<p>I heard that Duke only accepts students who take the most challenging courses at the respective high school. </p>
<p>I’m taking all AP classes. The most i can take possibly. But there are also IB programs, which is considered the hardest courses.</p>
<p>Does that mean i can’t get into Duke?</p>
<p>And if so, what other colleges have the same policy?</p>
<p>Is the IB program in your school? If not, don’t sweat it. Just because it exists in your vicinity, doesn’t require you to be necessarily a participant.</p>
<p>There are many schools that aren’t aware of exactly how rigorous the IB program can be, so in most situations, AP and IB are considered equally.</p>
<p>Will your guidance counselor mark “Most Rigorous Curriculum” on your app? If so, you should be fine–assuming, of course, that you did well in your courses and are still ranked somewhere around the top 5% of your class (the magical number I’ve heard for unhooked Duke applicants).</p>
<p>That may be an exaggeration: Duke may favor those with harder course loads (obviously), but not necessarily only accept those who have them.</p>
<p>I think that in your case you have no reason to worry because you took as many APs as possible, which must count for something. I really doubt that a college is going to differentiate AP and IB enough to deny you admission even if one is <em>slightly</em> harder than the other. I think the point of what you heard was to take the hardest courses possible, and you effectively did that. I wouldn’t sweat it.</p>