I hear about pros of IB all the time, are there any cons? This question is for a Sophmore student with 98 average in AP courses. He wants to have time for orchestra, other EC’s, volunteer work and SAT/ACT/PSAT prep.
Orchestra could be your 6th subject and IB requires volunteer work so you will have time.
IB has extra requirements - some might consider that a con. We consider it a pro.
AP courses are more widely accepted by colleges. - this could be a con depending on which college you attend.
Con- Get ready to lose lots of sleep and pull all nighters
In general, IB requires wayyyyy more than AP, in terms of both content and work; since it’s aimed at a sort of liberal arts curriculum, IB makes students think outside of the box (see: Theory of Knowledge class), and IB also asks of students to complete SO. MANY. ASSESSMENTS. There’s the Extended Essay (max 4,000 words for a research topic of your choice); Internal Assessments (research papers assessed by your teacher) in Math and History; Papers (which are like AP free response questions but require more thorough analysis and are graded by other teachers); Creative/Action/Service hours (hours that you spend in certain activities); and a heckuva lot of presentations to complete (I had to do a 10 minute presentation on a piece of literature last year, and this year I’m presenting a 20 minute presentation with my friend for Theory of Knowledge). Not to mention the tons of other assessments I still don’t know about.
Of course, I think the cons also depend on how your son’s school administers the IB program. Some schools, I know, spread out the Theory of Knowledge class over junior/senior year, and students begin working on the Extended Essay in junior year, which spreads out the concentration of work. However, my program makes us do almost every important assessment in senior year, and in addition to college apps/extracurriculars/taking care of ourselves, it’s very stressful to manage. I know about three students in my program who have broken down during school because of the stress.
People say that if you are trying for Val/Sal then IB requirements can be a killer. However, most Val/Sal in an AP/IB come from IB so its confusing.
IB imo is easier than 6-7 AP’s at my school it is. Just make sure that you’re very good at doing presentations and also make sure that you’re able to really write essay as well if you choose to do IB. Cons: Writing intensive, presentation heavy, Acronym haven (IA EE TOK HL SL ETS), also very hard to get credit for IB’s. Pros: looks good to college, in depth curriculum, interesting material, no hard choices (zing you have no choices in IB), but also its really good if you want to pursue politics or international relations. P.S I’m in All Ap so this is biased
In our school, it really restricts what other classes you can take. Also, selection of books is not great… I feel like IB tries to go out of its way to pick obscure books from every corner of the globe just to show they’re being “wordly.” Not a bad thing in theory, but it means that you miss out on reading Western classics (Dickens, the Brontes, Austen) which you’d probably be more likely to read in an AP English class.
Just another example of IB obscurity: in my AP/SL art history class, all the AP artworks can be easily googled and will have plenty of information on them. The SL artworks? Not so much…
One of the widely cited pros (at least, at my school that really promotes IB) is that IB forces you to be good at communicating, ex. tests are all free-response, the EA, the EE. However, there is sometimes a kind of conflict with AP. AP and IB chem, bio, physics, etc. are all distinct courses so it’s up to the student to mix and match their APs, HLs, and SLs. Also, the diversity of IB makes school a little more interesting! I know that the majority of IB students that I know would never take Music Theory of Art History if it wasn’t for IB. However, it is hard to get college credit; usually it’s awarded to scores of 4 or 5 on AP and 6 or 7 on IB HL, which aren’t the same level of difficulty at all.
AP is a lot more flexible in that you aren’t chained to taking such a broad range of courses; this can be good or bad. Some students like the structure of IB. However, in some schools, IB is considered the “most difficult path” and so counselors will not mark their AP students as taking the most challenging/difficult path.
In addition, doing IB basically means doing the equivalent AP courses as well (with the exception of some SL courses). The test fees can really add up; my parents have spent well over $1,000 on my AP/IB tests alone. That’s a lot considering that I go to a public school.
Also, IB really depends on how well it’s executed at your school, like memelover said. I had never even heard of some of the IB courses that some people take (HL philosophy? ITGS?) and I consider my school’s IB program to be pretty well run. At a school where the IB program is new, be wary and check out the course offerings.
I don’t mean to sound rude, OP, but “98 in AP courses” doesn’t say much about your student (son?) since it seems that the majority of sophomores can take 2-3 AP courses maximum, and of course they vary wildly in difficulty…
IB courses take a lot of time our of your sleep schedule. They ARE more rigorous than AP classes, though there seems to be more passing grades on the IB exams than on the AP ones.
If you really want to take IB courses (and aren’t interested in taking the most rigorous courses in your high school), then I would recommend taking the easier IB classes. For example, unless you are a math wiz and catch on quick (aka you don’t struggle in math AT ALL), then stick with Math SL.
Cons of IB Diploma: TOK, Extended Essay, having the same teachers 2 years in a row (if you don’t get along with all of your teachers), CAS Hours – be sure to check with other people in your school about the TOK and CAS ideas that the administration has though. My school is super strict about it. It is super hard to get an A in TOK in my school, but I’ve heard that the TOK class in other schools is the one that offers the easy A. CAS for students in other schools seem to be easier to get too because apparently their CAS Supervisor is less stingy about it. Just speaking from my personal experience.
IB cons: you will lose sleep, friends, and any semblance of a social life, you will cry every day, you will become an unethical student (which is ironic)
Depending on what classes your school offers in both programs, you may find that you are required to take classes you wouldn’t normally take in order to get the diploma at the expense of ones you’d like. At my son’s school, many high achieving students want to double up on sciences in both junior and senior year and find this is incompatible with the diploma program. If foreign language isn’t your thing, that requirement could be problematic. IF your school teaches in English and it’s not your first language, the workload could be too much because of all the written assessments.
Also, while most colleges are MORE generous in terms of credit for the IB diploma than they are for APs (many will give you a full year, which saves a lot of money and time, both of which are helpful if you’re on a track that requires grad school), they may count only HL scores if you do the certificates. If you do the certificate, you are unlikely to get college credit for the SL classes even though in some subjects (Chemistry comes to mind), the SL curriculum is more rigorous than the AP one. The other issue is that your junior year, you’ll take SL exams, so if you want to show your HL scores in the admissions process, that won’t be possible, and you’ll probably have decided to take the classes you like most and excel at most at the HL level.
With all that said, I think it’s a great program and that, if delivered well, it provides a much better foundation for college than do the APs. You’ll have the opportunity to go to college outside the U.S., if that’s of interest.