I’m doing IB for the next two years (11th & 12th), and my schedule is:
HL math, physics, comp sci, and english (required HL)
SL econ, spanish
Most of my friends are doing HL bio and SL physics, or some other setup like that where they have 2 lab sciences; I only have 1. This is mostly due to the fact that most of my friends are pursuing medical careers, where there’s me, who wants to go into business. Will colleges be skeptical that I only have physics and am not taking an advanced bio or chem class? I could possibly drop HL comp sci and change it to SL so that it would only last one year (but I’m not sure if we’d be prepared to take the AP test if I took SL); however, I am definitely interested in comp sci and think it would be beneficial to take HL. If I do make it SL, I can take an AP lab science class like bio or chem the following year. What do you suggest?
(I apologize in advance if this is in the wrong forum section)
When your counselor fills out the common app report, s/he has to mark if your course load was “most rigorous”, “rigorous”, “average”, etc. So you should ask him/her if your schedule is hard enough for him/her to mark “most rigorous” on your application (and you also only need the “most rigorous” schedule if you are applying to very selective schools)
If you want to pursue business, I don’t think they would care if you had more advanced science classes. And HL Physics has a reputation of being the absolutely hardest exam/class (rightfully so, because the exam this year was BRUTAL), so I think any college you apply to would recognize that.
While I think HL CompSci will be great for business, I’m surprised you didn’t take HL Econ and SL Physics? I know your career aspirations are subject to change, but that seems more manageable and aligns better with your current interest.
No. The IB diploma require only one science. There is no expectations from any US college that a student take 2 sciences. Additionally, in your case, HL science is unnecessary. I agree with the above that HL econ and SL physics would be better.
No. IB is automatically considered as 'most rigorous ’ and your classes are supposed to follow the ib model, so there’s no expectation for double science. In fact (echoing the above posters) I’d think hl economics would be better for your goals than hl physics, so I’d switch those two.