IB or AP

<p>Currently a sophomore at an American system international high school. </p>

<p>I'm interested in microfinance, I've done some microfinance work and therefore my interest in Penn and especially Wharton!</p>

<p>Most kids at my high school do the full IB diploma (3 high levels, 3 standard levels), plus SAT's and SAT 2's and that's it. No AP's. Our school sends at most 2 people to Ivies each year.</p>

<p>I've been doing well (GPA around 3.8), blue book SAT's around 2250 and I really want to make a push for an Ivy so I was thinking of taking an IB AP mix. </p>

<p>Honestly my counselors aren't very good, everyone says the IB diploma is amazing, but I'm 100% focused on the US and I thought an IB AP mix would show more rigor than just 6 IB exams. Actually my brother who took the full IB suggested I take a mix. I was thinking the following combination:</p>

<p>IB HL English
IB HL Econ
IB HL History (our school does the Russia/China focus)
IB SL Physics
IB HL Spanish (even SL have to take the HL class then just take the SL exam, so I might as well register for the HL exam)</p>

<p>AP Microecon
AP Macroecon (learn all the theory in IB HL Econ for both AP econ's)
AP Calculus (instead of an IB math)
AP Statistics (instead of an IB math)
AP Physics mechanics </p>

<p>Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated. I've been a long time lurker and I would really appreciate any advice from people who have gone through the process.</p>

<p>i would strongly suggest full ib. you get alot from the other aspects of it such as tok, cas, ee.</p>

<p>thanks for your thought akkipenn. my only concern is that just the full IB isn’t enough. </p>

<p>i do recognize that you gain from other aspects like tok, cas, extended essay, but my #1 concern is being competitive for top schools. i don’t know if i can do that just on full ib…</p>

<p>i should be honest and say that an intellectually enriching experience as a result of cas, tok and the EE isn’t on the top of my list of priorities…as ******y as that sounds.</p>

<p>mixed IBD and AP is good if you’re ready for the work. i took the ib diploma with 4 HL’s and also self-studied 5 AP’s in 11th grade. you can get the benefits of both curriculums. for example, IB doesn’t cover cover calculus-based physics, so i self-studied both AP Physics C’s. AP doesn’t have EE or TOK, but IB offers it etc…</p>

<p>EE and TOK are actually quite useful experiences (but can be very annoying and time-consuming towards the due-dates in 12th grade). if you want, you can get an early start on your EE and use it as a research paper with which you can use to join competitions - a slight bonus for college admissions. (econ EE’s are really easy) </p>

<p>also, colleges in the US do recognize the IB Diploma as a challenging curriculum. sometimes, IBD students are caught up with the work and don’t have the time to participate in extracurricular activities. and many times, that is a problem. if you want to go to Wharton, you should choose a courseload that’s manageable. i hear that 90% of Wharton admits were ranked first in their high school classes (i may be wrong), so if you want to go there, you definitely need to do well in the classes instead of taking the most challenging possible classes. </p>

<p>these are only academics. just fyi, you need much more than academics to get into a really top school in the US.</p>

<p>thanks for the insight Vortar. You’re right, I’m not just trying to load up on the max # of exams and classes, I’m definitely aiming on doing well in what I choose.</p>

<p>Even if I do take the mix route, I would be taking the SAME classes as full IB except for Math Methods. Instead of that I would take AP Stat and AP Calc.</p>

<p>All the other AP exams would come from ‘synergies’. Ie, I learn everything I need for AP micro and macro from HL econ, I can do AP Physics mechanic from IB SL Physics.</p>

<p>Instead of 6 IB’s (aka diploma), i’m taking 5 and 2 AP classes instead…in my mind, I’m seeing it as substituting TOK/EE/CAS. Is that how an AdCom would receive it?</p>

<p>bump, bump</p>

<p>Its not too bad, especially if you’re eliminating TOK, EE and CAS. I’m a diploma candidate though and think a full diploma would look much more favourable. To be honest through CAS u get to do many great activities that you can mention in ur resume and essays too, so it really helps in ECs. Plus if you can manage math HL, and score well, it reflects favourably upon you because its recognised as one of the most rigorous math courses for high school. So its upto personal preference, but I think a full IB has a slight edge.</p>

<p>nikeboy: can i confirm that you’re saying you think the full IB (6 exams) has the edge of the mix (5IBs + 5AP’s = 10exams)??</p>

<p>@Vortar: you mean econ IA are easy…i couldn’t imagine the workload for the EE…too stressful X( took business management as an EE…</p>

<p>@kobe24: if you want to get a leg-up to wharton…i would suggest that you take business management HL…and get a really-really-really-really good recommendation from the subject’s teacher (mine was awesome!!! said that i was the top students in his 20 years of IB teaching experience! yay) also take Business as an EE…capitalize on econ HL coz it’s generally easy to get a 6, but you need to impress the test readers to get a 7 (impress meant that you need a stroke of economic brilliance when you write your essays and test answers)…take math HL (i deeply regreted that i took SL) don’t know about which science to take…probably the one with the most calculations (i.e. IB physics which is equals to death)…and choose two language courses…that is an already friggin demanding course…and if you still would like to take some AP courses…get the ones that are heavy in math…(you just have to be good at math)</p>

