The reality is these AP/IB classes are the only way to be in classes with like minded kids in big publics with a spread of socioeconomic populations. The less academic local privates here prevent students from doing APs due to score risk as their boast metric is about scores over participation. I assume that no AP is really a college level class, but only the parents of kids who don’t do APs seem to think they ARE. As far as IB, for me, it isn’t about branding at all, it is about a defined standard of rigour that is not set by some “silly” nut jobs on the local level who might like to think the world is 7000 years old.