I wanted to get opinion of people who have experienced their child gaining admission after completing a IB program. The questions is do colleges look favorably for those who did a full IB diploma versus one who has done a regular IB with 2 HL courses and remaining SL level. In my conversations with Virginia schools, I learnt that they do favor candidates with full IB Diploma
When the IBDP is an option, students who pursue it are generally viewed as having a more demanding schedule than students who don’t. Rigor is one part, but not the only part, of holistic evaluation.
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My child is in the final phase of the IB Diploma program (we are not in VA), and will have 3 SL and 3 HL subject tests done by end of May. Yes, it is rigorous and at their high school, the box for most rigorous schedule on the counselor’s form (that gets sent with applications) only gets check-marked if a student went for the full IB Diploma (which includes ToK and the extended essay and CAS). So you should inquire with your HS counselor what determines who gets that box check-marked.
You didn’t ask about AP, but I’ll mention my child has also taken 5 AP classes (and scored 5s in every test) in addition to the IB classes, and their opinion is that IB is definitely more difficult than AP. But some colleges only award their college credits for HL IB tested classes (with scores of 6 & 7) and no credit for SL tested classes, whereas those same schools will award college credits for almost any AP with a 4 or 5 test score. So if your student wants to get as much college credit at the beginning as possible, then AP tests from courses taken are more widely accepted than IB. (I had one admission counselor ask, “What’s IB?” 
) You have to check with each separate college on what credits they will award. Schools that are highly selective probably won’t award any credit equivalency at all for either AP or IB.
My child finds it nonsensical that the SL classes don’t get credit compared to some of the AP classes they took, but are still glad they chose the IB Diploma pathway because of the education they received.
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Our public HS (also not in VA) offers many APs, but only the IB career program (not the full diploma). There are several HL options, but even these are not considered the most rigorous curriculum at the school. None of my kids went this IB route. They took the AP route, instead - 13 or 14 each, I think, by the time they graduated.
It really depends on what your school offers. Anyone pursuing the IBD at our school had a most rigorous schedule. But there were plenty of STEM kids who did a mix of IB, AP, and other high level classes who also got that designation.
For some SL classes (especially FL, but also some sciences), you may want to take the AP exam at the end as that’s the only way you’ll get college credit for them. Your teachers should know if this is doable based on the material covered.