<p>Hey everyone!
The time has come for me to decide whether to take Full IB (the Diploma Program) or Partial IB (the Certificate Program). If I were to take Partial rather than Full, I would probably take History, Biology, Chemistry, and Math (Leaving out French and English). I believe that I can handle both workloads, but would just like to hear about some of your experiences with the programs, and any suggestions you may have. I am involved in a few extracurriculars like debate that I really love, Will I still have time for them?
By the way, I am aiming for Universities like UC Berkeley, UCLA, Carnegie Mellon etc. (Hopefully the Ivies, but I'll have to see where I'm at then)
Any advice would be greatly appreciated! :)</p>
<p>(If I didn’t take full, I would have time for even more ECs. What would be more impressive to a University?</p>
<p>Please, does anybody have any feedback?</p>
<p>I’ve been able to balance both a full IB diploma program along with key E.C. activities so if you can handle the workload for the full IB diploma, I don’t see why you wouldn’t go for it. But then again, that’s just my two cents.</p>
<p>From what I’ve deduced from forums debating the merits of IB, HL courses are comparable to AP courses, while the lower (SL) courses are less rigorous than AP. What makes IB a notable program is its well-rounded requirements like CAS and the Extended Essay. Taking Certificate means you only have to take one HL course, not do the EE, and do less CAS, and colleges know this. </p>
<p>If it makes you feel better, I’m in IB Diploma and still attend debate tournaments most weekends (which, as you know, requires pretty heavy research/practice time as well) as well as having enough time to work on my creative writing. It is a lot of work, but it’s certainly manageable. And no certificate kids from my school get into fairly impressive schools (I assume you live in Cali, where the UCs are comparable to UNC in my state–UNC almost never accepts certificate kids from my school, but it’s willing to accept diploma kids with less than perfect GPAs). If you don’t want to do IB, and your school offers AP, I would recommend picking the smattering of AP courses that best fits your interests instead of certificate.</p>
<p>My friend did full IB. Junior year was rough, but this year is even worse. I heard that sometimes the workload is just too… too much busywork for what it’s worth. He does manage to get time for EC’s, but his preparation/ free time is quite limited. </p>
<p>I think studying smart is important. Whereas IB does prepare you just as well as AP, I feel looking good with AP’s is much less demanding than trying to look good with IB.</p>
<p>I mean for one, not as many ppl get 7’s on their IB tests than 5’s on AP’s. Also AP and IB classes are usually weighted the same in terms of GPA. So why work so much harder for a 5.0 with IB than AP? Also I feel like AP/ College Board is more transparent with their tests than IB as CB does provide you with past year tests among other great things.</p>
<p>It is up to you. I would imagine some schools have devout IB programs that work their students to death, while others may be less demanding. Of course working hard is important, but working smart is perhaps even mroe important. If you think you can handle the IB Diploma and balance life well with solid EC’s then sure go ahead!</p>
<p>IB without the diploma isn’t worth as much, only HL classes will count for college</p>
<p>With the full diploma, many colleges will let you skip a year (assuming you do well).</p>
<p>Thanks so much everyone, incredibly helpful answers! :)</p>
<p>Just to clarify, my school unfortunately doesn’t offer AP. Another factor for me would be that I live in Canada, and being an international student…things aren’t going to be easy. I’m glad you said you still have time for debate, glassesarechic, because I really do love it, and it is FOREMOST important to me to be able to do the ECs that I love.</p>
<p>In general though, if I were to do the IB Diploma and have 2-3 key EC’s that I truly love and excel at, would it be as impressive as if I did the IB Certificate with probably 6-7 ECs? </p>
<p>As an international student who is OK with not being able to go to every party, would I have a decent shot at getting into the schools I hope to attend?</p>
<p>Thanks again for all the comments, I really do appreciate them a lot :)</p>
<p>bump 
Can i note that I’d probably be taking 4-5 classes with the certificate anyways. The only real difference would be French and Biology SL would be done in the regular cirriculum and not IB, although I’d probably use my extra time to do Physics up to 30 as well.</p>