<p>Yeah I wish I would have known that prior to the program though. And I wish I realized how burnt out I would be by the end of 4 years of IB.</p>
<p>Why is everyone acting like 42 is the magic score? You guys do realize that the diploma is out of 45 points, right? (unless things have changed in the last 2 years). So you can technically still get a 42 without having to get all 7s.</p>
<p>^good point.</p>
<p>it’s still exceedingly rare.</p>
<p>Yeah but I’m pretty sure you only need 24 or 28 or something like that to graduate with the diploma, right?</p>
<p>From a previous post of mine on a similar thread:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>…and pass both EE and TOK, and get your CAS hours.</p>
<p>I would just like to point out that whether you get the minimum or a 45…you still are an IB diploma graduate.</p>
<p>Just the same as the lowest ranked person in his/her graduating class at medical school is still a doctor. It really doesn’t matter. Maybe will help with college admissions but in the long run.</p>
<p>Is nt getting 24 or 26 same as getting 2 or 3 in all AP exams? what is the point of that?</p>
<p>Ivy league schools dont even give you any credit unless you take HL and get a 6 or 7.</p>
<p>biologynerd - did you get any college credits for completing IB?</p>
<p>yes texas, i got 60 credits from IB/AP. I got a 7 on my psych exam and a 6 on my bio.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That is an important point to remember for US IB candidates applying to US schools. Keep it in perspective.</p>
<p>Hunt, the lack of depth in math (and CS, while we’re at it) was exactly why S1 did not even consider the IB program. </p>
<p>Having done the IB credit vs. AP credit evaluation with S2, the additional number of courses for which he would have been granted credit with a higher IB score was MINIMAL. He hedged his bets on whether he’d credit for IB scores by taking AP Lit, Bio and Spanish. He hedged correctly – the APs got him the credit/placement in those areas.</p>
<p>He maxed out the AP/IB credits allowed at his two top choice schools ( five and six credits, respectively). Between the AP scores and the IB, a higher score on the AP or IB would have gotten an additional semester of credit in Spanish and English at the school he’s now attending. He switched languages anyway, so didn’t use all that accelerated placement. He took Philosophy 1 as his writing requirement in lieu of English 2, which he would have taken anyway.</p>
<p>Will also say that while he got Bs all the way through IB English, he gets As on his papers in college. Lit crit is not his thing, but he’s a darned fine writer. ;)</p>
<p>HonorsCentaur – yeah, that’s why people love-hate the Core! :)</p>
<p>texaspg, had S2 gone to our flagship, he would have had 57 credits at matriculation – three credits short of junior status. His top two choices set a limit of five and six exams’ worth of credit, respectively, so there were a number of classes for which he did not get credit, as he had 6 IBs plus 11 APs (as mentioned above, with some overlapping). OTOH, one can get accelerated placement where appropriate based on those courses/scores, or at least have a decent background for taking the weeder classes in college!</p>
<p>Suffice it to say; if your motivation for going through a full IB programme is getting college credits, you’re not going to get a worthwhile return on your investment of time and energy</p>
<p>It depends on where you go. State schools are willing to accept more than private schools. I started at a private school that only accepted my english credits. When I transferred to a state school I had 60. A big difference. This amount of credits though can be kinda detrimental in the long run though if you decide to change your major or aren’t sure what you want to major in when you first get there because you have a limited amount of credit hours to finish a degree.</p>
<p>There are also some intro courses that are notoriously weeders, where one is better off taking the knowledge gained from AP/IB and having a better foundation for said weeder course.</p>
<p>I’d definitely say AP is helpful for preparing you for the weeder courses. AP chem will be helpful with chem while AP bio will be more helpful for the bio classes (more so than IB bio- I took both the AP and IB exams).</p>
<p>It’s because students like you expect IB classes to be on the same par as colleges courses. No matter how difficult IB/AP courses are, they are still intended for HIGH SCHOOL students!</p>
<p>^^It still depends on the program one attends. S2’s IB Euro and Bio classes used books which his current college uses for more advanced college courses. </p>
<p>My other S took CS and math courses offered at his HS and was able to place into upper div math and graduate CS courses as a freshman at a T-10 school.</p>
<p>I think the most important thing you’ll gain from IB is an appreciation of the courseload. There’s so much work required of you that going into college you’ll have no problem handling the work. Espacially if you have a class that only meets once per week.</p>
<p>In some previous posts, some people mentioned that IB might help for admission in the adcomms minds.
I agree. It is possible that I would not have gotten accepted at UChicago had I not done the IB diploma program at my high school. However, once getting there, IB made my life miserable lol</p>
<p>I agree about once getting there its he**…I wouldn’t go back and re-do it if I had the chance. Granted I am thankful to have learned a lot but it didn’t make me any more competitive than my peers.</p>
<p>Biologynerd - not to nitpick but how competitive is your state school compared to a school like University of Chicago? The amount of work that is needed to get those As differs vastly from college to college and course to course even in a single department. May be you feel this way because your current competition is mediocre and you did nt have to work so hard in high school to find it easy in college?</p>
<p>IB or APs are just stepping stones and their value comes across only during admissions or credits earned once admitted. At that point you are in College. Lets say you are pursuing East Asian studies or Russian Romantics or Art History or Neuroscience, how does a set of 6 classes you studied in high school do anything for you? The only thing that helps you somewhat is your study habits or writing habits that you learned along the way.</p>
<p>High school is brutal and I can see it in my kid. The IB piece started only in 11th but 9th and 10th with preAPs and a couple of APs was nt a cakewalk either.</p>