<p>I feel like it really depends on how the colleges look at it. Between IB, AP, and Dual Enrollment, there are a lot of circulating ideas, but what we say about it really doesn’t reflect what colleges think. </p>
<p>Coming from someone who did IB, I definitely recommend AP.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>IB and AP are viewed equally at colleges, despite IB largely being seen as more difficult than AP.</p></li>
<li><p>You can get a lot more college credit with AP, whereas you’ll likely only get credit for your HL (7) classes.</p></li>
<li><p>AP overlaps a lot more with CollegeBoard tests. This means that IB students tend to have to do way more self-study for SAT-II’s than AP students.</p></li>
<li><p>SL Math doesn’t even cover everything that Calculus AB covers in-depth. This could potentially screw you over with college calculus and require some extra study in order to be competent.</p></li>
<li><p>EC’s matter a lot too at top, ivy-tier universities. If you’re doing AP, you can allot more time towards exploring your passions and getting involved.</p></li>
<li><p>Colleges do not see your IB scores by the time you apply to schools. I guess this could potentially be a plus. They do see your predicted IB scores, but don’t take them very seriously since a lot of schools purposely give all their students inflated scores.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>My daughter is a senior doing the IB diploma program. Take whatever @candypants16 is saying seriously.
You are not going to have much time for extracurriculars because IB is a lot of work which is much more difficult than AP. At the end of the day the college is first going to consider your gpa and SAT scores.
If you don’t do well then having an IB diploma is not going to make a big difference. If you are planning a STEM major I would highly recommend AP. Don’t underestimate the amount of work it takes to get an IB diploma. I think you will be surprised about the difficulty of the program. Most of the colleges my daughter applied to thought of IB being equal to AP when it is much more difficult. The AP kids end up getting lots more credit for their work. You are not going to have time for all the activities you have planned outside of your academics. </p>
<p>AP and IB Lit are very similar.</p>
<p>I would say that you’d probably find the topics you study in AP French more useful than those in IB. I’m in Spanish SL right now, and we learn about current issues, like GMOs, women’s rights, and immigration. It’s interesting, but I wish we would also cover vocabulary that is helpful in everyday situations.</p>
<p>IB history courses typically go in depth into certain topics, while AP classes are more of an overview. For example, an IB World History class might have a unit on Nazi Germany, mentioning the war in the Pacific only as it relates to Nazi Germany. An AP World History class would have a unit on WWII, of course going into detail about Nazi Germany, but not as much. It would talk about the events in the Pacific in detail too.</p>
<p>As has already been said, AP Calc is better than IB Math if you want to go into fields such as engineering and math. Both courses are roughly equivalent to Calculus I, but AP Calc AB covers more and is more like a college course. At my school, there are IB textbooks for SL and HL math, while AP Calc has a college textbook.</p>
<p>Thank you everybody!
I now have chosen AP over IB, but I like the IB school better.
Also, the smart students at my school are choosing IB, whereas those choosing AP are doing so because they don’t want to do work. No one at my school really has any Ivy-level ambitions, or even outside-of-Alberta ambitions. Most don’t care for college planning or for college, although I have begun college planning earlier than the norm. Most of my peers will be attending the University of Calgary.
I plan to pursue physics and computer science, and wish to end up in the Bay Area/Silicon Valley.</p>