<p>Foreign policy: US/Saudi Arabia current relationships</p>
<p>japstudent12: take the AP's so you can get credit at american colleges. i'm not sure if they accept IB credit though, you should check at the individual college web sites or maybe the IB web site has details about that...</p>
<p>o ok thanks! but in terms of admission... is it worth it? like regardless of getting credit.</p>
<p>i don't know what colleges you're looking at. IB's are not worth much in the University of California system (AP's are). i'm not sure about the rest, check the web sites and see if they say anything, or if they add extra points in the gpa for IB courses</p>
<p>I am strictly speaking about colleges inside the united states:</p>
<p>credit: IBs will screw you over when it's time for college credits. You don't get credit for SLs, and some HLs are not accepted. Still, most schools only accept 6 or 7, which are much harder to get than 4 and 5 on the AP.</p>
<p>admission: again, not a big help. It'll be the same if you take like 6 AP courses a year, and in fact, 6 APs might look even better! Nevertheless, IB does give you the opportunity to get some valuable community service hours and perhaps even a top-notch essay through the extended essay. The TOK class might also give you some nice ideas for the "intellectual" college admission essays.</p>
<p>oh i see.. thanks awaken and paulhomework!!
would it be worthless to sit for both AP and IB exams??</p>
<p>Actually, everyone at my school who was iin the IB program got accepted into atleast one college of their choice.</p>
<p>Being out of state or out of country, IBs play a role in admissions to the UCs. In fact son's acceptance to a UC is based on his final exam scores, much the same as is done in the UK. He is a full diploma candidate and the gpa is weighted by the UCs to reflect this. But apart from all that, the program is amazing if you can tolerate burning the midnight oil: it is one way (mind you I am saying one way) of getting a great education at the high school level...again, I am speaking of full diploma, not just taking assorted classes.</p>
<p>May I suggest, tentatively, that you make your decision based on what works best for YOU instead of what will get you into college?</p>
<p>It's important to consider the differences between the programs to find the better fit for you -- much like selecting a college. Where the IB Diploma is a coherent program that is structured across the disciplines, the AP is a more eclectic selection of classes. What's "better" depends completely on the individual. Extending the college analogy, does the idea of distribution requirements appeal to you, or would you rather have an open curriculum? The IB has additional requirements: the Extended Essay (a 4000-word research essay that you write in 11th grade), 60 hours of community service, and Theory of Knowledge (basically a philosophy class). Some people find that worthwhile; others see it as a nuisance. I go to an all-IB school and never had the chance to choose, but I know that the coherency of the program suits me well.</p>
<p>I've seen statistics (don't have the link, sorry) that the IB diploma nearly doubles the admissions rate at some universities, including NYU. However, the chart I looked at was a few years old (2002?) and it's possible that things have leveled out since then. Both are challenging courses of study, and I don't think you can go wrong with either.</p>
<p>As an aside, don't underestimate the importance of individual course choices within the program. IB or AP alone isn't going to get you in; taking the most challenging courses your school offers might, and IB Chemistry is obviously going to be ranked higher than IB Drama.</p>
<p>edit: I based my post on the Diploma program. Don't do Certificate; it's pretty much useless.</p>
<p>many IB Diploma Candidates at my school (borderline SAT's), have been offered admission to UC's that was dependent on Diploma, one girl did not complete and her admission to UCSB was revoked...
~I agree with overseas, the diploma is amazing but misc. classes not worth as much</p>
<p>"IBs will screw you over when it's time for college credits. "</p>
<p>depends how well you do on the Diploma program. If you get the actual diploma, you should get enough college credit to almost boost you for 2/3 of a year. But if you stack up a ton of APs, you can easily surpass that. the only disadvantage i found was that the SL foreign language will not pass you out of the UC college foreign language requirement... and perhaps the IB english exam won't qualify you out of the Subject A/Writing I requirement. </p>
<p>"IB's are not worth much in the University of California system (AP's are)."</p>
<p>um, there's a special box on the university of california application that says "check here if you are IB Diploma." i would have to say that there's special consideration at least recognition given to IB diploma students. </p>
<p>many ivy league colleges and top colleges (the common ones that receive a lot of quality applications) know about the IB program. they expect you to take the most challenging courseload at your school, and a full IB Diploma courseload is pretty challenging. I forgot which Ivy stated this, but they said something like "if your school offers the IB program, we expect you to take it"</p>
<p>"Don't do Certificate; it's pretty much useless."</p>
<p>agreed. probably less challenging than several APs put together. </p>
<p>as for personal experience, not all IB diploma candidates ended up at top notch schools, but at my high school, there was a clear advantage that more IB students got into top schools than AP students overall, but that's not to say that AP students were at any INDIVIDUAL disadvantage.</p>
<p>Our school is horrible, they combine the AP/IB classes together</p>
<p>same at my school...</p>
<p>well... most of the IB ppl.. that got into top schools.. woulda gotten in without it anyways.... without IB. and plenty of AP ppl got into better schools than IB ppl this year. IB's ughh.. our school is biased towards IB.</p>
<p>^ that's true. From what I've seen, its not really the title of IB that pushed the candidate anymore compared to another with APs.</p>
<p>If IB is the hardest course path in your school, elite colleges will want to see that you challenged yourself with the hardest, and this is when IB is much more in favor for a candidate.</p>
<p>you guys can clearly tell that there are complaints about the IB program at ROWLAND HIGH SCHOOL (california) seeing that THREE posters (kfc4u, laguna, m3ssi) are from there. LOL.</p>
<p>lol.. yes.. we go to/ went to such a lovely school..</p>
<p>So.......how long has your amazing admin been there?</p>
<p>Sorry, but most of you seem to have a very shady idea of the IB program. You don't do it to get into colleges, you do it to prepare for colleges.
And generally, if your school offers it, you should take it. Why? Because schools want students who take the most rigorous courses available.</p>
<p>Apparently some of you think that just by being in IB you should gain admittance at all top universities. That's not how it works. Just being in the program won't do anything for you. You need high grades, high test scores, and good ECs to get into any university. IB is not a free pass. Whether you're doing AP or IB, you need to have those things in addition to thse most rigorous courses. </p>
<p>There are a variety of types of people in my IB program. Those who just do mostly the minimum and they don't have the highest aspirations for colleges. Still, they do moderately well in grades and what not. Some of them are going to florida state, and the majority is going to the university of georgia (the state school). </p>
<p>And then there are others who work hard regardless of what they are given. They know that just being in the IB program does not give them anything. Our school sent people to Brown, Duke, UNC (out of state), University of Chicago, etc. This year we've had acceptances to Penn (me), Princeton, Columbia, UNC(out of state), etc. As you can see, It's all about the individual. So i don't really think there are many valid arguments in this topic. "I knew some people in IB who got rejected to so and so." And? Your point is? Just being in IB gives you nothing. It's on the individual.</p>
<p>IB credit is the one thing I'm ****ed about, as only HLs get you credit, but you can take the correlating AP class for whatever SL class you're taking. That usually works out ok for people.</p>
<p>Well neobez, I've taken SL couses, and the corresponding AP courses are much, much tougher. I was in SL physics for a little while before dropping it, and AP Physics, which I'm in now, is much more difficult. I could pass the SL test no problem, but SL students couldnt pass the AP test.</p>
<p>That being said, IB kids at my school fared poorly. Some of the best were rejected from Berkeley, I'm pretty sure the Stanford EA was deferred then rejected, one going to Tennessee out of state, a lot of lower-tier UC's, while the AP program produced a Stanford (me), a Princeton, a MIT/Penn, 5 NYU's and so on.</p>