<p>Hey everybody, this is my first time posting on College Confidential and I am very excited to see what will happen over the next four years. Anyway, on to the real question, I attend a large and well known High School in NC.. My school offers IB and a decent amount of AP classes to choose from. I know I am only a freshman, but ever since 4th grade I have wanted to attend UNC. Anyways, back to the question, so basically, my mom was talking to one of the ladies at the front desk who has had several children go through the school, and she was talking about how now you have to have really the most advanced classes to go to UNC and to even have a shot at getting in. She also said that you basically have to do IB if you want to have any shot at going into UNC, is this true? I was hoping to just take a fair amount of AP classes and not do IB since to be honest it doesn't sound that interesting to me and sounds fairly stressful.
So what all this comes down to is, do I really have to take IB since my school offers it or can I just take a decent amount of AP classes. Keep in mind that I want to have the best shot of getting in to UNC that I possibly can! Thanks Guys!</p>
<p>I created an account here a little while back to hopefully be able to answer this question for someone. At my high school, IB was what all of the “top” students did without question, and AP was for the “second-tier” students. My feeling about IB during my freshman and sophomore year was just as you described; IB didn’t really interest me, and I felt like it would be too stressful for something I wasn’t excited about in the first place. After much deliberation, I decided to take the AP route instead, which was very surprising to my teachers, friends, and especially the IB coordinator (She told me I wouldn’t get into college–any college–without IB; I laughed that one off). I can now tell you, as a current freshman at UNC, that it was one of the best decisions I ever made. I was much happier in high school than most of my IB friends (some of whom didn’t get into UNC), more free to take courses that interested me, and way less stressed than I would have been.</p>
<p>Just know that there isn’t one magical path to UNC. Don’t be afraid to be different and do what you feel like you would be most comfortable doing. I was completely prepared for my UNC coursework with APs (took 7 total), and I haven’t had much of a problem adjusting here.</p>
<p>However, I feel like I would be doing you a disservice if I didn’t mention the following: UNC has been getting more competitive each year, and IB does seem to be more “prestigious” than AP. I’m no expert, so I can’t predict how much more competitive it will be in 3 years when you apply. If I had to guess though, I would still encourage you to choose AP if that’s what you’re more comfortable with. You will likely perform better if you are happy with your decision, and at the end of the day, great AP grades are better than so-so IB ones.</p>
<p>TL;DR: Do what makes you happy; it worked for me.</p>
<p>I can’t answer your question specifically in regards to UNC but I can tell you that on the college visits we went on to Duke, Notre Dame, and UVA they all spoke of AP and IB the same–you should be doing one of them. None of those schools gave more weight to one program over the other.</p>
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I think very highly of the IB programme, but implications that “AP is for 2nd-tier students” is completely ridiculous. IB is a must if that is the only rigor offered in school or AP-offerings are considerably weaker. If you can take 6 APs or more, AP path is considered equally rigorous. An IB diploma could make a difference for B+ students, as it demonstrates commitment to a minimum level of standardized rigor. Generally speaking, IB enrollment does not confer much; the aura comes from actual achievement, which is measured through factors such as #HLs and scores of 6’s and 7’s. Same for AP-path (scores of 4 or 5). Overachieving IB students also sit for AP exams, and even take extra AP classes. It is also not uncommon to see non-IB students making up 50% or more of “IB Further Math” class…</p>
<p>Now for the practical aspects: Which well known NC high school do you attend? How many is “decent amount of AP courses”? Not likely, but does your HS automatically confer the coveted “most-rigorous-curriculum” to every IB student? Does your HS publish actual class rank? Does your school weigh AP and IB courses the same? Most NC schools do, and calculate class-rank based on weighted-GPA, so it is important to get A’s in either AP or IB. Where do you project you will be in your graduating class? For well known NC schools, being in top-10% is a very good predictor of getting into UNC-CH, so focus on that instead of IB vs. AP. In some large NC schools, kids sign-up for IB initially (parental push in some cases), but then drop out for various reasons. (some families do game the system for course selection preferences given to IB students; sad but true). </p>
