<p>yeah, thats true. i know there are no set minimum numbers.</p>
<p>I took 8 AP classes senior year. But that was because I was an idiot in my scheduling and had only taken 1 AP class before that (though I did take all honors courses). But if you space it out evenly between junior and senior year I would say 3-5 AP classes is a solid amount.</p>
<p>Thank you!! That sounds like a good amount. Yeah, i'm doing 3 IB/1 AP this year and will probably end up doing something like 5 IB/1 AP next year.</p>
<p>Another question to throw out there- how negatively do admissions view GPA dropping junior year? My grades are definitely dropping a little</p>
<p>Ah, junior year is definitely quite important for admissions. Better work on getting those grades up. =)</p>
<p>And meh, I've had bad experiences trying to get credit for IB courses, in fact I'd recommend you to take the AP courses over IB courses if you could. Quick example, at my school AP and IB Economics are combined, so I take both the AP Micro and Macro Econ exams, and the IBSL exam. My year there were a lot of US specific questions on the exam (I lived overseas) so I ended up with a 4 on the Micro exam. Turns out you had to have a 5 on the Micro before your Macro score would even be considered for credit -- this was my year though. So, no credit for any of my AP Econ exams, even though I had a 5 on the Macro. I thought alright no big deal, my IB should get me something since I got a 7 (full marks). Bah. It wasn't even considered because it was the SL level. Ridiculous. I had to take Econ 201 and 202 (equivalent of AP Econ Micro and Macro) and was bored out of my brains in those classes.</p>
<p>I 'loved' how my high school loved to emphasize the IB diploma (we offered both IB and AP) and said US schools valued it as equally as the AP courses. Complete hot air in my opinion, some schools didn't even recognize IB courses and certainly less credit were given to those classes.</p>
<p>Yeah, i agree, melli. My school offers Full IB and some AP classes and REALLY pushes IB IB IB IB..and then SL classes don't even receive credit! And they're certainly not easier than any AP class! Yeah, i'll try to take as many APs as I can....i might take AP English, but it's really a pain to get out of the IB english program. We'll see!</p>
<p>okay, so i spent some time calculating my potential GPA ..and it seems like i'll PROBABLY have a 3.8 something unweighted GPA by the end of junior year . assuming senior year grades don't bring me down any..do you think a 3.8 is too low for UVA? i'm feeling a bit dissapointed..i would feel MUCH better with a 3.9</p>
<p>GPA-grovelling occurs too much on CC. :p</p>
<p>Don't grovel, man. If need be, up the ante. If you have the opportunity to dual-enroll at a local community college or state university, do it. (If you can handle extra subjects on a college level.)</p>
<p>haha, very true, galoisien! sorry to add to the grovelling! =) unfortunately, i don't have the opportunity to dual-enroll..but i probably will end up taking an extra class because im most likely taking world history 1 over the summer (i have to take it sometime for SOL requirements)..haha. at least that will at a little something to the GPA!</p>
<p>3.8 unweighted is good. What's your weighted GPA? and are you IS or OOS?</p>
<p>I'm in state. (Northern Virginia- competitive & largest HS in the state) My weighted will probably be 3.9 at the highest (4.0 if i do VERY well senior year.)</p>
<p>Whats your UW? (sorry if you posted it already and I missed it, long thread)</p>
<p>I took a lot of AP/IBs, but yeah, melli has a good point in that you should take the AP over the IB any day as you will get a lot more credit for it, and it will be easier to get the required score to get credit (i think). I mean if your taking 4 now, your on the right track; try to do 4 or 5 or so next year and you will be fine. More than that is probably overkill unless you are taking some easy ones.</p>
<p>haha unweighted sort of depends on my 4th quarter grades..but i know that itll be 3.8 something!</p>
<p>IB does work very well if you also plan to apply overseas in addition to US schools. Even after you've completed your undergraduate education, the stuff you wrote for TOK and EE can still be useful on resumes. (Assuming you did well on them...)</p>
<p>Thanks, galoisien!!! Very true. I have no doubt in my mind IB is very useful later on in life, regardless of whether or not it gets me into college/college credit! =)
Unfortunately, I am not allowed (for financial reasons especially) to leave the country or even my state for college, haha. :(</p>
<p>any other advice/input, anybody????</p>
<p>My D's (she is a UVA first-year) high school in No VA dropped IB some years ago because of some of the issues already posted on this thread. They now offer only AP. She ended up with 8 APs over the 4 high school years (1 soph. year, 3 jr. year, 4 sr. year). I believe the key is to take as many as you possibly can while keeping good grades in those AP subjects (the course grade matters much more than the exam grade...the AP exam grade is used only for placement/incoming credits as far as I know). Its a balance. D did not take Latin AP her sr. year (and she would have had to take that for her 4year in a language) because she knew the teacher and content and very few kids earned better than a C in the course....so she came in to UVA with 3 years of language rather than 4, but it allowed her to take another AP she knew she could do well in.....good luck!</p>
<p>Thank you, mckin43!! Your post was very helpful!! That sounds like a good amount of AP classes to take.</p>
<p>Good luck...I'll be rootin' for ya!</p>
<p>thank you!! =)</p>