<p>I am currently a high school sophomore in China and I now have to pick courses for the next two years. My school offers the International Baccalaureate certificate and diploma programs. I've decided to go for the certificate because I feel TOK, CAS and the EE will be really time consuming, and my goal is to really improve my GPA. I'm also trying to get into med or pharmacy school. I am, however, still going to take 6 IB courses (Literature HL, Econ HL, Maths SL, Mandarin SL, Bio HL and Chem SL) and am planning to take an additional year long anatomy and maybe another science course for each of the following 2 years. I would also be granted 2 study halls for one year to get the maximum 8 classes. My question is, is this a smart choice? I don't want to seem like I'm taking the "easy" way out by not doing diploma-- I'm still doing IB courses and taking anatomy which would show my interest in what I want to do in the future. Would this be a disadvantage for me, though, by not taking diploma, which is the supposed to be the most difficult option available? Or would they also look more closely at which courses I take and what grades I get?</p>
<p>CAS is not time consuming. CAS is the easiest, and quickest IB Req to get out.</p>
<p>EE is simple. Get it done.</p>
<p>ToK is also simple.</p>
<p>You’ve got a good blend of HL and SLs, I say go ahead and do the diploma.</p>
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I have to second this, at our school, some lazy people don’t get enough CAS hours (whereas some get the required hours after the first semester of junior year) so we have stuff like optional trips to ski fields for action CAS hours.</p>
<p>My CAS were the clubs/sports I was doing anyway… It was so easy.</p>
<p>My EE was on Harry Potter… I loved it and it was so much fun to write!! (took maybe 3 or 4 days max)</p>
<p>TOK was the most EPIC CLASS EVER!!!</p>
<p>You’re actually doing 95% of the work for a diploma. I would strongly reconsider imo and just go for the diploma.</p>
<p>At our school they require that you spread the CAS out over two years, so if you finished all your CAS hours in grade 11, you still had to make 75 in grade 12. I think I did about…300 hours overall because of this? Some of them were really fun (I wrote a book!)</p>
<p>Again, the EE was something that required us meeting deadlines for a year and a half, but the actual writing process really just takes you a summer, and after that it’s redrafting (actually about three weeks of a summer for me).</p>
<p>I liked TOK, but a lot of the more Science-y students at my school and the only other school in my country that offers IB said that it was really hard because their brains were too literal for it. I see you’re taking two science classes and Econ instead of a more History-type class, so that might be similar for you.</p>
<p>On the whole though, get your Diploma. Unless you’re worried that you won’t be able to get more than a 3 in your HLs, in which case, take different HLs. The IB diploma is difficult, yes, but to agree with other posters, you’re already doing the hardest part!</p>
<p>Over two years you should have more than enough time to do all 3 requirements.</p>
<p>You can do your EE in a day, and CAS is what any good student should be doing on his own anyways.</p>
<p>You don’t really get much credit for the EE though…it was great but it really meant nothing, like I don’t think adcoms are aware of our having to write a ~4000 word essay for the IB diploma.</p>
<p>TOK was great, I liked discussing abstract ideas such as the meaning of truth, what can we consider true or why are each person’s sets of morals different etc. I think TOK was well-worth it.</p>
<p>CAS is easy to get out of the way, you just need 10 activities, service and 150 hours spanning across two years (minimum of 75 each year). So, if you are planning to apply for competitive schools in the US, I’m sure your CAS expectations would be easy to exceed.</p>
<p>Anyway, it’s ultimately up to you, if I were to do it all again, I would not do the IB diploma because of stupid IBHL Physics (this is a killer unless you’re one of those freakish math/physics geniuses) taking a hit on my GPA every semester while all my other grades were A-/As. You seem like the student who’s into science because of Chem and Bio so I think you’ll be fine =). Good luck with everything!</p>