<p>I am a freshman and I'm deciding on whether to take IB, or take all APs and attempt for the following AP awards:
AP International Diploma
Siemens AP Award
National AP Scholar w/Dististinction</p>
<p>Which one would colleges like?</p>
<p>I want to do IB, though all those AP awards may make me unique in a college's view.</p>
<p>My daughter will be in the full IB program next year as a junior. She will also be taking AP Spanish. This was her decision. I spent about 5 weeks researching IB versus AP. I went to parent meetings, met with the IB coordinator, etc. I now realize that both programs are great- told my daughter to pick the one that she will enjoy more. My advice would be to take the program that you enjoy and do not worry about which looks better. The reason why I did so much research is because I knew nothing about IB and I did not feel comfortable allowing my daughter to enter a program that I knew nothing about. I am totally comfortable with my daughter’s choice. If your school has a good IB program and you want IB, go for it. Although the AP awards are fantastic, you won’t go wrong with IB if that is what you want. On a side note, my daughter’s school just told us that IB students are accepted to US colleges and universities at a higher percentage rate than non IB students ( 3-50% higher acceptance rates). After reading my post I realize that I appear to be biased towards IB, when actually I am not. Go with what you like.</p>
<p>In my opinion take the AP courses. Im in a few IB courses this year and am not to fond of them. Also once you’re in the Diploma you are locked in because you cant drop a course that you aren’t interested in for year two. (I am trying hard to limit my Bias against the IB, but this response still seems rather Bias.) If you like take a combination AP IB a lot of my friends did that at my school.</p>
<p>Why are you not fond of IB? I am just trying to get different points of view.</p>
<p>take AP, you learn so much more in these classes then in IB. Also AP classes are made by the college board which consists of College professors so they know what you will be expected to do in college and mirror that in AP. Honestly IB classes are kind of useless and redundant.</p>
<p>Top students in our school take AP and IB. Many kids who graduated with the IB diploma are current in top schools and tell me the IB program prepared them. I was told that the other kids use their IB techniques when writing papers.</p>
<p>I also spoke to the Dean of Admissions recently at Cornell. She told me that they do not value one program over the other.</p>
<p>IB is based on international standards of education, developed by professionals and educators from all over the world. The International Baccalaureate Diploma Program prepares students for college better than the AP Program (research the facts) and teaches students to think in a broad, liberal-arts setting. Take IB!</p>
<p>At our school the first year of ib is a joke some kids see it as a way to pad their gpa others actually enjoy it and take a lot of HL classes. I am in history of the America’s HL and I am not fond of it because we have only two or three grades with a Socratic seminar almost daily. I am also in math SL for the teacher I have really learned better from him, and with his advice I will take ap calculus ab next year.</p>
<p>Perhaps your school’s IB program is not as good as other schools. My friend called the Dean of Admissions at Brown and was told that if a school has a good IB program it is viewed more favorably than AP.</p>
<p>The key word is " if."</p>
<p>I have to agree with alloverthepage. IB has more of a liberal arts feel and the fact you must be strong in all core and extra. But ever since IB was installed at my school, since all the top students went into IB, AP fell down and many students take AP and Dual-Credit or whatever else. IB itself, if taught properly, is not really a joke and past graduates have said they have been extremely prepared and their essays have been outstanding.</p>