<p>My son is a junior in an IB program.
His schedule is pretty much fixed for the next two years.
All the students are required to take an IB Theory of Knowledge class which
is a full year course offered during the second semester of junior year and first semester of senior year. This leaves the first semester of junior and the second semester of senior year free.
My son really wants to take AP Psychology, which otherwise he will not be able to fit into his schedule. So he decided to take AP Psych the first semester of this year then drop it for TOK only to pick it up again the last semester of his senior year.
GC says that his transcript will show AP Psych as a dropped class, but that she will explain this to adcoms in her letter. I am a little worried.
Please share your perspective.</p>
<p>I’d be nervous too. Even with the letter, there it is right on the transcript – a drop.</p>
<p>Could you talk your DS into waiting until college to take a psych course? It will be a better class anyway.</p>
<p>Unless the GC is incompetent, this shouldn’t be a problem. Although it will show as a dropped class, the schedule for the following semester will be full, and the GC’s rec should explain it.</p>
<p>This is the second thread that you have posted on this topic – which indicates that you are concerned.</p>
<p>May I suggest that you e-mail the admissions departments of a couple of colleges that are not on your son’s list and ask them the question? Pick colleges that are similar in selectivity to the ones that interest him. Don’t mention that your son does not plan to apply to the school you’re contacting; just describe the situation and ask whether it would hamper his chances for admission.</p>
<p>And for what it’s worth, I don’t think there’s any problem at all. But my IB graduate went to the same school as Hunt’s, and we know that our GCs and IB coordinator could handle the situation. Your child goes to a different school, and that may be significant.</p>
<p>Why doesn’t he take it in his senior year. His SL classes will be done and free two class periods for AP courses. My dd was able to take her IB courses(HL, SL, TOK) with an AP chemistry course junior year. She could have taken three AP classes her senior year but only took one and filled the rest with an honors course in physics and regular psychology class. Kind of wish she had taken the pyschology course as AP but she wanted it to be fun. </p>
<p>There is no question that he will need TOK because with out the course, CAS and EE he can not get the IB diploma. </p>
<p>BTW not sure how great a student your son is but make sure he tries to take the IB courses at his school based on his strengths and the strengths of the teachers. Try to find out what the scores were for the classes he is taking from the previous years. About 2/3rds of my dd IB graduating class did not get the diploma because they got a 2 in one of the HL subjects and could not over come by gaining the 28 points needed or missed the total needed because they had a really poor teachers and got low scores in certain subjects. My dd got her diploma so I am not bitter or anything but it broke my heart to see so many not do well.</p>
<p>momof3greatgirls,
TOK is generally offered second semester junior year and first semester senior year, as it ties in at least tangentially to the Extended Essay. (At least this is the way its done at S2’s school.) TOK is not one of the six subject exams. OP’s S may be fairly committed to some other courses that are closer to his intended major, which is why he can’t just take AP Psych all through senior year.</p>
<p>Agree with Marian. We had no problem getting the GC to mention oddities or exceptional circumstances. OP, if your S is at a well-established IB program they are probably used to these kinds of scheduling anomalies.</p>
<p>I would strongly recommend not doing an AP self-study on top of full IB. We found senior year of IB to be extremely draining, esp. when adding on the EE, TOK paper and college apps (much less ECs!). My kid wound up with stress migraines, and this was a kid with good time management skills who had a 12 page draft of his EE done before school began and got a regular eight hours of sleep. He was planning to do AP Comparative Gov’t self-study, but was too wiped out by second semester. It is also one of those classes that for him, is better taken in college.</p>
<p>What concerns me is that in the other thread, you mentioned that taking this psychology course was a genuine interest of your son’s.</p>
<p>Considering that (1) he actually wants to learn the material, and (2) he’s doing nothing wrong by spreading the course between two academic years, I very much dislike the idea of discouraging him from doing it. We’re supposed to be encouraging their intellectual interests, right? </p>
<p>I allowed one of my kids to not take math as a senior in order to pursue a genuine interest in another subject (which would not have fit into the schedule if math was also included). Nothing bad happened. I suspect that what my kid did is considered more radical by admissions officers than what your kid wants to do. And my kid and the counselor didn’t even bother to explain it.</p>
