does IB help?

<p>does UF like IB students? I heard that their program is more rigorous than the people who just take honors and AP courses and that IB is pretty presitigous there. Do most IB students with good grades, scores, and ec's get in?</p>

<p>From what I can understand UF loves IB students. They accept the most out of all the schools in the country. This was one of the main reasons I was going to go into the IB program but in the end I decided it was just too much for me. I didnt want to have to take four years of a foreign language and all the rest that you have to do in that program.</p>

<p>From what my friend told me IB students are allowed to apply early decision but are obligated to go once they are accepted. Of course there is no more early decision so that shouldn’t affect anything anymore.</p>

<p>I was in IB and I think all of my classmates who applied to UF (three years ago) got in. UF has the most former IB students in the world, so you can assume that they want to maintain that stat. As whether IB will actually help you in college is debatable.</p>

<p>IB helps because it is usually the most rigorous courseload a high school can offer...if you start out poorly (C/D) i would suggest dropping out of the program immediately and taking mostly honors classes along with a ton of extracurriculars instead of killing your GPA by continuously doing poorly in IB</p>

<p>IB helps.
Are you a current IB student?</p>

<p>nearly all the IB applicants at our school got in. The key is applying as early as possible.</p>

<p>I did IB. I wouldn't do it again. I could've gotten in without it and had a much less stressful high school experience... but that's just me.</p>

<p>I heard some 30 something kids at the IB school near my home. I got in w/o IB. The thing is...I wanna spend 4 years in college, not just 3. And I didn't wanna stress it during HS. I AM SOOOOO glad that I didn't do it.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>UF doesn't like IB kids as much as they used to...but they still like them...Two years ago almost every IB kid at my school got into UF...Last year more started getting turned away...this year about twenty got turned away...so they're getting less lenient on the ib kids.</p></li>
<li><p>IB may or may not give you advantage, like all programs it depends on the teachers/experience you have at your school, but most of the time it probably helps.</p></li>
<li><p>It helps in college because if you score high enough on your exams you can enter with up to 30 credits (1 year) and this doesn't mean you have to spend a year less in college, it actually gives you a cushion year where you still have Bright Futures in case you need it.</p></li>
<li><p>Too bad early decision is over.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>yeah they like IB.</p>

<p>i turned down IB for another magnet that let me travel internationally and i got in =)</p>

<p>AP credit is better than IB at UF (atleast for scheduling your courses) for example the highest IB score will only get you out of the intro Bio course while a 5 on the AP Bio exam will get you out of the higher Bio course (premed Bio).</p>

<p>Just because you get a lot of credit doesn't mean you're there for 3 years at all. You have to fufill your major requirements so you can stretch those over 4 years and have more time for a double major, minor, or just taking classes you're interested in. I think out of the 40 some kids going to UF from my high school, 3 aren't IB... and tons more than that applied.</p>

<p>I didnt say that you get through faster</p>

<p>It definately helps. Plus, IB really helps students learn critical thinking and efficient studying skills, so IB students tend to do really well once they get to UF, too. Keep in mind that every IB program is different and that every IB student is different (and that UF is changing constantly) but it helped my daughter IMMENSELY. She finished her degree at UF in 3 years. </p>

<p>One way to look at it: You can take ONE AP class, but IB kids take ALL IB classes (and IB is normally considered a slight step up from AP) and that reflects very well on the student. If the IB student is from in-state, gets good grades, gets good test scores, and fulfills all requirements, he/she is practically a shoe-in at UF and will probably transfer in with more college credit than he/she can actually use.</p>

<p>That said, it's a lot of stress for any high school student to go through IB...</p>

<p>I don't know about that. IB really wasn't that stressful, imo, at least at my school. I felt that IB exams were, on average, easier than AP exams. I ended up getting 39 points total for the IB diploma, when 24 was only needed. I felt that it was a lot easier to get a 6 or 7 on the IB exam rather than a 4 or 5 on the AP. But that was my feeling and it was a common observation among my friends and teachers in high school.</p>

<p>
[quote]
and IB is normally considered a slight step up from AP

[/quote]
</p>

<p>...debatable</p>

<p>I know at my school, over 50% of the IB students go to UF, and many of them get in with stats that I believe would not have gotten them in from a different High School, though a few are rejected each year.
However, I cannot say whether this hold true for all IB schools, or if it applies more strongly to purely my school, as we are in Gainesville (the only IB school here) and send so many people, and thus UF knows us particularly well.</p>

<p>You go to Eastside. I heard there is a huge differences between the IB and non IB kids. You guys are like #6 with best high schools in the US. Don't many of your classmates end up going to private schools/top tier schools? Congrats on Swarthmore.</p>

<p>There is a huge difference, yes, though we do send a few non-IB kids to UF also. And we have a decent number going to top schools, but far from a ton. Out of about 135 seniors, we have approx:
72 UF
Within top 20 Unis and top few LACs
1 Harvard
2 Cornell
1 Dartmouth
1 Brown PLME
1 Caltech
3 Duke
1 Williams
1 Rice
1 Chicago
1 WashU
1 Johns Hopkins
2 Emory
and of course 1 Swarthmore, haha</p>

<p>Then a few Georgia Tech, Davidson, Tufts, UNC stuff like that I won't list individually. And obviously many people got into and rejected some other top places (though we NEVER have any luck with Yale, and I don't think we had any into the ivies not represented, though we did have one additional admittee to Cornell and Dart)</p>

<p>Of course, one must bear in mind that while the people who apply to top colleges is fairly small (many of the UF kids are ED, or just didn't apply elsewhere), our class rank and relative rigor of curriculum are weighted along with the non-IB kids, which perhaps gives a skewed view of how well people do to the colleges (we have far more weighted classes open to us, and even the easiest IB schedule gets high marks for course rigor).</p>

<p>But this whole post sequence is totally irrelevant to the actual thread, so sorry for interrupting it.</p>

<p>lol threads almost never maintain relevance to the original topic. So it's okay! :)</p>