To be honest, it makes you a better learner and widens your intellectual depth but it does little for college admissions. For top colleges, GPA, SAT/ACT, 5’s in random AP’s, fine art/scientific/athletic talent and leadership positions are bottom line. If you are neck to neck with someone then yes, IB would be an advantage but IB takes so much of your time and effort that other than exeptional students, you can’t beat your equals who have time and energy to do more. IB isn’t suitable for everyone.
Well you just the made the point right there @WorryHurry411. If you’re neck and neck with someone, especially someone from your school (since I doubt they will judge an IB person against someone that went to a non-IB school), isn’t that extra time and energy that you put in worth it, if it gets you in? Plus, colleges want to see that you challenged yourself; if you go to an IB school, even if you’re doing mediocre, you still chose to take on the sleepless nights, stress, etc. that IB does provide. Another thing to note about IB are the CAS requirements that make you step outside your comfort zone and give back. Plus the IB curriculum lets you take a lot of APs/IB classes, and that will also help your GPA.
The last thing I want to about IB is that it has been shown time and time again to help students in college. How many of your AP classes will you have to write a 10-20+ page paper for? I doubt 0. For IB you definitely have to do that-at least 6 times (5 for your classes’ Internal Assessments, and 1 Extended Esssay). These papers are standard research papers that you will encounter in college. It’s best to see it and have an idea of that, since college will then be a breeze.
Disclaimer : If you don’t like the idea of having to stay up late to do hw (since I assume you will join a club, or sport, or will have a social life in general), then don’t join. It’s not for the lazy, but don’t let that scare you. Hope you have good luck in your endeavors
My school is strictly an IB School but offers an sufficient amount of APs as well. In my school there are three catergories that students fall under, the IB students, AP students, and IB/AP Flex students, and one thing we can all agree on is that “IB is more expressing your opinion or going into depth on a topic through analysis and writing, while APs are more focused on memorization and essay structure.” APs do not have the crazy requirements that IB has like EEs, IAs, IOCs, and CAS, but those things have been proven to be highly beneficial in prepping one for college. Writing the tedious Extended Essay alone, is quite beneficial in itself. IB is not for everyone, but the same goes for AP, it all depends on you. If you aren’t very balanced, don’t do well under stress, don’t want sleepless nights, then don’t take IB. If you are looking for a program that doesn’t consume your summers and time, ends after you take the exam, take AP. IB can defintely increase your chances of getting into colleges, for although it is a international program, it is not widely-offered at American high schools like APs are. If you looking to apply to schools outside the US like Oxford and Cambridge, IB will be extremely beneficial for it is a internationally recognized program. Many seniors who have left me school have told me “college is breeze” as mentioned above due to the assignments and Extended Essay especially, prepared them for college workload and made the transition to college easy and less stressful. “My professor told me to write a 10,000 word essay and while the whole class moaned, I knew this was going to be a piece of cake, thanks Extended Essay,” one of my schools IB alumni said. Kids who have taken IB at my schoo have gone to Harvard, Stanford, Cornell, CalTech, John Hopkins, Vanderbilt, NYU, Oxford, and many more amazing schools and have had greater chances and greater acceptances than their AP counterparts at my school. Honestly, it is all in the eye of the beholder, but of your school offers IB take it trust me you will not regret it and it will be worth your while, but only take it if you can handle it 
^ Yeah, the writing part in my experience is one of the biggest differences between IB and AP. The lack of writing skills is also one of the things the colleges bemoan now about incoming students. IB gave me a lot more writing confidence going into college. Honestly, my college professors were less strict graders than my IB English teacher.
I will be taking most of the IB classes next year, except for continuing my language. The reason that I decided against pushing through a 4th and 5th year of a language is because many of the schools that I’m looking at don’t recognize IB. I will not put myself through all that if the majority of the colleges I apply to will not give credit for it. For me. it’s better to take the AP tests in the spring (since most of our IB classes are combined IB/AP) and receive college credit.
You are the one who can assess your potential. If IB diploma is too much for you then you better settle for AP program or use IB in same a la carte manner as AP, by picking only those subjects that you can handle.
I don’t have any experience with IB, because my school doesn’t offer it, but I’d like to point out that many students who take AP classes, or even just a few APs, go on to universities and do well. It’s great that some people have the opportunity to take IB courses, but if you don’t, it’s not a big deal. Do what feels right for you.