College Discussion

Go Back   College Discussion > College Admissions and Search > Ask The Dean Topics
Register FAQ     Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

 
Welcome to College Discussion at College Confidential, the Web's leading discussion forum for college admissions, financial aid, SAT prep, and much more! You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), respond to polls, etc. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join our community today! If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.
   College Confidential is dedicated to providing the best free college admissions information available on the Web, through our many articles and this discussion forum. For those of you who wish more personal advising, College Confidential offers private counseling services, conducted via e-mail, with services starting at $89. Counseling is conducted by our Director of Counseling Dave Berry, co-author of America's Elite Colleges and/or with Sally Rubenstone, co-author of Panicked Parents Guide to College Admission, and our other outstanding associates. See College Counseling for more information.

This welcome message goes away when you register and log in!
Discussion Menu
Discussion Home
Help & Rules
Latest Posts
NEW! College Visits
NEW! Stats Profiles
Top Forums
College Search
College Admissions
Financial Aid
SAT/ACT
Parents
Colleges
Ivy League
Main CC Site
College Confidential
College Search
College Admissions
College Counseling
Paying for College
Sponsors
 Reply
 
Thread Tools
Old 03-22-2008, 08:02 PM   #61
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Threads: 37
Posts: 2,396
Quote:
Here, we take all HL classes but test HL in only 3, the other 3 we test SL with HL knowledge.
Good heavens! That sounds overwhelming!
Marian is offline  
Old 03-22-2008, 08:05 PM   #62
Member
 
Join Date: May 2007
Location: 47°18′8″N 122°12′53″W
Gender: Male
Threads: 72
Posts: 757
Isn't there a maximum of 4 HL clases you can take?
friedrice is offline  
Old 03-22-2008, 08:15 PM   #63
Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Threads: 41
Posts: 579
Competitive colleges don't differentiate between the two.
AY8888 is offline  
Old 03-22-2008, 08:53 PM   #64
Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: TX
Threads: 5
Posts: 707
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.
ejr1 is offline  
Old 03-22-2008, 09:23 PM   #65
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Threads: 20
Posts: 105
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.
tybball08 is offline  
Old 03-22-2008, 09:48 PM   #66
New Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Threads: 3
Posts: 13
Quote:
Isn't there a maximum of 4 HL clases you can take?
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.
jake321 is offline  
Old 03-22-2008, 10:21 PM   #67
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Jacksonville, Florida
Gender: Male
Threads: 9
Posts: 106
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).
Soulside Journey is offline  
Old 03-23-2008, 12:56 AM   #68
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Gender: Female
Threads: 1
Posts: 114
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....
Freeverse is offline  
Old 03-23-2008, 09:59 AM   #69
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Threads: 1
Posts: 48
Athletics/ECs and IB

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.
curious77 is offline  
Old 03-23-2008, 11:01 AM   #70
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Threads: 22
Posts: 241
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.
jksbond007 is offline  
Old 03-23-2008, 01:03 PM   #71
New Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Germany
Gender: Male
Threads: 0
Posts: 16
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.
nero103 is offline  
Old 03-23-2008, 01:32 PM   #72
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Threads: 37
Posts: 2,396
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.
Marian is offline  
Old 03-24-2008, 07:19 PM   #73
New Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Threads: 3
Posts: 13
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).
jake321 is offline  
Old 03-24-2008, 07:23 PM   #74
New Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Threads: 0
Posts: 10
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 is offline  
Old 03-24-2008, 07:26 PM   #75
New Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Threads: 0
Posts: 10
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.
donsauga is offline  
Reply


Thread Tools

 


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 10:22 PM.


Copyright 2001-2008, CollegeConfidential.com, Inc., All Rights Reserved
SEO by vBSEO 3.1.0