Hi, I’m currently as sophomore in high school and my school offers IB classes. They also offer AP & honors. I was just wondering should I do it because I had initially wanted to because my extracurriculars are lacking. Would this be more impressive on my college application?
These are the IB classes I’m planning on:
IB Music HL
IB Biology HL
IB English Lit HL
IB History HL
IB Math SL
IB Spanish Ab Inito
Here are my extracurriculars:
Diplomat
Spring Play (9 & 10)
Many volunteer service projects
Tutoring (9 & 10)
Work experience (9 & 10)
Asian Club Vice President (9 & 10)
Private Violine Lessons (10)
I noticed theory of knowledge isn’t on your list; does your school not offer full diploma? If your school doesn’t, then I still recommend you do, but point out on college apps this fact so colleges know you took the most rigorous classes available as the diploma program isn’t available.
If your school does offer the IB diploma program, then my advice is:
If you’re planning on doing that many classes, then you might as well go the whole way with the diploma program.
Before you choose the diploma program, however, IB should be considered on a case-by-case basis, depending on the school and individual. You should ask people who are currently juniors and seniors in IB how they think your school’s IB program is, and how the teachers are. On the individual part, if you’re down for the extended essay, CAS hours, and workload, then you can get through it as long as you collaborate with others (e.g. study groups, peer editing on work, dividing up large assignments amongst a group). If you aren’t going into full diploma, then I wouldn’t recommend just doing those classes because the diploma or all AP classes would look more rigorous on college apps.
Thank you for the advice! & yes my school does offer the entire diploma program, I just didn’t mention about TOK, EE, or CAS in my post.