<p>I think it’s pretty objective. For example, search IB HL Math vs A Level Math. There’s no general consensus on which is harder. I’m sure every student wants to believe that their class load is the hardest. Any IB student taking 4 HLs, with Math and Chem being two of them (I’m not one of those students; I opted for Bio instead) would adamantly defend their course rigor. I think to really understand difficulty you’ve gotta go through the class, you know?</p>
<p>I agree with Courtney. Speaking from personal experience, even a regular course can be really difficult if the teacher chooses to make it that way…</p>
<p>As for me, I’m getting two teacher recs, one from my Spanish teacher junior year, and the other from my senior year calculus teacher. I assume my Spanish teacher wrote a very flattering letter since she considers me to be the “most brilliant student she’s ever taught” :o My Calculus teacher probably will write something about my quality of work, work ethic, character, and approachability/friendliness 
Of course, I haven’t seen (and nor will I ever see) either of their letters, but that’s my general impression.</p>
<p>There was no IB, as of my batch, in my country. And I took an equivalent of 7 HL + 3 SL.</p>
<p>The government board restricts people to having around 5 subjects in a stream. (science/ commerce/ humanities). This is equivalent to 7 credits. The other board is CIE (A-levels), where I have confirmed that nobody has a total of more than 17 credits (1 credit = one year of study of a single subject).</p>
<p>No IB in Nepal? Crazy!</p>
<p>There’s the UWC program that sends a few children abroad, through a selection process, if they wanted to do IB. But the students mostly lost a year (repeating the 11th grade). And as of my batch, nope. IB Diploma started exactly after my batch in one school in my country.</p>
<p>Well… all of us <em>are</em> getting really good recos (I hope).</p>
<p>October SAT results in a few days… Anyone awaiting results?</p>
<p>where are you guys from? East coast or West Coast?</p>
<p>Midwest! I’m a country girl! And YES! I’m counting down the days 
Did you guys take the Reasoning test? Or Subject tests? If so, which ones?</p>
<p>I’m from the West Coast. I figure I’ll be staying up till 2 AM to see my scores I took 3 subject tests in October - Lit, French, and Spanish. Just made a new thread in the SAT II forum for people to post their scores once they receive them!</p>
<p>I have NO CLUE what my Psych teacher wrote. I know she really liked me, but it’s not like we were super close or anything (i’m homeschooled remember). My Spanish teacher has known me for 7 years, so she’ll be great :D. My mom said my counselor letter is generic… she’s a good writer, but idk. I have the head of TN 4-H writing my extra LOR though :D.</p>
<p>Rec letters—</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Math. He was my teacher of two years, and I was one of his two TAs. He’s a really strange (but VERY awesome) teacher. Infamous for his quirks in the country (won’t name him though :P). Published a book. Although I’m not supposed to read his letter bc I checked the box for confidentiality, he kinda made me. He checked “Highest 1%” (or whatever the box on the far right) for all categories…which is flattering, but realistically not true :o and the blurb he handwrote (he’s old, so can’t blame him) was very brief, but again, flattering. So that’ll be an interesting one for the admission peeps to read.</p></li>
<li><p>Literature. Department Chair for English, I had her last year. She’s not exactly well-liked by my friends, which I find strange because I think she’s great, but anyway I know she wrote me a good one. She’s quite blunt; she told a lot of my friends straight out that she would not be able to write good letters for whatever reason, but she told me with a smile that she has lots of good things to say about me. I trust this one will be a solid recommendation because after all, she is an English teacher :] </p></li>
<li><p>“Counselor” rec: actually, my assistant principal wrote me one since I communicated with him on a daily basis while I was junior class president. He told me that he’d write about how I grew as a leader while achieving academic excellence, so hopefully it’ll turn out fine. </p></li>
<li><p>Additional rec: my pastor. He made me read it, and it was personal and informative at the same time.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>All I can say is, I’m a very lucky student. Hopefully, Stanford will see that in me, too.</p>
<p>and me? </p>
<p>WEST COAST RE-PRE-SENT, NOW PUT YOUR HANDS UP</p>
<p>CALIFORNIAA~</p>
<p>Lets again hope that all of us get in :D</p>
<p>That would definitely be a CC all time record xD</p>
<p>Another topic of discussion:</p>
<p>What are your non-academic hobbies?</p>
<p>Ooh ooh ooh!</p>
<ol>
<li>Music</li>
<li>UNICEF/UN</li>
<li>Do Something!</li>
<li>Gardening (fresh veggies for the win)</li>
<li>Photography. Naw, I don’t own a fancy DSLR and such, but I can still differentiate good photorgraphies from the bad.</li>
</ol>
<p>I love cooking.
I do a bit of programming.
collecting coins…
playing chess…</p>
<p>and I’m an open source activist :p</p>
<p>Hey, I collect coins, too :]
(I’m a pack-rat—I keep EVERYTHING. Cards, letters, mementos, certificates, photos, EVERYTHING!)</p>
<p>Me an activist, too. I focus on minority’s-rights.</p>
<p>^
I keep everything too! lol…
I still have that certificate back from Grade 1… xD</p>
<p>I’m waiting for SAT 2 results. They’re going to be awful. I didn’t get enough time for Math2, and it’s not my strong point, so that’s understandable. But ENGLISH LIT. I got 760-780 on all my practice tests, Kaplan AND Barrons, then went and bombed the real thing because it was somehow tougher and had this whacko passage and poem. I’m afraid my SAT 2’s will get me rejected. :(</p>
<p>Do you think they’ll overlook them for my SAT 1 score?</p>
<p>^ I don’t think they will get you rejected, but they won’t overlook it either.</p>
<p>Good luck though…</p>