<p>S got the IB diploma with 24 points, exactly what it takes to get the diploma. He's now 24, and says he wishes he hadn't bothered with IB because he had expected that lots of people including potential employers would be impressed by the diploma, but no one cared.</p>
<p>It's a great program for students who have broad intellectual interests who also enjoy writing and research. It's not a good choice for students with narrow interests or those planning to pursue IB in hopes it will be their ticket to prestige, top colleges, scholarships (except for the relatively few small ones that some less competitive colleges offer students who complete an IB program).</p>
<p>Probably hitting 42+ on the diploma. The norm at my school is in the 30+. The EEs in history is tedious research and then quick synthesis. I don't know about other students but the IA are relatively easy if you're well prepared. AP is harder on a practical note because time is compressed. IB is sometimes annoying with all the extra tedious paperwork. There both great ways to get college to recognize that you have worked hard in high school academically.</p>
<p>Once again, it all comes down to a matter of personal experience. While your son may not have found the IB diploma particularly helpful, I have found it incredibly helpful in getting research assistantships, competitive study abroad programs, and scholarships.</p>
<p>I totally disagree with the person who said that AP is less challenging.
I took 3 AP classes before coming to an IB school. My IB classes combined are not as difficult as those 3 classes that I took along with 4 "normal" and "honors" courses. I feel like I took much more out of the AP, whereas I think IB takes 2 years to teach what AP teaches in 1 year.</p>
<p>Once again, all about personal experience: talk to person A and he'll say IB is FAR FAR FAR harder than AP and and person B will say that AP is FAR FAR FAR harder than IB. Person C may say they are pretty equal, etc. etc.</p>
<p>As an IB student my (probably biased) view is that AP is more abouting learning material and spitting it back out, whereas IB tries to get you to come to your own conclusions and form your own opinions. Also, SL classes are not necessarily easier than HL, it has to do with how long the class is (one year verses two). To me the term "AP program" is kind of a misnomer, because each class is kind of a seperate thing. Two people can both do AP, and probably never take the same class (or at least have very little overlap). The IB diploma, however is a comprehensive program in which all students have to do things like the Extended Essay, Internal Assessment, Group 4 project, CAS reports, and TOK. To me the benefit is the way IB encourages you to make connections between disciplines and to not just learn material, but consider the way in which we learn, and the impact of the material on ourselves and our community.</p>
<p>Of course, this is just my own (one-sided) opinion, and others may prefer AP. It takes a lot of work to excel in any IB or AP class.</p>
<p>I study over here in the only high school in singapore which follows college board. and trust me, IB is comparatively very easy. However, they develop other stuff like Theory of knowledge and what not. ACS(I), best IB school in the world is my neighbour school and i think its unfair that they go through something easier in the sciences and math and they get into better univerisities for engineering than people who take APs.</p>
<p>In my school, IB programme, we took AP classes in sophomore year to prepare for the IB Diploma. Everyone studied last minute, and still past with 4s and 5s. IB takes much more endurance and strength in order to complete. In our school AP is looked down as a joke.</p>
<p>There is way too much wrong information going around here. Btw, i am an IB student but i will be as unbiased as possible. My cousin takes AP and we compared some stuff.</p>
<p>Fact: I contacted 15 colleges... 12 said they see IB and AP as the same... 3 avoided the question but said that they consider IB to be the hardest high school curriculum out there. </p>
<p>Now, i am not saying that actual content of IB is more difficult than AP.. because it may not be. But the thing is... to achieve an IB Diploma, you have to do 140 CAS Hours, take a Theory of Knowledge Course and write an Extended Essay which takes forever. The IB programs requires academic excellence as well as these things so colleges often view IB diploma holders as well rounded students. </p>
<p>It is true that getting into IB is pretty easy, but IB has a 60 % drop out rate meaning majority of the people drop out and only the intelligent and hard working ones are left at the end. I would like to say one thing tho.... it is easier to get a 5 in AP than it is to get a 7 in IB... In our school gettin a 7 means getting an A ++(just assume its almost impossible). I have friends with 7 or 8 5s in their APs and they manage mostly 6s with maybe a few 7s and even some 5s. </p>
<p>Another advantage of the IB program is that it is much less popular than AP courses and it makes you stand out. Believe it or not, that goes a long way in college admissions. Just to share a story, i have a cousin who was in AP/Gifted and she was making all As and A +... she came to IB and got Cs and had to eventually drop out. </p>
<p>I would strongly suggest you take Ib if you are willing to go through hard work and sleepless nights but ultimately your good results are going to be rewarded.</p>
