My son is in an IB program at his high school. As a Junior, he’s taking the toughest load of IB classes as well as a couple of AP courses. I’ve always wondered about the question of adding college courses to what he has already. Does it make any difference to his college admissions chances whether he adds courses taken from a local college or none at all as long as he’s taking the toughest IB and AP courses his high school has to offer?
None whatsoever.
Colleges expect students to take the most challenging curriculum that they can handle from their HS offerings. There is no expectation from any college that an applicant needs college courses, particularly if the HS offers an array of AP/IB courses and the student has not exhausted the curriculum in any one department.
It depends on what level the college courses are.
IB HL and AP courses are targeted at high school students who are ready for college frosh level material, so they cover much of the same material as college frosh level courses. But if the college courses are not college frosh level (e.g. more advanced courses, or (from a college point of view) developmental/remedial courses), then it could definitely look different.
Thank you for your responses. Sure don’t want to have any unnecessary pressure to take college courses when not necessary!
However, IB courses have a reputation of being a lot of work, sometimes to the point that former IB students sometimes say that college is less work.
@ucbalumnus - True that! My older boy, who went through the IB program and is now a freshman in college, is having a lot easier time in college in comparison.