Marian

Good heavens! That sounds overwhelming!

friedrice

Isn't there a maximum of 4 HL clases you can take?

AY8888

Competitive colleges don't differentiate between the two.

ejr1

All I know is that when D was applying 3 years ago, on the Yale site, there was shock and dismay and incredulity after the rejection/acceptance letters went out. Kids with IB and otherwise credentials were being accepted, and kids with higher stats and AP were being rejected. I remember one of the acceptees saying that she was expecting to be rejected, since her IB projected grades weren't as high as others, and her EC's weren't all that good, and her SAT's, while respectable, weren't stellar. She couldn't believe she was accepted when others were rejected. And please. don't start the "it's all about fit" argument. I understand. But I remember at the time we voiced the opinion that if D had taken IB she might have been accepted. That was before we really knew that much about the difficulty of college admissions. Our district had just started IB, so D was ineligible, and we still think that after reading all the posts of those accepted, that IB had it hands over AP that year at Yale.

tybball08

ejr1, or maybe it was a coincidence that year the strongest applicants in your d's school were also involved in IB. i doubt that's what happened ALL ACROSS the country with yale. anyway, we all know a friend's brother's girlfriend's best friend's friend who got into... and id listen to outbanx because he was an ACTUAL student who took IB.

jake321

You can't test in more than 4 HL. They can't stop you from learning all HL.

Some subject are very similar HL vs SL. English A, for example, the HL testing only requires a little more. Not exactly sure what, but I think its just another essay.

Soulside Journey

The same is true for Spanish HL. Even though we're technically only covering SL level, I'm going to sit the HL exam so I have a cushion in case I don't pass the AP (and believe me, that's very probable, especially considering how stupid talking to a CD player for an oral component of the examination is).

Freeverse

jake321 - i take english HL....and yes the difference is one world lit extra for HLs plus we read 3 extra materials......and of course...HL requires a greater detailed analysis.....

and yes...u can't test in more than 4 HLs....

curious77

At S x 2 high school, IB students run the board from athletics to student council to service club leadership to academic team championships to theater, music, and art mastery to even ROTC leadership. This is true even though IB students comprise only about 25% of the total student population. In the past few years there were several IB students on state champion athletic teams, including football, soccer (mens and womens), and golf. They are cheerleaders and colorguard members. IB students star in the school plays, win ITS state level awards for writing, directing, acting and costume design. The regional art awards go to IB students. IB students start their own businesses, work at the grocery store, surf and ski, go to movies and play video games. They even are members of rock bands.
No time. No ECs. No way. Those who say this are lacking facts. The CAS requirement urges the IB student on the path to varied activities.

Colleges know these are the characteristics of an IB students and they like it. Colleges want students who will contribute to the university community, IB students do this at their high schools as part of the program and go beyond the requirements. This is why college admissions officers like IB students. These students have enhanced their high schools and are very likely to enhance their colleges as well.

Whether IB is "preferred" for admissions purposes, I can't answer. And as others have said, the college admissions officers do not answer that question either. But they will tell you the kind of student they want at their institution and when you listen to the description, it matches that of an IB student.

jksbond007

yeah and those students wouldn't be doing all that if they weren't in IB?

IB isn't a magical motivator, those students are just naturally motivated.

If they were just taking AP classes instead, they would probably do all that and more, just because they would have more free time away from school work to engage in whatever independent academic endeavors they wish.

You will find bright kids whether they are in AP or IB doing all the things you listed. The program isn't going to change the person.

And CAS is not responsible for it either. CAS actually hinders your academic options, because it is very restrictive in what activities are approved for each of the three categories.

nero103

Usually everybody with IB, Abitur, A-Levels and etc are allowed to enter a medical school in Europe. At least in countries that participate in the Bologna process.

Marian

I don't understand why people think that the AP kid would have so much more free time than the IB kid does.

A top student in an AP-heavy high school program equivalent in rigor to IB would be taking about four APs in junior year and another four in senior year, with probably at least one additional academic subject at the honors level, plus nonacademic courses required to fill up the program and fulfill graduation requirements. At least half of such a student's AP courses would be "hard" APs (where "hard" is defined as a year-long AP course equivalent to a year-long college course and "easy" is defined as an AP course equivalent to a semester-long college course but taught over a full year in high school).

Such a student would need to spend plenty of time studying and working on school assignments, just as IB students do.

My daughter took two "hard" APs outside her IB program -- AP U.S. History and AP Macroeconomics/Microeconomics. Both courses required substantial amounts of study time, just as IB HL courses do.

jake321

People think IB takes up a lot more time because of all the extra "thing" you have to do as part of the program. This includes many things such as internal assessments, external assessments, orals, CAS hours, extended essay, group 4 projects, presentations, and some other junk I'm probably missing.

Internal assessments are pretty much going on consistently. If you don't have one in Chem, you'll have one in Bio or history. They are pretty easy (IB therefore I B.S.) but time consuming (~2000 words). Even tho you only send one out to the IB for each subject, you do many of them and pick your best.
External assessments are pretty much the same thing but get assessed in some other random country. There are 2 of these for English.

There are 2 orals in English. Another in TOK where you ask unanswerable questions, talk for 15 mins, and repeat the questions.
Extended essay is such a larger external assessment that you are suppose to spend more time on. Group 4 projects are science experiments that you present all dressed up.

So basically IB requires all these extra things. At first I thought it didn't seem like too much but it all adds up. These thing follow each other, one after another. So you are always working on one of these (currently history internal ...ugh).

donsauga

I am currently in the I.B program and I advise you that once you get involved it will be very difficult to get out. In AP you have the choice of what to take as advanced, while in IB they choose your classes pretty much, it is up to you whether you choose to take it higher level. For instance my classes now are IB math studies (standard level), IB Spanish 4 (SL) IB BIO (HL) ib history of the americas (this includes canada and south america, which they do not do in AP), plus alot more classes. You must also do 150 CAS hours (creative,action, service hours; they start in your 11th grade year, you must also take theory of knowledge, do an extended essay. IB is alot harder, but if you decide to get out it can be brutal, because it show colleges you culd not handle a difficult courseload. However you should know that the only classes most colleges will omit will be your higher level ones and you usually have to score between a 4-5. I hope your 8th grader makes a wise choice, but if he chooses IB he must stick with it!

donsauga

yes ther is only a maximum of 4 hl you can take, but most of them are already chossen for you, eng. , history are mandatory hl.