Our S graduated from an international school that offers only IB classes, so we didn’t have to deal with the kind of mixed situations described in this thread - it sounds very complicated! He took three HL and three SL classes. I think maybe some kids are permitted to take two science HLs, which brings them up to four HL, but we never considered that. His school awarded only point grades. What went to the colleges he applied to were the internal semester grades, the predicted scores and, ultimately, the final point grades confirmed by the IBO. The IBD program was tough, but it clearly prepared him very well for college based on what we are seeing now, and I think we are all very glad he decided to do it rather than pursue an AP program at a different school. I agree with those who said above that many schools will take note of the IB program and not focus only on GPA and class rank. There is some evidence that IB students are admitted at a higher rate than others. This is an oldish IBO study from 2011 that includes some of these numbers: https://www.ibo.org/contentassets/12ca22e438df4a65b4c92e42b70b10ea/globaldpdestinationsurveyus.pdf