<p>To the people that are saying IB program is the easy way out... get real.... sorry to say, but that is completely false and i am not just saying that because i am in IB. My tutor took 4 AP courses and he is stunned by the amount of work we get in IB.</p>
<p>all that matter is HOW DIFFICULT EACH TRACK IS.</p>
<p>if your counselor thinks IB is the hardest then take that. if you can suffice with APs and still get the highest checkbox for course rigor on the common app, then its fine.</p>
<p>i will admit, though, that IB is usually the same or harder than AP.</p>
<p>dont take IB for the sake of learning lmao. people who say that are straight nerds. when you take IB, you will undoubtedly be up on the last night half-a$$ing your essays/projects/etc. thats some real learning there!</p>
<p>okay, so I havent read the previous posts but I just wanted to say that first of all, where are you coming from? If you come from outside of the states, the IB is regarded extremely highly, and if you apply to the states with the IB you already have a step above the person applying with APs. Yes, of course both systems are hard and you'll probably get the same thing out of both of them, but if you have a choice, AND you are prepared to do the work, the IB is the way to go. Im in IByr2, and living abroad and i regretted that decision until the past month, when I've been seeing all the AP kids in my school applying to mediocre schools, and the IB kids applying to ivies and other top-tier schools. So...you make the decision! haha</p>
<p>I am in IB and I have taken AP courses as electives and I can tell you that IB is absolutely more rigorous than AP. The situation goes back to the fact that the IB diploma programme is a program and AP is a series of courses. Theres no connection between the classes in AP, and there’s homework for the class and, the test at the end of the year, then its over. In IB there is homework for the class, there is a test after two years, then there is at least one IA for each class, an EE that is due half-way through senior year, and CAS that permeates through the entire program. The sheer number of different aspects that the student must maintain in the IB programme make it more rigorous.
That being said, there is not much of a difference in how colleges view the two. The major advantage with IB is simply that college will be easier because you have the experience of dealing with several different deadlines and with self-discipline.</p>
<p>My friends IB classes (SL) are jokes to my AP classes whereas the HL classes are comparable( except physics because IB doesn’t teach calculus based, wheres AP does).</p>
<p>Ib doesn’t make college easier than AP, notice how low the number of credits you get for IB compared to the vast number of AP credits?</p>
<p>Many friends take easy volunteer positions for CAS. Also,AP is more flexible than IB, so if you’re going into science for university, you can take numerous science based courses whereas you can not do that in IB.</p>
<p>I’ve seen IB kids go to low tier state schools and AP kids get into Harvard/Yale and vice versa.</p>
<p>You do know colleges don’t discriminate between the two?</p>
<p>If you’re going to something that requires all 3 sciences (like medicine), AP has the advantage because you can take all 3 of them whereas you can only take 2 in IB.</p>
<p>From where I am (Canada), you can take a max of 2 science courses in a full diploma programme. The other four, from what I’ve been told, are social science, language, foreign language and math.</p>
<p>Many of my friends either dropped out of the diploma to do all 3 sciences or had to take the third one at the regular level.</p>
<p>Since there is only one AP class in my school, I am doing the IB Diploma (4 HL) and the AP class. I recommend if you do the IB Diploma to do 4 HL instead of 3.</p>
<p>I am taking the IB and have had the oportunity to look at the sylabus for the AP and they are a total joke, the IB diploma is much more intense than AP as far as i have seen. the school close to mine has a full AP requirment and all the students who graduate with perfect scores are maybe the dummest people around, if they can get perfect scores with a 0% of brain activity, then the AP itself cant be that hard</p>
<p>This why your son barely got his diploma. No credit for his TOK or EE whas given most likely. He didn’t get much credit for his diploma at college either unless he went to a low ranked school. Many colleges will not give credit for a 4. </p>
<p>Don’t confuse a poor IB student with one that took the courses more seriously. IB is hard to get college credit but it doesn’t mean that colleges don’t like how the kids are prepared for college. Only kids that took IB full diploma with AP classes got into Ivy and top ranked colleges from my dd’s high school. The only AP taking kids didn’t even break into the top 5% of the class and they weigh AP & IB the same at her school. </p>
<p>DD took both IB and AP and found IB much more difficult not because of the school work but because she had to do so much more in addition to her school work. They have also cracked down on what was they allow to count for CAS. DD also got more scholarship money because she was an IB student. I am sure that is not always the case but it helped her.</p>
<p>Also wanted to add. There is a big difference in ability between a kid who barely gets an IB diploma with a score of 24 and those that get a 45. This maybe why some think it is a good program and some do not.</p>