Help!

[vittorious]

<p>Hi, I have a couple of questions to ask for the IB program. </p>

<p>Last year - my sophomore year - I was sick and missed half the year.. Before my sickness hit I was a honor student and got mostly A's and B's. Now I find myself in Junior year with not a single AP class. I, of course, made up all of my classes but, then again, studying when one is practically dying is HARD. I got horrible grades for sophomore year... D's and F's. The girl who never even got a C is now stuck with a 2.8 GPA.
I want to get into a good college still though after all that happened, but I find myself in a standstill. I was looking around for options to maybe getting a second chance when I discovered the IB program. I'm finding myself more interested in it by the day... and I really want to prove myself to show that I can get back on my feet after what happened to me. I
was born in Italy and raised there for five years, and can speak, write, and read the language. I was actually thinking of going to Italy after my junior year and applying to the diploma program, to raise my chances in getting into a good college. Also the program looks intense and invigorating, which I personally find fun and refreshing.
Here are when the questions come in and trust me... I'm clueless. I'm still not sure if I can apply considering I'm doing my junior year now, and even if I do apply will my current grades affect my chances into getting in? Is it like trying to get into a private school or a college, or if you pay money for the school are you all set? Are IB courses considered almost like AP courses? What is the difference? Can a school accept a senior into their two year program? Will it raise my chances at getting into a well-off college? Do all American Universities/colleges accept IB diplomas? If not, what about European schools? Does an IB diploma constitute as a regular high school diploma? Or is it just a extra thing you can add to your application for college? Could I just finish my junior and senior year and THEN get an IB diploma? If that is so, could I just take a year of courses because I already got a high school diploma? Can the courses be considered for college credit? Should I do this to get back on track or is there any other way to prove myself and raise my GPA? Can my grades in the courses count for my GPA? </p>

<p>I probably sound like an idiot... but I really am confused. Help would be great, oh and... THANK YOU SO MUCH. </p>

<p>In case anybody was wondering what my sickness was: Chronic Migraines that spanned 8 hours at least every day. I'm much better now though thanks to all the medicine I've been given and I'm ready to get back to where I was before! </p>

<p>P.S: Nope. Not doing Sophomore year again. Funny suggestion though.</p>

[nanotechnology]

<p>You’ve got a lot of questions in there, but I’ll try to help you sort it out.
The IB diploma program covers the last 2 years of high school. This isn’t really something you do after high school. Because you are already a junior, if you did the IB diploma you would essentially have to repeat your junior year to do the diploma program.
In terms of “applying,” what you would really be applying to is the school. IB itself does not have admissions requirements. At my high school in the US, for example, IB was self-selective and any student in the school could take IB courses.
For the IB diploma, it is mostly perceived in the US as a “bonus.” You still get a high school diploma, and this is an additional credit on your application. IB courses are usually seen similarly to AP courses. You can get credit for IB courses (often just higher level) if you score well enough on the exams. Like AP courses, this depends on the school.
If you are looking for ways to improve your competitiveness for college, though, I don’t think your best option would be to go to Italy to do so. First, working at this level of academics in Italian would probably be very different from using the language as a child. Second, being that far away from home as a high school student can be extremely stressful, both because of the cultural difference and being so far from family and friends. Grades would also be calculated differently from in the US and might make it harder to figure out what it would do to your GPA.
As for the difference between IB and AP, there are a couple. First, you have to take an IB class to take the test, unlike with AP. Your score is also determined by other things besides a test at the end, like essays or lab reports. In general, it seems that IB courses are more difficult than AP courses (at least this is my impression), but colleges often don’t seem to acknowledge this…</p>