<p>My son attends The International Academy in suburban Detroit, which is a top ranked public school. It is an IB school, with all students required to apply for the full DP and take a full IB DP class load. He is presently getting a 3.65 unweighted average.</p>
<p>Compared to my older son who attended a very well respected high school and graduated with an unweighted GPA of 3.9 carrying all AP classes (2 as a sophomore, 5 as a junior and 6 as a senior) his AP work load was no where near the work that my IB son is receiving.</p>
<p>Therein lies the dilemma. In order to receive a "you're admitted" letter from Duke (everything else being equal), is my 11th grade son better off sticking with the IB and obtain his diploma and a 3.65 unweighted GPA or would he be better off transferring back to his home school, taking 6 AP classes and ending up with a 4.0?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance for your guidance.</p>
<p>Your son should go to the school he wants to and where he will get the best education. Even if he switches school he might not get into Duke with a GPA of 4.0. My cousin took tons of AP classes, got all A’s, a lot of great EC and community service, orchestra, band and still did not get into Duke. I really dont think you should be planning your son’s life just so he has a “chance” to get into Duke.</p>
<p>33:</p>
<p>I agree. There is just too much subjective action in admissions. You can be a perfect student and not get into Duke! Too many apps, and anyone…yes anyone, can slip through the cracks. Let your son decide, apply at a group of schools that are ranked high in his major and then review the offers! good luck</p>
<p>May I ask, what is the admissions history for your son’s high school? Does that school regularly send students to top colleges? My IB high school, which is not nationally known at all, regularly has 4-8 seniors accepted by duke. Duke likes our school and has seen admitted students from our school succeed at duke. This history is more important than an UW GPA. Also, keep in mind that leaving a rigorous program would need to be explained on college applications.</p>
<p>If your son is a junior, switching out of IB for senior year is a bad idea. The IB Diploma is a two-year program, and by leaving he’ll miss out on the elements of IB (CAS, EE, TOK, Internal Assessments, etc) that the program requires. IB isn’t like AP; it has to b e considered as a program.</p>
<p>We have let our son make all of the decisions regarding his education, including leaving his high school to go to The International Academy (IA). He will have that same responsibility when it comes to where he applies to college and what he chooses to pursue as a career path.</p>
<p>Hindsight is 20/20. He was in all honors classes at his old school, got all "A"s and did his home work at lunch. He has maintained a strong group of friends from his own high school as well as from the IA. It irks him when he sees what his friends are doing in their AP classes relative to the work he is doing in his, especially now that in researching colleges he is finding out that for the most part, they do not extend extra weight to the rigor of the IB Diploma Program versus the AP classes despite all of the extra work they are for the student.</p>
<p>Had he stayed in his home school system, he would be finishing his junior year with near or at an unweighted 4.0 with 7 APs under his belt. Next year as a senior, he would probably take seven APs as did his brothers.</p>
<p>I know what he will advise any younger friends of his–take the AP path. You will get more college credit for less work. You will have a lot more time for electives and after school sports. I think an added factor for him was that at his old high school, he was an academic “hot dog”; at the IA, is it ALL academic “hot dogs”. The average ACT score of the kids at his school is 29.7 in their junior year. At his old school, it is in the low 20s, and it is considered one of the top 10 public high schools in the state.</p>
<p>The college admissions officers I have talked to say that they look at them equally in the rigor department. The fact that his high school is in the Top 20 in the nation versus his old high school down at 800 or so (which is still darn good) doesn’t seem to be much of a factor. I think the structure of IB has forced him to be better organized and manage his time better. Time will tell how well that will serve him in college.</p>
<p>For now, I am just a seeker of information to share with him. I wish I had his smarts when I was in high school; I was happy to graduate without having to repeat a grade. :)</p>
<p>Thanks to all for your view points on my son’s challenge.</p>
<p>I see you posted this on CMU forum as well…probably it is all over the CC. A bit of a scattershot approach to gathering information. See the CMU forum for my response. BTW…I am a Duke graduate and went to a crappy HS with only 2 APs…I know things have changed in the eons since I graduated but Duke always seemed to care about having a balanced class with broad interests and aptitudes…perhaps more th an other schools. They could fill their class 10 times over with 4.0 full IB or AP students but they seem to choose kids that have the stats to succeed academically along with something more…a “chispa” (spark) of creativity/ambition/sense of mission. I think this is why Duke has has gone from a relatively easy entry school in the early 80’s (my time) to such a competitive school now.</p>
<p>fineartsmajormom–I posted the same basic query on each of the school forums in which my son has expressed an interest. Thank you for your advice.</p>
<p>fafsa: I had very similar concerns. My S was in catholic grade school and then we switched him to our local public high school. Its a very large and competitive school with a national reputation for Science and Math. (Both things my S loved). So at the time it just made sense. Academically to thrive you need to be a top notch student but we knew he could do it. Then four years later we questioned our decision too. My niece went to a small catholic high school, not more than 45 minutes away. Their idea of an honors program was just placing a kid in the next grade up. No extra work, no expanding ones thinking, no thinking outside the box etc etc etc… She didn’t take her first AP class until 11th grade and they were so poorly taught that although she would get As, she could barely pass, and in many instances didn’t, the actual AP test. So then Senior roles around she is saludatorian with a weighted GPA of 98. (In my Ss high school that GPA would rank you around 90.) She gets a 28 on the ACT and 1340 on the SAT. (The SAT is superscored after three attempts.) She played a few varsity sports, she had decent ec’s but nothing earth shattering, she did have great ltrs of rec. But being ranked #2 was huge. (Her high school sends 90% of the students to a local community college.) She applied to most of the ivies. She was waitlisted at Harvard and Columbia and she got into Notre Dame, Holy Cross, Cornell, Santa Clara (full ride), Boston College, and our two top state schools.</p>
<p>My S is doing fine but to be very honest the colleges don’t take into consideration the competition at the high schools. We asked this question everytime we visited different schools. For example: My son wanted to get into the Academic team in 11th grade. That year 125 students showed up to try out for 2 spots on the team. That same year my niece was walking down the hallway and a teacher came up and “begged” her to be on their team. Since there were only 88 students in her graduating class, she could play any sport, join any team or club because there was no competition. My S had to jump through hoops for every position that he got. </p>
<p>When we gave this scenario to the different schools they all stated that they wouldn’t know that and wouldn’t realize the difference in the schools.</p>
<p>We were annoyed because like you I could have easily put my S into that Catholic school and he would definitely have graduated valedictorian with tons of sports, clubs etc under his belt. </p>
<p>So far he has gotten into all of his schools but he definitely had to do it the hardway. Is it worth it? I don’t know. The only thing gained is that I know he will be better prepared for college. My niece definitely struggled her first semester. She was not used to the rigorous courseload. Thankfully she is doing fine and her school (ND) is great at helping out their freshman. But was it worth the hundreds of hours of extra studying, the competition, the constant struggle- I don’t know. If I had to do it all over again, I don’t know if I would.</p>