Will my school's policy hurt me?

Applying to College
1

<p>Long story short: My school is turning to an IB school with less APs to offer. I’m interested in the AP program, but the math program here sucks.</p>

<p>So which is more rigorous/better looking on transcript?

  1. AP Calc BC jr year, self-study math or online course sr year OR
  2. IB Math HL for both years?</p>
2

<p>I’m an IB diploma candidate in my final year of study. I take IB HL Maths.</p>

<p>IB HL Maths covers, roughly, all of the calculus content of AB and much of the content of BC, though less rigorously. AFAIK, you’ll see some proof techniques not covered in AP classes. Depending on which option your class follows, you might pick up some serious mathematics you wouldn’t get in any AP class (eg, Taylor series and convergence tests, basic group and set theory or elementary number theory and discrete maths). Then again, you might do the stats option, which would be a poor use of class time.</p>

<p>If your school offers or will offer SL Further Maths, then taking that with HL would theoretically put you beyond BC Calculus in terms of content. However, your online course might do that, too, if it is serious.</p>

<p>It’s very important to consider the quality of your school’s IB classes. New IB schools can fail in a bad way in their first years of operation. Regardless of content and college prospects, go with the classes that would give you the best mathematical education. The IB is a strong and rigorous curriculum, taken as a whole. If you won’t be a full candidate, then you will lose the benefits of the IB as a cohesive unit. Whether the IB (or a lot of IB certificates) is more attractive than a full load of APs is an open and context-sensitive question – ask admissions counsellors!</p>

3

<p>Minor correction, SCOMathmo: AP BC does indeed cover Taylor series and convergence tests.</p>