My older child attended a high school and took their IB classes, while my younger child attended a high school and took their AP classes. So I feel I have some basis of comparison. I was appalled that the “AP child” was not asked to write one research paper in 4 years of high school, whereas the “IB child” had to write one or more. If only on that basis, I would say IB is the more rigorous and useful college preparatory path. How do you tout a course as equivalent to a college course and not require a paper?