<p>good luck!! :D</p>

<p>and don’t forget to take internships at a corporate company…usually the ones in finance…the more impossible it is for you to get the internship…the better it will look like in your application</p>

<p>“Instead of 6 IB’s (aka diploma), i’m taking 5 and 2 AP classes instead…in my mind, I’m seeing it as substituting TOK/EE/CAS. Is that how an AdCom would receive it?”</p>

<p>I read that part, sorry the thread was a little long so I brushed through it and caught this line</p>

<p>Take AP. You get more credits. This is from someone who did IB in high school.</p>

<p>Thanks for the advice everyone.</p>

<p>BrownPennLover - I was thinking about Business Management too, specifically for Wharton. If I took say HL Biz Management, Econ, English, Spanish, SL math, physics, history – how would the business management look to other places? </p>

<p>Obviously Wharton is my #1 choice hands down but I don’t want to get cubed as a business only person for other schools.</p>

<p>MajorLazer - I understand that I’ll get a lot more credits doing AP…but just from talking to upperclassmen at my high school the AP just isn’t as established at my school and the best teachers teach IB…so I might have to play it conservative here and go with IB and just hope to rock the SAT, SAT II. Worst thing would be for me not to do well on my AP’s…</p>

<p>BrownPennLover - I did a microfinance internship in a developing country my freshman year which I really enjoyed. Basically it was optimizing some of their monitoring systems to better help track spending. Do you think I should try to go corporate from here on out or continue with microfinance? </p>

<p>I hear showing real dedication to 1 thing is better than tons of sporadic other stuff…</p>

<p>NO! NO! don’t do anything else…THAT’S PERFECT!!! holy s***!! how did you manage to get a microfinance internship!!! i would absolutely kill for that!!! my internship was for Ersnt & Young, quite impossible to get for high school students, but still…you schooled me HARD! it’ll be a great idea if you take internships and extracurriculars that revolves around microfinance…try getting an internship at a central bank…or even better–>world bank (land that one and i’m pretty sure that you’ll get a great chance of getting into Wharton)</p>

<p>by “other places” you meant like other universities? if so, it would give you nothing but an impressive application (if you apply to schools that are strong in business that is)…but here is the down side, no school gives you credit for business management (not even Wharton)…but it does show unis that you have a leg-up in business i.e. how many high school seniors you know can form an Ishikawa diagram for a business at the top of their head? if you take business management HL, you are going to be a student who can…and universities will know that you can (assuming you get good grades that is)…a 5 in BM HL is good enough for any unis…but make sure you’ll get a 6 or, if you can, a 7 fro Wharton…make sure you start early on your BM IA…it gives you one hell of a headache if you procrastinate on that one…</p>

<p>are you sure you want to take 7 IB courses?? i mean 6 is already hell :P</p>

<p>@nikeboy3004 ah, that is a great idea…wow…should’ve thought of that since 11th grade…oh well, at least i only sacrificed my youth for a full IB diploma…it’s not like it’s important is it?</p>

<p>BrownPennLover - Thanks for the thoughts! I’m definitely interested in microfinance so I’m going to do Business HL, do my EE/IA on microfinance.</p>

<p>I initially wanted to do Big4! What are you talking about, you’ve got me owned.</p>

<p>Swinging a central bank gig is going to be hard because I don’t speak the local language fluently enough (I’m an expat) and I’m not exactly the most connected person, but I’ll see what I can do! I really should focus on my SAT’s too. I’m taking SAT 1 in june!! </p>

<p>Last summer as I mentioned I sat behind a desk the entire time…I’m thinking this summer maybe try and go out on the donations, collections, see how the people are living and how the capital they get allows them to make something of their lives? </p>

<p>NikeBoy - I didn’t even realize that! I’ll definitely mention CAS/EE, all the extras in my resume</p>

<p>My AP/IB school recommends that people choose one or the other - a mix, they say, is neither here nor there. Taking some difficult IB classes but not doing the full diploma is a little wimpy. Colleges know about the requirements of the IB and if you clearly prove you’re capable of the work (by taking IB classes), it sometimes looks like you’re skimping by not doing the full diploma, even if you’re taking your other classes AP. Since your school has a well-established IB Program, with better teachers and a better curriculum, I’d advise going for it. The requirements really aren’t that bad - the EE is only 4000 words, which really isn’t a lot. 150 hours of CAS seems overwhelming, but spread over 2 years, it’s not too bad either. Plus, having extra community service never hurts either. </p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

<p>thanks cryingcloud, at this point I’ve decided with everyone’s advice to go with full IB!</p>

<p>Just FYI
Take IB will give you more extensive learning ability so you can easily adept college work load
AP is fairly easy in term of economics
Son was in Full IB and he study AP Micro and Macro Economics on his own. He got 5 on both and it only took him less than 2 weeks study</p>