<p>Does it help get you into more prestigious colleges since so much fewer students in America take IB classes compared to AP classes, so the colleges would want more IB students.</p>
<p>The number one thing is to take the most challenging curriculum possible. The consensus everywhere, though, is that IB and AP are about equal in terms of college admissions. Some high schools offer one or the other, or both, or neither. The adcoms will look at your hs profile. If IB and/or AP are not offered, it doesn't hurt you; but if they are offered, you pretty much have to take them. A 4.0 gpa without advanced courses in a hs that offers them is a very bad thing.</p>
<p>"A 4.0 gpa without advanced courses in a hs that offers them is a very bad thing"
i hate how people take easy classes just to get a higher gpa. there are at least 5 people in national honor society at my school who have never taken an honors or ap class while there are people who do take ap classes but don't have a gpa that is high enough to be in nhs. it's not fair to them because they work so much harder.</p>
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<p>Well than maybe they shouldn't be taking AP classes if they can't do well in them.And getting a 4.0 and taking no Ap or honors classes isn't a bad thing to do if you plan on going to an instate school which is still a great school,Like Uva,Ucla,Um,etc.</p>
<p>It's tough to get into instate schools without AP/honors. Last year UCLA took 410/7960 (5.15%) of students with less than 8 semesters of honors classes in 10th-11th grade. I'm gonna guess some of those are athletes.</p>
<p>DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDE, IB better help, or else, i'm gonnnnnnnnaaa,..jsdjhsjfsdhfksdjhsj.....!!!!!!</p>
<p>A gentle reminder to you that some of the top high schools in the US don't have AP.IB and get very nice numbers of students into the most selective colleges.</p>
<p>I said, though, that they only expect AP courses on your transcript "if they are offered".
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A 4.0 gpa without advanced courses in a hs that offers them is a very bad thing.
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<p>Perhaps using the words "bad thing" may have triggered a response by some. Certainly having a 4.0 without IB/AP at a high school that offers them would not be a good thing at the extremely elite colleges. It won't keep anybody out of college, though.</p>
<p>Also, as commonsense34 pointed out, large public universities are more numbers driven. I am not sure if I would put UNC-CH and UVA in that category. I have no idea what the UC schools do.</p>
<p>It depends a great deal on what colleges you're looking at. Universities in Florida go out of their way to attract IB students, as do a number of other universities. Duke makes note if you're in IB, and U Chicago seems to be fond of IB'ers as well. Others, like Caltech, say that they don't care what program you're in as long as it's challenging. </p>
<p>Keep in mind, though, that if IB is offered at your school, many colleges would expect you to have taken it.</p>
<p>dufus- If you're an in-state student and are doing well in IB, you're going to be accepted at UNC Chapel Hill.</p>
<p>All I can say is that IB is a pain in the ass, but my teachers are excellent. I just hope my 3.5 looks reasonable with my courseload this year and every year.</p>
<p>7 IB this year with 2 AP (3.4ish)
6IB last year with 1 AP and 2 other (3.5ish)
10th had 2 AP and the rest Pre-AP (toughest non-AP, 3.6 this year).</p>
<p>4 HL, 3 SL, 5 AP or about a total of 16 AP's in terms of semesters.</p>
<p>hmmm... when my ib coordinator makes speeches to try to get ppl to do IB, he always repeats the phrase "that's not to say that these people wouldn't have gotten into a fine university regardless"... and that's one of the more important things about IB - most ppl that decide to do IB (unless u go to a school where ur forced to do it) are motivated enough that they would have found something rigorous to do instead and would have been accepted to a fine university.. one thing IB isn't good for is taking it and not doing well, thinking that it'll get u into college easier.</p>
<p>when u say not doing well, what exactly do you mean? would a 3.45 be not doing well? like do you mean getting a couple of c's here and there.</p>
<p>IB is more to prepare you for college than to get into college.</p>
<p>Study concludes that Florida high school AICE program graduates at the University of Florida achieve higher average GPA (3.46) than AP, IB and Dual Enrolled students</p>