<p>Counting I understand when TOK of is taken. My dd just graduated and got an IB diploma. There is still no reason this kid can not take this class if they really want to take it. Although pyschology is one of the easiest AP classes to gain a score of 5(I checked collegeboard data), I would not break up the instruction over two years. They should have one period available to take an AP course in their junior year along with a half a semester to do something fun like an elective. There are some AP classes that are taught for only half a semester. I am assuming they have atleast 8 periods but I could be wrong. One of the big draw backs to IB is that is takes up so much of your schedule you don’t have many choices. Since this student has never taken any IB courses(assuming it is run like a normal programme), they have no idea the load of these classes by themselves let alone adding AP to the mix. Also, I agree that dropping the course because it doesn’t fit in the schedule is not going to be a problem. Why would it be a problem? I am sure most adcoms can figure out that the student has a typical IB schedule. Which means 7 classes are taken up by IB courses the second half of junior year. All this information will be on the transcript. Although if the student really wanted to, they could take one or even two of their SL courses senior year. Since the OP does not mention they are trying to fill every single class with either an IB or AP class, it is hard to tell what they really want. Even if they wanted to fill ever left open spot with AP it would be hard to get all their classes lined up so that they could take 5 AP courses over the two years. Most people trying to do both IB and AP started their AP classes in the first two years of high school. </p>
<p>What I do know is that it is very possible to be both an IB and an AP diploma receipent but it takes some planning. Sit down with the couselor and see what fits the best.</p>
<p>I just checked around and since you son wants MIT and has a great ACT, I would not sweat IB or AP combination. He will be just fine.</p>
<p>It really depends on the schedule. The school Marian, CountingDown, and I are describing has 7 periods, and it can be quite difficult to schedule classes outside of the IB courses. It gets even more difficult if the students is in band, orchestra, or chorus, which are also classes. There are quite a few students who end up having one “free” semester junior year, and one “free” semester senior year–like the OP’s son.</p>
<p>There was an important reason S2 took Health over the summer – he wanted the elective space during the school year that the summer course would free up!</p>
<p>Another major reason is that at S2’s HS, HL Bio was a double period, one-year course. That, plus HL English, HL Euro and TOK left precious little “free space.” (No HL Chem, SL/HL Physics were BOTH two-year courses, and he’s a life sciences guy anyway. If they had HL Chem, though, he would have given that serious consideration.) He took SL Spanish and SL Econ junior year. Took the SL Math Studies exam senior year because SL Math wouldn’t get him college credit anyway, but took AP Calc junior year and AP Stat senior year for placement/credit, plus some Calc and Stat are useful background for his major and kept his feet wet for the IB exam. </p>
<p>His decadent, fun electives were IB Philosophy and AP/IB Enviro, both of which reflect his interests.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t overthink splitting AP Psych into two years if he really wants to take it – just run it by the GC to see how he/she will handle it in the letter.</p>
<p>Caveat: if your S is going off campus for math courses (beyond HL Math or Further Maths), a study hall might be a good idea so he can keep up with all the work.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Yes, he is a strong student. He will be applying to top schools, including the Ivies.
His schedule is full with all 8 periods being either AP or IB classes. Next year similar.
He wanted to take psychology for personal interest.
GC at our school is great, so I am sure she will explain it well in her letter, plus yes, his schedule will constantly show all AP/IB classes.
I just think a dropped class does not look good, but if the adcoms will do some investigating, won’t they see why he dropped it?
He is not planning to self study the second semester, he plans to simply finish it the following year.
And knowing my son, there is no way he will take an easy class just for fun. Althought he might consider his HL IB Physics class just that ;-)</p>
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<p>Three courses taken over the summers - Health, Financial literacy, Computer Tech - all required for graduation. Yes, it does take some planning :-)</p>
<p>I must have had a brain infarct, or something, because for the life of me I could not find the thread I started earlier…sorry about going stereo…could moderators please merge my two threads.
Thanks!</p>