How much does IB affect college decisions?

Applying to College
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<p>Info:

  • Male
  • Top 25 in class of 800
  • Public school, CA</p>

<p>SAT:

  • R 700
  • M 750
  • W 750
  • Total 2200
    No ACT.</p>

<p>Extracirriculars:
-1200+ Volunteer hours (7 hrs/week)

  • Incl. Operating Room Volunteer at Local Hospital/Trauma Center
  • Executive Board of Students at hospital.
  • Team Leader at Summer Library Programs
  • ASB Treasurer
  • Chinese School (10 Years)
  • Cross Country & Track (4 Years)
  • Orchestra (2 Years)
  • Key Club (4 Years, Treasurer also)
  • CSF, NHS, IB.</p>

<p>Other: Top 25, School’s excellence award in english, etc.</p>

<p>ACADEMICS:

  • 4.8 avg gpa, ~3.9 unweighted
  • AP Euro, Comp, Lit, Chinese, Physics, US Hist, Spanish, Calculus.
  • Currently Full IB Canidate.
  • SAT II’s : Chinese (750), Physics, US, Math II, Biology. (aiming for 750+ on all).</p>

<p>SCHEDULE:
Junior Year-
-Spanish 4 AP
-Calculus AP/IB
-Physics B AP
-US History AP
-English Lit AP
-XC</p>

<p>Senior Year (with IB)
-Physics IB
-ASB
-Humanities (TOK)
-Humanities (TOK)
-Economics
-Psychology IB
-XC/Track</p>

<p>Senior Year (without IB)

  • AP Biology
  • ASB
  • Humanities (TOK)
  • Humanities (TOK)
  • Economics
  • XC/Track</p>

<p>So currently I’m a junior, and my senior stuff should look like that.
I was wondering how much I would be affected if I dropped IB Physics, and took AP Bio senior year. Taking AP Bio would allow me to have taken both AP Sciences, but would cause me to drop the full IB Diploma due to lack of a second-year science. How much would this affect my applications to UCs/Private Universities?</p>

<p>-I ask this because I don’t like physics and I want to take bio (out of interest), but bio is a huge workload that is better taken senior year, when there are fewer AP classes & stuff. But if having the IB diploma from IB physics is more important, I’d rather have a leg up in college apps.

  • My counselors have been mixed on the situation, our college specialist & our freshman counselor say that it doesn’t affect my app much, but our IB director (of course), says that IB is particularly important to UC schools.</p>

<p>So I was wondering how I would be affected if I didn’t get the IB diploma, but still had lots of ap’s to show instead.</p>

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<p>bump up this postt</p>

3

<p>Could you clarify being a full IB candidate with the classes you have listed? I see only 5 listed which is not enough for an IB Diploma.Also don’t understand the two TOK listings, TOK is a class plus the required six.</p>

4

<p>You look competitive… </p>

<p>I didn’t know what IB was until Junior year… still can’t spell it without a spell check. :)</p>

5

<p>AP Calc = SL Math
AP Phys = HL Science
AP Spanish = SL Lang
TOK = Humanities ( HL History, HL English)
IB Psych = SL Psych.</p>

<p>Dropping physics and replacing it with ap bio would remove my ib science, and cause me to drop ib psych as well, since I wouldn’t qualify for IB anymore.</p>

<p>Hope that clarifies!</p>

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<p>*Humanities at my school is a double-period course that covers the history + english + service + tok parts of ib.</p>

7

<p>bumppppppp</p>

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<p>as GA2012MOM said, it makes no sense to take TOK since you are obviously not a diploma candidate. Especially since it is apparently a double-period class at your school.</p>

<p>I would opt for AP bio over IB Physics. IB Physics does not use any calculus (in its attempt to make the subject accessible to any student), and so you will have trouble placing into a higher level physics course in college. The only reason I might suggest IB Physics is if you think you need to take a physics class in high school. (For example, if you intend on being an engineering major)</p>

<p>Feel free to PM me for more info, I’m in IB physics this year.</p>

9

<p>I pm’ed you about the situation because I qualify for the diploma with IB Phys, but not if I take AP Bio.</p>