<p>University of Florida Director of Admissions, Bill Kolb, addressed faculty concerns about whether students given advanced college credits for freshman level courses through their participation in acceleration mechanism programs such as the Advanced International Certificate of Education (AICE), Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB) and Dual Enrollment (DE) were performing as well at the University as those students who were taking the freshman level courses at the University before moving on to sophomore level courses. His study divided first year college students according to acceleration program participation and compared their average end of freshman year grade point averages (GPAs). The students from these acceleration programs were not only taking freshman level college courses, but sophomore level college courses during their first year as a result of earning advanced college credits. Acceleration group students had been compared twice before the Florida AICE program graduates arrived on campus. The first time he found that IB students (3.08) outperformed AP (3.02), DE (2.65) and non-acceleration program students (2.60). The second study found that AP students (3.12) had a higher end of freshman year GPA than IB (3.10), DE (2.75) and non-acceleration program students (2.63). When he reviewed the performance of Florida High School AICE program students he found that their average end of freshman year GPA was 3.46 exceeding each of the other groups. Evidence that the AICE program not only prepares students for acceptance into universities, but to be successful once theyre there.</p>
<p>What do you IBer's think about this?</p>
<p>Very informative and adds to the discussion.</p>
<p>The minor difference between AP and IB is almost certainly just statistical noise. I hate it when writers say something like "IB students (3.08) outperformed AP (3.02)." Wow, they outperformed them by 0.06. Like to run an ANOVA (analysis of variance) test on that. However, the 3.0 for AP/IB is probably significant over the 2.6 for non-AP/IB. I suspect the causal relationship is that the AP/IB students are more studious, but who knows. The really interesting thing is that AICE outperformed AP/IB by 3.4 versus 3.0. If AICE is a better program, then that would be important. However, statistics can be funny. Something like this that is just reported in a newspaper can be misleading, and probably needs to be looked at more. Two obvious things are the size of the statistical sample for the AICE participants and if there were any other factors differentiating the AICE group. For example, was AICE only offered at extremely competitive magnet schools when AP/IB was offered at a large number of public schools. Basically not enough info, but I'm sure somebody is looking at it.</p>
<p>another thing to consider - think of all the people that take AP tests and take IB tests, who really shouldn't be taking them, but manage to scrape out a passing score (say a 3 on AP or a 4 or 5 on IB). these people are also included in that study. it depends on the type of school u go to, of course, but if u go someplace where the IB/AP program is not overpopulated by these people, and ur in it, that most likely means ur going to score over those averages. </p>
<p>also, tho i don't have any impressive statistics, through talking to people that have graduated our IB program, i have realizled how much of a help it is in actually preparing u for college. i have yet to meet an alum that has said that college is harder than IB. granted, most of these people scored over a 30 on their diploma, and most of them in the higher range, so it is possible they would have found college easier than AP, too. </p>
<p>as for what classifies as doing "poorly" in IB, i mean mostly C's and D's</p>
<p>first term university GPA's
non-acceleration program students (2.60) about 2.6
DE (2.65) about 2.7
AP (3.02) about 3.0
IB students (3.08) about 3.1</p>
<p>Freshmen Year University GPA's
non-acceleration program students (2.63) about 2.6
DE (2.75) about 2.8
IB (3.10) about 3.1
AP students (3.12) about 3.1
AICE (3.46) about 3.5 </p>
<p>If your school offers both, I think it's really important to see which one is your school's strength, and how many other people are taking the full package IB. the IB also harps more on the social studies and humanities (endless essay writing in every subject, sometimes even in the math and sciences), while the AP focuses more on understanding the subject matter. i talked to my chem teacher about IB chem and he said half the time it's useless since you don't even master the basics before going on to organic chem and stuff, while in AP chem you get the hard basics drilled in you first before you head off to college. however if you ask an english teacher they'll praise the IB to heaven on its rigorous writing skills you get.</p>
<p>for example in my school, the IB coordinator has to work really hard to recruit people to take the full IB because our program is just not that strong compared to the AP program (i know because my old school was full IB)</p>
<p>That's true. A weak or not-well-taught IB program would be a terrible choice. I disagree about IB Chem HL, though. It covers far more topics than AP Chem. I took both the IB and AP exams and thought the AP chem exam was pathetically simple. I took Organic Chem last semester and found that IB Chem had prepared me well. Then again, the IB program at my school was very strong. </p>
<p>The only core AP subject that has a considerable advantage over IB is physics. </p>
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they'll praise the IB to heaven on its rigorous writing skills you get
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What do you think you'll be doing in college??? IB'ers can whip out a five page paper in an hour or two, but the poor AP kids freak out about writing a paper. :p</p>