<p>Since we are talking specifically about UNC-CH only, remember that the UNC admissions office will know every aspect of your “well known NC high school”; OOS experiences are not so relevant for your situation. Go have a chat with your HS Guidance Counselor, befriend some current seniors and talk to them yourself about their IB/AP experiences, and remember to inquire about extra work , extra stress, etc (it may not be as dreary as you imagine). Take all that input back for a family discussion. Good luck!</p>
<p>It seriously doesn’t matter. What UNC looks at is the courses you took as compared to what your high school offers. So if you take the AP versions of core classes and one or two AP electives, that will not count against you. One of my friends (in-state) took 3 AP classes, all in her senior year, and got in with a high GPA. So take what other people have said into consideration, but don’t freak out about it. What matters much more are your grades, your extracurriculars, and when you actually apply, your essays.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the responses guys! Especially UNCCH94, I really appreciate the detailed response! I am really leaning towards AP, I’m hoping I can take 2 AP’s next year, AP Environmental Science and AP US History, and I hope to have 6 AP’s by senior year, or possibly more, I need to write it all out. I’m taking earth science honors right now, and figured Out I really need to be taking Honors Biology instead of Earth Science so I can take chemistry next year! UNCCH94, can you send me your high school schedule as well as GPA? I think that could really help me out! Thanks man! (You can just PM me)
Thanks everyone!</p>
<p>I’m signed up to take honors biology this spring online through wake county)</p>
<p>I agree that it doesn’t matter. I think the best thing to do is to look at what courses that interest you. My oldest daughter had the chance to do either IB or AP and chose AP because the courses offered were more interesting [to her]. I don’t clearly remember now but isn’t IB more literature and language focused? AP seemed to have more science and Math.
Anyway she ended up at DUke and my other daughter also took the AP route and she is at UNC.
My son has taken AP also and is currently applying to UNC. He got into NC STate yesterday but I fully expect him to end up at UNC!</p>
<p>Hey TarHeelHopeful12 (and others in Wake County)</p>
<p>Do you know if it is possible to take Biology honors and Earth Science honors in the Freshman year? This would then allow you to take AP Environmental Science and Chemistry honors in the sophomore year, right?</p>
<p>Also, does anyone know if there is an “overachiever” course plan on the web for WCPSS? What I mean is that, if you wanted to stack up as many AP classes as early as possible, how do you go about it?</p>
<p>@matchfit You can take Biology 1 and Earth Environmental in the same year. Then you can take honors chem which I’m pretty sure you have to take before AP Earth. To stack up as much as possible I would reccomend taking AP World history and AP human geography and If your school doesn’t have them take them online. Also you can take AP Euro as a sophmore.</p>
<p>In our experience as wake county citizens the kids we know don’t take honors earth science at all. They take honors Bio Freshman year - honors Chem sophmore and then right to AP Enviromental.</p>
<p>As a senior IB student who was just accepted to UNC, I think doing IB was the best decision I have ever made. Sure it’s stressful and a ton of work, but the learning style is much more comprehensive and well rounded than AP. While I do agree that they’re pretty much equivalent in the eyes of colleges, I think that IB students stand out from the crowd much better than AP students. At my school, more people from my IB class were accepted into UNC than the AP class. UNC looks at every application holistically, and with the additional IB diploma requirements like the Extended Essay, CAS Hours, externally graded Written Tasks and Oral Commentaries, and a bunch of other stuff that you have to do as an IB student, I feel like most IB diploma students overall are much more of a “full package deal” than AP students. In addition, every IB student that has graduated from my school has come back and said that IB prepared them for college better than any other classes had and many even say that IB “makes college seem easy”. </p>
<p>I can say from personal experience that IB was a fantastic choice and put a nice edge to my college applications. In fact, my participation and growth in the IB program and the value of learning from an international perspective was one of the topics I wrote about on many of my short answer questions on college applications.</p>