Ok so I am a incoming senior in the IB program and I need help choosing what IB math to take.
The two choices I have are HL AA which is known to be higher level and more rigorous which is important for college because I am aiming for the ivy league colleges and want to keep my rigor.
On the other hand, I have SL AA which is standard level and known to be much easier level of math in comparison to HL AA, so I will not be able to keep up the rigor that ivy leagues want. However, the teacher for SL AA loves me and she also is the sponsor of my club so if I take the SL class, I can have an amazing letter of recommendation from her because she can talk about my involvement in class as well as my leadership in the club.
However, I am debating on how important the level or rigor really is because if ivies value rigor more than a letter of rec, I will have to stay in HL AA. But, if the letter of rec is good enough even if I don’t have the same rigor, then is it worth it to drop to SL AA?
Also, another option I am thinking of doing is dropping to SL AA math, but then taking AP Physics online; however, does it show that even though I am dropping, I am still taking a hard AP class instead?
Please let me know what class is best for ivies and that helps me be competitive against kids who take the most rigorous class HL AA…
Hey guys! Welcome to the thread, please give me any advice if you any anything to say. All is welcome, I am from the US by the way if that changes anything in the IB system.
If you want your counselor to be able to check the “highest level of rigor” box, stay in the HL class. More important than letters of rec in my opinion. Also, online or self study AP classes will not impress AOs.
OP should ask their counselor about this, but many counselors don’t fill out those questions (because they don’t want to give any information that gets at where the student is in relation to their class.)
What type of college majors are more likely for you, and what would be your HL vs. SL courses in both scenarios?
If math is one of your academic strengths, and/or your likely college majors are math heavy (which means anything in engineering, computer science, math, statistics, physical sciences, or pre-PhD economics), then AA HL would be the preferred IB math course over the others.
My major is proably going to be psychology or public policy. I know I can do HL AA, so that is not the concern. I am more just worried about if the rigor or the LOR means more.
I put that because based on what I have been hearing, colleges would usually scrutunize asian-americans and if one took HL while the other took SL, usually they will choose the HL student. Math is not what I intend on going too, but I am still fairly good at it. I got a 5 on AP Calc BC and am not worried about whether or not I can do HL, it is just more on if the LOR is worth more than the rigor? I am aiming to major in public policy or psych
Rigor matters more than Letters iof recommendation
But generally, an IBDP will already be considered max rigor. It’s —agsin — generally only specifics majors that will warrant a closer look at the HL/SL breakdown.
If you’re not doing full IBDP, then your choice of math class will be evaluated in the context of the rest of your schedule
If you chose math AA HL, would it be a fourth HL, or would you change one of your other HLs to an SL course?
Since you have a 5 in AP calculus BC, anything less than math AA HL could be seen as grade-grubbing, since the calculus in other IB math options would be less advanced than AP calculus BC (although IB math can cover additional non-calculus topics).
Public health and psychology are not math-heavy subjects, but could benefit from taking calculus-based statistics in college.
It would be a 4th HL. I am allowed to take up to 4HLs with 2 SLs or 3 HLs and 3 SLs. What do you mean by grade-grubbing like trying to find the easy way out?
My other concern is that there is another student at my school who has very similar ecs to me but she is taking HL AA, so if I drop then I feel like if AOs compare us, then will the more rigourous one always have a higher likelihood?
Oh, I didn’t think of that. That makes a lot of sense honestly. I thought having HL Chemistry was enough to show rigor, but with these points I am probably going to consider HL Math AA more now. I still am just so conflicted because of the LOR but if rigor means that much more then it is probably the better choice.
TBH, I’d do one of the sciences at SL and switch math to HL — particularly since you got a 5 on BC. There are no bonus points awarded for taking 4 HL. Although you certainly can, provided it doesn’t impact other parts of your application
I would switch; however, the biology SL is so full so my school isin’t letting us switch into an SL for that and my chem teacher is going to be my other ROC, so I would have to keep HL Chem. So, I was just hoping that AOs see that HL Chem is rigourous enough to allow me to drop to SL math and still have good LORs from chem and math. But if rigor is way more important, than honestly I might just take HL math if HL Chem doesn’t show that.
Here is the reply I was typing in your other thread about rigor vs LOR that was just closed.
Rigor is most important, because all colleges care about rigor, but colleges vary on whether they care about LORs. Some do not even accept LORs.
One way you can check this for yourself is to look at each school’s CDS (Common Data Set) to see what they say about how important each factor is. Search for schoolname CDS and you should see the CDS pop up in search results.
The information you are seeking is in section C7 under “Academic.” Here’s an example from UW Seattle (just to pick a random school on my daughter’s list).
You don’t have to guess. Look up the common data sets for the schools on your list and go to section C7. The schools will rank what is most important, very important, considered, and not considered.
Thank you so much for this! I did check this for most of the colleges that I have on my list and all of them say that LOR and rigor are very important or sometimes that a LOR is important while rigor is most important. With these varied stats, I was still debating on what matters more.
