hi, in my opinion ap vs. ib really just depends on the general teachers of different schools, for example for me, the ib program was relatively easy to get through and get a’s, only a couple tougher classes (ib history hl for me), tok, spanish were complete jokes of classes but that’s mostly due to the teachers probably being outliers in terms of strictness…anyways i think most colleges view ap and ib in pretty much equally, i mean even the check boxes they have for listing ur classes they have regular, honors, ap/ib. or something along those lines.</p>
<p>oh, and i just found i got into princeton yesterday so ib worked out just fine for me. i took several aps as electives as well tho, a total of …7 so maybe i got the best of both worlds? idk anyways good luck on ur decision!</p>
<p>well my school this year just started the IB program and i just got accepted and since i am in the Ginnie pig class i am have mixed feelings as to what this would do to my extracurricular activities such as my tennis swim and track should i still take ap? or should i bail out now while i can before it starts in fall of 2009? any advice? im also really lazy but i just want to get into uc san diego, ucla, or uci for its medical programs any advice if it is worth it to take ib over ap?</p>
so ib worked out just fine for me. i took several aps as electives as well tho, a total of …7 so maybe i got the best of both worlds? idk anyways good luck on ur decision!</p>