<p>I am a high school junior in the International Baccalaureate program right now and I just found out yesterday that the UC schools don't give some IB courses a grade boost. This seems like pretty much bull to me because we definitely do as much, if not more work than the AP kids (with internal assessments, CAS, extended essay, etc) and yet we still get treated as second rate students to them. l have a lower UC GPA then most of the AP kids at school, and I have all A's. How is this fair? For example, my IB classes currently are:
IB Physics SL
IB History of the Americas HL
IB English HL
IB Math SL/ATMS Honors PreCal</p>
<p>I found out that they don't weight my Physics or History class. This pretty much KILLS my GPA! Compared to the AP kids who have about 4.3 UC GPA, I will have about a 4.09 if I'm lucky. If I had known this, I would have taken AP Biology instead of IB Physics, but the problem was that I have not taken Chemistry yet which is recommended for that course.</p>
<p>D is a full IB Diploma Candidate, she was accepted at UCSD, UCLA and Cal. If you go the Doorways site, you can see which class at your high school will be weighted by the UCs. And they cap the weight at 8 semesters. </p>
<p>Have you verified the claim based on the course listings for your high school at the UC Doorways site?</p>
<p>Looking up a few schools with IB courses, it does seem that some IB courses are marked as “honors” for UC GPA purposes, but some are not. IB HL courses appear to be more likely to be marked as “honors”, though some IB SL courses are also.</p>
<p>My friend did bad in all of his social sciences APs (2 in World History and USH exams, and currently in US Gov), but he still got really good grades and took AP courses, his ACT is 29, and one of his ECs I know of is he worked in a laboratory in Stanford during the last two years of summer with a Stanford professor. He got into both UCLA and Cal.</p>
<p>D’s IB course load:
Math SL (taken Sr yr after AP Calc AB)
Spanish SL (Tested inJr Year, class was Spanish 4H)
Psychology SL (tested Jr Year, class not UC Honors)
History of Americas HL (test SR year)
Biology HL (test Sr year)
English HL (test Sr year)
Theory of Knowledge</p>
<p>Visual Art for IB SL (Sr year, will not count towards diploma, fulfills VPA, fits schedule)</p>
<p>She’s got a 3.9 UW GPA and a 4.6 - 4.8 W (depends on if you do academic or include PE, etc–her high school calculates both). Her UC GPA was 4.26. </p>
<p>Keep in mind that the UCs are familiar with different high schools, and they do value the IB program (lots of credit for an IB diploma score of 30+).</p>
<p>To be fair, IB SL exams are often considered to be at a level somewhat below AP exams, and HL exams at a level a bit higher. So, not granting honors gpa bump for SL classes isn’t too surprising.</p>
<p>Still, I think you should relax. The diploma is very valued, and the strong reasoning and writing skills IB students usually develop should serve you very well in the admissions process. (And I think you’d be toast in AP biology having not had chem, fyi.)</p>
<p>Thank you for the replies. I do tend to stress out a lot when it comes to college. I am a first generation student and I do feel a heavy weight on my shoulders to fulfill my parents’ expectations to do well, and also my own expectations.<br>
I also feel that I am at a disadvantage because I was only able to take 1 AP class my sophomore year, even though I begged my counselor to let me take more challenging courses. Therefore, I will only have 6 semester of classes that qualify for the grade boost (sadness…)</p>
<p>@Mom2M, I admire your daughter’s work ethic and congratulate her on getting into those great schools.</p>
<p>I am scheduled to take the SAT in October my senior year (meh) because I’m taking the Elite 2100 Boot camp.</p>
<p>That seems odd, as IB Math SL is typically considered less advanced that AP Calculus AB, at least for college credit. In contrast, IB Math HL may be considered more advanced than AP Calculus BC.</p>
<p>How will UC’s know if you have a 30+ diploma score? Do we put expected scores on the app? See, the thing is that the IB Program is really senior-year based because our HL’s are senior year. Will UC’s recognize this and excuse the lower GPA? I mean, my GPA will still be above a 4.0 but lower than other candidates’.</p>
<p>ucbaalumnus Yes, her math is a little odd. Only about 5 students in her IB class of 21 could have handled Math HL. So they did AP Calc junior year (3 did AB, two did BC) and they are all in Math SL this year. Counselors explained the situation to the colleges. It’s a public school with a strong commitment to offering IB, so everyone makes it work. When D was in 8th grade, all the middle school teachers were telling the kids that IB was going away, it was too much work, blah blah blah. So D’s class is particularly small. IB parents went to the middle school 8th grade parent night the following year, we have large classes coming up. I am sure they will offer Math HL again in the future.</p>
<p>FutureBruin. The IB test scores are released in July, after Sr year. You have them sent to your college. Just as the college understood what was happening with math at our school, they will understand the impact of IB on your stats. If you take any tests Junior year, you note those test scores. You do not put expected scores. Of course, your HL’s are all senior year. Many of D’s classmates are doing most of their testing Senior Year. She had enough Spanish to test, and Psych was her elective. The Senior art is to fulfill the VPA for colleges.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, don’t forget the EC’s. D has many options (she’s actually going to USC), but some of her classmates depended on IB alone, and didn’t have much to put down for EC’s. So do something, consistantly. And First Generation will help, too.</p>