<p>Okay, so I am thinking ahead but am a bit confused. What is the most demanding courseload if a high school offers Honors, AP, and IB? If you knew that you were not going for the IB diploma can you still take the classes or should you stick with AP/Honors? What is the differences that distinguish Honors from AP from IB? Help!!!</p>
<p>The more selective colleges like to see you to take the most rigorous courseload you can. Advantages of AP and IB are that they are more similar to college classes than just honors courses and in that sense are more rigorous and will better prepare you for college, also if you do well on the tests you can often get college credit (you would want to check each school you are interested in about their credit policies, some colleges that offer IB credit only give credit for the 2-yr HL courses and do not give credit for SL courses). </p>
<p>The debate between which is better, AP vs IB is an ongoing one. Many believe that a full IB program is considered to be more rigorous and in-depth than AP, however this often depends on the school. In general though, IB can be more demanding and time-consuming since a diploma candidate must also take TOK, do the extended essay and complete CAS hours. And since the diploma itself is not awarded until the summer after you graduate from hs, the diploma itself will have little bearing on whether you are accepted by colleges. However, you do not need to be a diploma candidate in order to take IB courses, and can opt to take certificate tests for specific classes if you want. But really there is not much difference so I wouldn't take an IB course just for the sake of it being IB if you would prefer to take a different AP course.</p>
<p>Would a more selective college prefer you to take IB courses, (without the diploma), rather than AP courses if the high school in question was known for having the only IB program in the county? And can you take a mixture of AP/Honors? I was in high school before there were IB, Honors, or AP courses, (feeling a bit like a dinosaur here, lol). Thanks!</p>
<p>Hey join the club! My S is currently attending a school in Boston (we are from the midwest) and his impression is that IB is still quite rare in many schools out east so I cannot imagine that IB is given much more if any preference over AP in many colleges (his advisor at orientation when registering this summer could not tell him much about what IB scores he could get credit for even though the advisor had all the info for AP scores). </p>
<p>In hind sight, I think my S might have been better off not doing IB since it increased his homework load tremendously and his school did not offer the best IB selections (for him); I really do not think it made much difference as far as colleges were concerned since many top students from his school (with higher grades and class rank than S) were not full diploma students and ended up at several higher ranked schools than S did. But that being said, it would be best to talk to one of the school counselors a little more about how they rank their classes, what ones other students typically take who aspire to top colleges, and what ones would be most appropriate for your child given his/her academic abilities, also is IB/AP graded or weighted differently than Honors so that it would affect class rank? They may offer only a limited number of IB courses which may be very different from the AP selections, in which case it really would depend on what courses your child was interested in (I doubt any college would hold it against him if he took AP statistics, for instance, if an IB equivalent was not offered). </p>
<p>Good luck!!</p>
<p>I think the decision to do AP or IB should be based more on your interests. If you want a broadbased curriculum I think IB is great - if you are less well rounded you might prefer the APs. Both are more advanced than honors.</p>