<p>I graduated from IB with an IB diploma but when I got to college, I have found that having an IB diploma doesn't really help all that much. Yes I learned quite a bit about a wide area of subjects but my major is science related. I took 3 years of bio and AP chemistry. Those are really the only classes that have really proved useful. College is a lot more specialized and having a well rounded education doesn't really make you a better or standout student. I actually wish I had only taken AP classes and not killed myself to do well in the IB program.</p>
<p>No use in regretting it now.</p>
<p>I’m willing to bet that you find managing the workload and writing papers significantly more easier than many of your peers.</p>
<p>^I know I certainly do. To me college seems like a cakewalk.</p>
<p>Why would that be controversial? I think most people find that AP/IB courses were jokes compared to real college classes (although I guess this is also dependant on your HS and college). But this is cc, so anything with any amount of perceived prestige is put on a pedestal to be revered and sought after. In the high school world, IB is up there, though for the life of me I haven’t figured out why.</p>
<p>^The amount of work you do for your courses is so much that for a lot of college classes its like a breath of fresh air. You get used to doing so much work that you find you’re overprepared for college. I’m not saying IB students are any better than other students though, because they’re really not.</p>
<p>I don’t think the point of IB and AP are so much to get you deeper into the subject matter sooner (although that’s part of it), so much as it is to get you used to working the academic muscles so that you have the skills to learn the material while in college-- not to learn it all ahead of time.</p>
<p>Icarus: It’s up there because it demands that students undertake rigorous study of 6 different subject areas, at least 3 of which are significantly harder than AP exams. On top of that, it requires that students submit Internal Assessment papers, and write a very thorough college-like research paper. Trust me, it is very rigorous, and more so than an all-AP schedule. Moreover, save for one highly-intensive colloquium, I found my college classes significantly easier than my HS ones.</p>
<p>That being said, IB is not particularly strong on the sciences.</p>
<p>IB diploma just prepares you to work harder than an average high school student and allows you to keep up those work habits in college.</p>
<p>Not sure what more you expected it to do for you.</p>
<p>There are a lot of state schools that offer all kinds of incentives (Texas even has a law that says you get 24 hours in all state schools as credit if you show up with a diploma).</p>
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<p>I would argue that it might feel like that because there is so much more busy work in high school as compared to college.</p>
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<p>You don’t have to tell me what IB involves - my school had the whole diploma shindig, and I took many of those IB courses. I wasn’t impressed, and my college couses were significantly more difficult than those courses. But I guess everyone’s experience is different.</p>
<p>Like the OP, I too am a recipient of the IB diploma program, and like the OP, regret it greatly. Should’ve loaded up on AP’s.</p>
<p>However, as icedragon stated, no use in regrets now.</p>
<p>IBfootballer, you really found Tufts classes easier than IB? At the University of Chicago, I thought even some of the most non-rigorous general education classes were more difficult than some of my HL’s. And my high school is frequently ranked in the top 20 in the nation by Newsweek.</p>
<p>It hasn’t exactly helped me do good in classes, and it hasn’t helped me stand out (all that talk about the IB diploma being prestigious is kinda BS). But it did help me get used to a tough/busy schedule, which is good since its really helping me manage my current pre-med workload fairly easily. Although taking several AP classes at the same time would also do the same thing.</p>
<p>Anyone here who has taken both AP and IB classes at the same time? How did your grades compare in IB vs AP? Did you get a 7 in a class where you got a 5 on your AP?</p>
<p>HC: that’s UChicago for ya!
texaspg: I took AP exams corresponding with all my IB classes. The scores were usually consistent, save for Biology and Econ. I got a 4 on HL (with a teacher who refused to prepare us for it), and a 5 on AP, while with econ I got a 4 on SL (no idea how) with a 5 on macro and a 4 on micro. </p>
<p>otherwise, my 6 on HL history corresponded with a 4 on Euro, my 5 on HL English corresponded with a 4 on English Lit HL, and a 5 on Spanish SL corresponding with a 4 on AP. I only took Math Studies SL, which doesn’t compare well in difficulty to my AP math courses, which were AB calc and stat.</p>
<p>Fwiw, a 7 is exceedingly hard to get on an HL. It requires exceptionally good performance, and is much more rare than a 5 on an AP</p>
<p>IB - that is what I was trying to get to - Is anyone here who got a 42 on their diploma and claim IB was a breeze?</p>
<p>The prestige associated with it is the admissions counselors minds. They have a worldwide standard to use vs AP’s American Standard and compare someone from a small country in Africa with someone from downtown Boston using their grades. Rather than say it did nothing for you, you should probably ask your admissions officer what role it played in getting you into your college. This does nt apply to anyone who has nt completed the diploma.</p>
<p>good luck finding someone with a 42. Getting 1 7 is very rare. Getting all 7’s is exceptionally so.</p>
<p>my experience from the college apps process is that while an IB diploma will prepare you for some of the world’s top colleges, it won’t get you in.</p>
<p>I think IB is great, and kids graduating from the IB program my kids attend(ed) have generally reported that it helped a lot to prepare them for college. Many, including my son, said that college was less work, if not “easier.”</p>
<p>But I don’t think IB, or at least that school’s program, is the best choice for somebody who is definitely interested in math or science, especially if the student is already significantly accelerated in math. AP is probably better for such a kid–perhaps with advanced classes at a local college.</p>
<p>IBfootballer a friend of my dd got a 42 for her IB score. Great student going off to a top school. She thought IB was a bit easy and did not challenge her much. She was also an AP scholar. She hated most of the kids and teachers because they were slackers and she was right. </p>
<p>Op why didn’t you just fill in with AP? You would have had atleast 4 spots available over junior and senior year for AP classes and many more during you freshman and sohpmore year. You could have enriched yourself with college courses.</p>
<p>Maybe you should have just stayed AP taking only classes that you wanted. You would still have to take those english, history, foreign languages and math classes anyway at colleges. Atleast with IB you would have gotten some of them out of the way.
Don’t know where you went to college or what your scores were but many kids enter college gaining credit for their IB and AP classes. You should have gotten some of your humanities out of the way so that you can concentrate all you want on your sciences.</p>
<p>Everyone’s replies are very interesting. While I agree it does help you to manage the load, there is nothing in the world that can prepare you for taking several hard core college science classes in one semester. I’m not saying that IB didn’t help me learn, I learned a lot, I just was told that’s the most prestigious thing I could go for college admissions wise and I wanted to challenge myself.</p>
<p>I did take AP and IB classes concurrently. I took AP Chem as an elective my SENIOR year of HS. So I had literally all IB classes and 1 AP. I wish I would have taken all APs instead. It would have saved me a great amount of time and work that I didn’t even really need. The college I go to is a big state school. I didn’t need IB to gain admissions there. </p>
<p>I guess what I’m trying to say is that the work load was so rough I burned out before I got to college. I got a 33/42 on my diploma.</p>
<p>“there is nothing in the world that can prepare you for taking several hard core college science classes in one semester.”</p>
<p>oh, most certainly. and definitely not an IB education. it’s not very strong on teaching hard-core science</p>