AP vs. IB

<p>Hello,</p>

<p>I am currently a Junior in high school. I have taken the most rigorous classes availible to me up to this point, and going into junior year I had a 4.71 GPA. My school offers the IB program to juniors and seniors, but I decided to take AP classes instead. I'm in all of the same classes as IB students (4 APs, 2 Honors, 1 academic), but mine are AP instead, so I won't get the IB diploma. Could this hurt my chances of getting into Cornell? (at my school, the only way to be valedictorian is to take full IB. There's an extra honors class that IB offers only to IB students, so only they can get a 5.0)</p>

<p>Your chances won’t be affected. AP and IB are weighted equally (as I’ve been told).</p>

<p>The difference is if your GC would check off the box that asks, “Did the student take the most rigorous classes the school has to offer.” Does your school rank? If so, your ranking maybe lower than other IB students. At my younger daughter’s school IB is weighted more than AP. I am a bit confused by what you mean by you are in the sames classes as IB students. Those courses are taught differently. </p>

<p>IB is better than for humanities students, if you are more math/science person and wand to take more advanced math than AP would be better for you. IB is more well rounded.</p>

<p>I don’t think my school ranks students. Actually, I am in exactly the same classes as IB students. AP and IB students have the same teacher in the exact same class with the exact same curriculum: the only difference is the test they take at the end of the year (AP test or IB test). I’m just afraid that because IB was offered and I chose not to take it, it’ll detract from my application. The main reason I didn’t take it was because IB makes you take certain classes (like Theory of Knowledge and Philosophy) which prevented me from taking my classes (like Orchestra and Physics).</p>