<p>I have heard (from a few unreliable sources) that there is a stigma against IB students by Caltech admissions officers. Though I doubt this is true, can anyone substantiate this?</p>
<p>Never heard of it and very much think it's false.</p>
<p>Caltech doesn't give any credit for IB or AP courses, which may be what you're thinking of.</p>
<p>As I suspected. Thanks.</p>
<p>No, it wasn't about granting credit, but rather about Caltech looking down upon IB candidates in the admissions process. I never wholeheartedly believed it..</p>
<p>I was in IB and I was accepted...</p>
<p>I would say IB is sometimes considered a little more rigorous than AP, depending on the program. There is certainly no bias against it. Wow. What ridiculous rumors there are!</p>
<p>: )
Ben</p>
<p>LMAO...that's all. What a silly little rumor.</p>
<p>Nah there might be something to it. </p>
<p>As anyone in IB knows, there's a huge difference between SL and HL.</p>
<p>Some IB schools don't offer HL science/math courses etc, so they might be a little disadvantaged applying to a school like Caltech, because honestly SL math is a joke (I got a 7 after sleeping through the year).</p>
<p>Ex, my school requires HL English and History for all of us, but no HL Math, and no IB Physics at all. They just recently put in HL Chem for last year, luckiy for me. Before the only HL science class they had was Bio. For a school like mine wher it's middle class and competitive, I'm not surpirsed if we're at a disadvantage at Caltech/MIT. Only kid I heard of who got into MIT took a million AP classes by himself and took a bunch of dual enrollment classes etc, all in math/science, which our school doesn't offer.</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure a lot of IB schools have similar curriculums with mine. Since SL science/math courses are extremely easy, I wouldn't expect colleges to look at them as being the same level as AP.</p>
<p>Ex, my senior year is.</p>
<p>English HL
History HL
Theory of Knowledge (philosophy class)
Photography SL
Chemistry HL
Spanish V SL</p>
<p>Caltech/MIT would probably treat my Photo class as an easy class, along with my TOK class. Spanish is usually a slack class too. They'll give me a benefit of a doubt since my school doesn't offer harder classes, but I'm pretty sure they'll rather go with a sure bet with someone who's already taking harder classes and doing well with them, not with someone who has what some people would call a really slack senior year, even though it's not really my fault.</p>
<p>It's true that most applicants from IB that a school like Caltech or MIT sees would have HL math/science, but having only SL math/science offered at your school is no worse than having a school that only offers honors or regular math or science (no AP). It's not the student's fault, and we look for evidence of initiative and accomplishment given what the student had to work with. So I reiterate that IB certainly confers no disadvantage. : )</p>
<p>Caltech wants to see that you have taken the most rigorous courseload available to you. If your school offers IB and not AP (which was the case for me), then you should definitely go for the IB diploma. As far as the program goes, IB is a more well rounded program than AP since the diploma requires testing in 6 different subjects (only two of which are math and experimental science), and requires an essay and volunteer work. My mom taught high school for a number of years and claims that AP tests (in math and science) are slightly more advanced than their IB counterparts, but I tend to disagree. I think that if you do well on your HL math and science tests that it will help, but of course there is the important caveat that test scores are by far not the only thing considered in the admissions process</p>
<p>One of my best friends from high school took all the science APs with me and is now a science teacher at an IB high school. He also feels that the IB HL classes are a little more advanced, although it's not a huge difference.</p>
<p>My school school doesn't offer HL Math/Science though...and I'm pretty sure that across the country, only the most elite IB schools or small IB programs will offer those, as they're expensive and hard to teach.</p>
<p>I see what you mean Ben, but if Caltech had two applicants, one taking HLs, and the other taking SLs, even though the student taking SLs miight not have chosen them through his own fault, Caltech I'm sure, would most of the time choose the HL kid over the SL kid. I mean it's much better to go with a sure bet isn't it? I mean I'm sure maybe sometimes the SL kid will get accepted, but most of the time I'm sure it's the HL kid getting accepted.</p>
<p>At that time, Caltech wouldn't even have their scores.</p>