High school freshman in a week.

Applying to College
1

<p>So, I want to go to IB for high school, and it starts in about a week. Many of my older friends go there and have told me it’s hard, but worth it in the end.</p>

<p>The thing is, my parents are like super hardcore against me going. My school doesn’t have much choice in courses, my final 6 subjects are pretty much going to be:</p>

<p>English HL
French SL
History/Economics HL
Biology/Chemistry HL
Math SL
Physics SL/HL</p>

<p>In the future, I don’t want to study anything that’s really mathy. I wanna go into areas like science, engineering, that sort of thing. On a few university websites, it lists Math HL as a ‘recommended’ requirement, but people have told me that universities look at your courses in context of what your school offers. </p>

<p>The alternative to going to IB is just going to my home school, which offers a few AP courses.</p>

<p>We’ve been looking at Waterloo, UofT, McGill, and McMaster universities. </p>

<p>So I have two questions:</p>

<li><p>Say I want to apply to a course that recommends HL math with min. grade of 5, and two other HL courses with min. grade of 5. My average has consistently been about 90% and I’ve gotten a few 100s in math, and the future school’s IB average is 36/42, with Math sl at 6.4 average. I figure I might be able to manage a 7 in Math. Would it be better to have somewhere in the range of 36-39/42 (im just totally guesstimating) without math HL, or just go to the normal school and the standard required courses?</p></li>
<li><p>My parents claim that I’m wasting my time with French and History/Economics, since I have to study both of them for 3 years. Are they really that useless?</p></li>
<li><p>Kinda the same as 1, but is it better to have all the required courses and recommended courses, with a lower average, or to have all the required courses and a higher average?</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Sorry for the long and pretty much theoretical questions :|</p>

2

<p>French and History are both core courses, so very important. Otherwise, I have no idea about IB.</p>

3

<p>Haha, no problem, thanks for the info :)</p>

4

<p>Science & Engineering = EXTREMELY Mathy. Nothing mathier, except for mathematics.</p>

5

<p>I agree. Engineering is mathy. Simple as that.</p>

6

<p>I don't really know much about IB but you are not wasting your time with french and history. Colleges like to see you take a foreign language (usually for 4 years, though 3 is probably ok too) and history is also important. I'm sure once school starts you can always talk to a teacher or upperclassmen about classes in the context of your school.</p>