I’m an international student in Asia and is taking the IBs to prepare for US colleges.
I took Math HL, Chem HL, Bio HL, KoreanLit HL, Global Politics SL, and Eng Lit SL for my junior year, but is thinking about dropping Math HL to SL. Would it not lower my chances to get into colleges if I’m applying for chemistry majors?
I’ve got a year grade of 6 for Math HL, but I don’t think I could maintain a 6 until the IB exam. I really might drop to a 4 or a 5. If I’m planning to apply for colleges like Brown, Johns Hopkins, UCs, what do you recommend? I’m sure I could get a 7 in Math SL but is not sure of that will lower my chances…
What schools in the US want to see is that your grades are improving ALONG with your classes getting harder (admissions officers call it “upward trend”). So I would strongly advice not dropping down to the SL course, unless there is another difficult course you’re going to be taking that you didn’t take the previous year to make up for it.
Of course, it would also look bad if you took IB Math HL and your grade dropped. Maybe try it for a semester and then drop the course if it really doesn’t work out.