Should I do the IB??? questions about AP??

Applying to College
1

<p>I'm currently a sophomore in high school in PA coming from Taiwan. This year our school's curriculum changed, and IB classes are no longer combined with APs. For example, it used to be IB/AP bio, which prepares you for both the exams, but now they separate the classes.
Our school only has HL subjects in English, History, Arts, and Math (Even though only 1~2 people do it every year)
I'll be doing HL in Math, English, and History.
SL in Bio, physics, self study Chinese, and arts. However, I decide to do the IB because the courses are the same with APs, but now IB SL sciences no longer prepare you for the AP. Should I still do it?
APs I can take: junior: Stats (with IB or without IB), Bio (if not IB)
senior: AP Calc BC, AP Physics (if not IB), AP Eng. Lit (not sure if they changed the class yet, IB World Lit used to be the same class as AP Eng. Lit)
I really care about APs, because colleges don't care about IB Standard level at all.
Should I still do the IB and self study the equivalent APs?</p>

<p>Besides, I already have plans for self studying APs.
Sophomore: self study AP Chem and AP psychology
Junior: Take AP stats, maybe take AP Bio (reason shown above), and self study AP Calc AB, AP Chinese, US history (I'll take Honors US history, so it shouldn't be that hard to self study). I also want to get national AP scholar when applying to college, so what AP would be easy to study for my 6th AP next year? I've thought about Economics and Environmental Science.
Senior: Take AP Eng. Lit (probably), AP Physics, AP Calc BC. I probably won't self study for APs since it has no impact on college Apps. </p>

<p>What should I do? I'm getting kinda nervous, because if I do IB with tons of extra work, but the SLs doesn't affect college application at all, it doesn't seem to be worth it. Btw, I'm 100% sure I'll do engineering in college, and probably electrical Engineering. </p>

<p>Do any one have any advices? </p>

<p>Thanks very much!!</p>

2

<p>When does your school do TOK? That makes a difference in your schedule. Anyway, I'd suggest</p>

<p>Junior:
IB Math HL
IB English HL
IB History HL
IB Physics SL
IB Art SL
IB Chinese SL
AP Biology
Elective</p>

<p>Senior:
IB Math HL
IB English HL
IB History HL
IB Chinese SL
AP Physics C
Elective
Elective
Elective</p>

<p>You said you're self-studying AP Chem this year, so I didn't include it. Also, at least one of your electives will be TOK.</p>

3

<p>Why don't you get an IB diploma, you'll be taking a lot of IB classes anyways..?</p>

4

<p>To IBclass06
we have 3 terms in a year, and we do TOK in term 1 and 3 in junior year, and term 2 in senior year. Also, in our school, 5 majors is the limit. We require an arts class every year, and TOK isn't include in the 5 majors. I know, it sucks that our school's acedemic isn't challenging, but....
Also, Since colleges don't care about Standard level, should I just do HL English in IB certificate, and take AP calc BC, AP Stats, AP BIo, AP Physics? If I don't do the IB, I'll be able to take AP US history in senior too. So far I'm thinking about this path, do u think it'll be better?
In addition, I'm pretty definite I'll self study for AP Chinese, AP Calc AB in junior year. If I don't do the IB, I'll be able to take AP US history in senior year, if I do IB, I can't do AP US history, so I'll have to self study it in junior year. Some people tell me without the heavy workload in IB, I'll have a lot more time to do self study APs.</p>

<p>Any other advice?</p>

5

<p>To vanilea,</p>

<p>I'm now thinking about getting diploma or not. But the diploma itself doesn't seem to be that impressive to colleges, think SL is totally useless. any comments?</p>

6

<p>I see...sort of. Your school is confusing. lol</p>

<p>If you're going to be limited in what classes you can take, I'd go for AP; it sounds like you'd have a lot more flexibility and options.</p>

<p>The IB Diploma is fairly useless because you don't even know if you got it or not until the summer (sometime in July) after you graduate. :(</p>

7

<p>the ib diploma looks great to colleges that understand what it is, an ib diploma candidate is required to meet a certain amount of community service time and write an intensive research paper, learn how to make oral presentations and several other valuable things that will be of great help when in college...ap may be just as impressive but IB teaches you how to be a more prepared learner and not just a student...do the diploma</p>

8

<p>I'm doing the diploma because my school only offers IB. IB diploma is also great because you don't take the tests until the end of senior year, so that if you fail the test, that's fine, cuz you're already accepted. Furthermore, IB teaches you how to write papers and that's a vital skill in college. Ap kids learn about the facts, but IB teaches you to analyze the facts.</p>

9

<p>thanks for all the precious opinions!!!</p>

<p>Well, I think I'll take IB HL English certificate, and do APs on the rest of the stuff. It seems like that's the most amount of APs and IBs I could get. By the way, the community service, sports, arts or what they call "CAS" in IB that I do is way more than that required in the IB. I take arts every year (required), do sports every year all three seasons (1 sports required, and the rest is PE, but I do 2 sports and lifeguarding). Community service is required every year in our school too, this year I'm doing two: Dining hall service (required to graduate) and peer tutoring. So I think I should be fine on ECs.
I just hope to take more APs, because our school offers so limited amount of them.</p>

10

<p>
[quote]
IB diploma is also great because you don't take the tests until the end of senior year, so that if you fail the test, that's fine, cuz you're already accepted.

[/quote]

Not quite true...you take SL exams at the end of your junior year. Anyway, not having test scores like AP kids could actually be a disadvantage (let's face it, a string of 5's is impressive). </p>

<p>kenny- be prepared to put a fair amount of work into IB English. It requires: </p>

<p>Oral Presentations- For your senior year presentation, you are given a brief excerpt of a novel you've read in class, given 20 minutes to prepare, and you have to verbally analyze the paragraph for at least 10 minutes. </p>

<p>World Lit Papers- Two papers analyzing and comparing some detailed aspect of two or three novels you've read.</p>

<p>IB Exam- The IB English exam basically consists of two essays (Paper 1 and Paper 2). Basically, they give you an excerpt, and you have to write 6-8 pages on the excerpt, analyzing every single little detail. It's the IB exam I hated the most because it's so subjective, and there's no real way to study for it.</p>

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<p>THanks for all the replies.
I think I'll just do IB HL English certificate, because our HL IB world lit and AP Eng. Lit is the same class. I can prepare for both exams
I'll do these courses in the following years: (our school's maximun is 5 majors, because it requires arts and religion study)</p>

<p>Junior: Honors Precalc
American Lit. IB focus
AP BIo
World History
AP Stats
self study APs: AP World History (since I'm taking the course), AP Calc AB (since it's easy), AP Chinese (my native language), and possibly AP econ or AP envi sci. Which one do you guys think is easier, econ or envi sci?</p>

<p>Senior: AP Calc BC (the department head said I can jump AB)
IB/AP World literature
AP Physics
AP US History
selective (not sure yet, but I ran out of APs offered in our school)
I don't think I'll self study APs in senior year, because it has zero impact on college applications. </p>

<p>Thats my plan for now, any advices??</p>

<p>Thanks to who all replied, and I'm looking foward to other suggestions</p>

12

<p>any other suggestions please?</p>

13

<p>IB is great if you get good grades besides IB is only effective if you get good grades like A's and B's and maybe an occasional C</p>