Do US universities value high school grades and SAT over IB predicted grades?
I heard US schools do not look at IB grades since they are just “predicted”
That is correct. They are happy to look at actual grades but put little to no weight on predicted grades.
So does that mean I basically just took IB for credits that I might get when I get into univ?
No, not only for that reason. I also take the IB, and colleges will care about the fact that you took the initiative to take advanced courses. In the same way that AP scores aren’t valued as much as the class grades, IB predicted grades matter even less, because you never know how incorrect the teacher will be. For instance, a number of international schools in Europe tend to boost predicted grades for college, often giving a number of students 44s or 45s, only to have that turn into low 40s. So you pretty much took IB for the credit and the advanced coursework, too.
Um no.
Schools that routinely over predict are known to US colleges and are blackballed. Happened to a school in my city this year.
Our high schools is a full IB school. The IB grades that are “predicted” are predicted upon an average of your grades last semester of 11th and first semester of 12th. They are not guesses.
IB is considered by many to be the most rigorous high school program available and a great preparation for a college education. The IB results are routinely stated by admissions people as one of the strongest predictors of college success.
So you took IB because colleges look for and prefer rigor. And American colleges are very well versed in the IB and understand the course load involved in a full IB DP program.
The posters above are correct. American colleges value the rigor of the IBD program. Feel free to self report results from your junior year (SL tests). You will likely get credit for the diploma in college – in many cases a full year’s worth, which is quite valuable in financial terms. AND if a teacher writing a rec wants to say you’re brilliant and likely to get a 7, that’s fine.
Colleges ask for mid year grades, not a prediction of year end grades, so think of it more as an issue of consistency, not a way of attacking IBD candidates.