why do people prefer AP schools to IB?

[Anonymous]

DP here. It's a plus at an IB school over not pursuing an IB diploma. It's not a plus compared to taking a substantial number of AP courses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:College credit with AP. no such advantage with IB

Not true. Every college is different and some offer placement versus credit for both AP and IB. To get credit for IB, most schools do stipulate the IB class has to be an HL (higher level) class versus an SL (standard level) class. And you usually need to score a 6 or 7, although a 5 may get you credit in some subjects (for example Chemistry at UVA. If you score a 5, you get credit for CHEM 1410 but if you get a 6 or 7, you get credit for CHEM 1420.) The same is true for AP - you usually need to score a 4 or 5 to get credit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:College credit with AP. no such advantage with IB

Not true. Every college is different and some offer placement versus credit for both AP and IB. To get credit for IB, most schools do stipulate the IB class has to be an HL (higher level) class versus an SL (standard level) class. And you usually need to score a 6 or 7, although a 5 may get you credit in some subjects (for example Chemistry at UVA. If you score a 5, you get credit for CHEM 1410 but if you get a 6 or 7, you get credit for CHEM 1420.) The same is true for AP - you usually need to score a 4 or 5 to get credit.

1. IB recognition differs vastly across schools. Most notably, within VA, UVA is stingier compared to William & Mary, which is quite generous with IB credits:

http://www.wm.edu/offices/registrar/documents/catalog/prematriculationexamtable.pdf

http://college.as.virginia.edu/iclec

2. By far most colleges require 5,6,or 7 on IB exams to give college credit.

3. More and more colleges now give credit for SL level classes as well (see William & Mary above).

In general, AP/IB college credit recognition evolves every year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DP here. It's a plus at an IB school over not pursuing an IB diploma. It's not a plus compared to taking a substantial number of AP courses.

Source?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DP here. It's a plus at an IB school over not pursuing an IB diploma. It's not a plus compared to taking a substantial number of AP courses.

Source?

Top area schools are almost entirely AP. Come back when Whitman and Langley parents demand IB. Until then, STFU.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DP here. It's a plus at an IB school over not pursuing an IB diploma. It's not a plus compared to taking a substantial number of AP courses.

Source?

Top area schools are almost entirely AP. Come back when Whitman and Langley parents demand IB. Until then, STFU.

So in other words, you're making $hit up as you go along. Duly noted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DP here. It's a plus at an IB school over not pursuing an IB diploma. It's not a plus compared to taking a substantial number of AP courses.

Source?

Top area schools are almost entirely AP. Come back when Whitman and Langley parents demand IB. Until then, STFU.

So in other words, you're making $hit up as you go along. Duly noted.

No, there's not much debate about which school in NoVa are the best, and they aren't IB. Perhaps you were too busy in your Theory of Ignorance class to recognize that.

[Anonymous]

George Mason only has IB. I was very surprised to see only 30% of the kids attempt the IB diploma given the fact the SES is very high, low FARMS percentage. The houses still sell like crazy and everyone raves about the schools yet at best only 1/3 kids get the diploma. So-everyone thinks their kid is in the top 30percent and when the 2/3 figure out that is not the case they are in too deep to change houses/schools?
OK--maybe FCC does attract more kids with special needs because this seems to be their strength but that maybe only 20percent or so. So what happens with the other left over 50% of kids(100-30IB-20SN)? To me they are at a clear disadvantage---they would of been better off taking at least 1AP class or a couple of them?
Also with IB it seems you have to be very strong in a foreign language--usually Spanish or French--what if you are excelling at everything else but languages are your weakness?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:George Mason only has IB. I was very surprised to see only 30% of the kids attempt the IB diploma given the fact the SES is very high, low FARMS percentage. The houses still sell like crazy and everyone raves about the schools yet at best only 1/3 kids get the diploma. So-everyone thinks their kid is in the top 30percent and when the 2/3 figure out that is not the case they are in too deep to change houses/schools?
OK--maybe FCC does attract more kids with special needs because this seems to be their strength but that maybe only 20percent or so. So what happens with the other left over 50% of kids(100-30IB-20SN)? To me they are at a clear disadvantage---they would of been better off taking at least 1AP class or a couple of them?
Also with IB it seems you have to be very strong in a foreign language--usually Spanish or French--what if you are excelling at everything else but languages are your weakness?

I'm sure more of them take IB classes though. Your comparison would be the IB diploma to the AP Capstone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Re: post about Tech student above-- A friend's DC had heaps of AP credits and while she got out of some classes at Tech with those credits, in several she was told she would have to take Tech's version anyway. Friend said they were told that Tech wanted to be sure students had the particular foundation the departments there wanted, taught in the way the departments wanted. I offer that as just what it is--one student's experience with one college. But it does show that there is not a clear "take one AP course, get out of one college class in the equivalent course" deal. Each college is going to make its own choices and some kids and parents may be surprised to find their focus on AP as a college-credits plan isn't as direct as they thought. That's why, whatever the program, AP or IB, focusing on learning and being ready for college level work seems like a wiser way to approach things. Not dissing AP here, just saying some people look at it as a way to power through college faster and not as a way to learn skills to use in college.

I work with a bunch of recent college grads and hear the same story all the time.

I'm the PP whose son went to Tech. I think it's really spot on -- the department really did encourage him to make sure he had a strong foundation and didn't just take all of his AP credits and accelerate him. I think it's probably the right thing to do since he'd rather get it right than get it done quickly with knowledge gaps.

You said he chose to. Which is it? Forced or chose to retake?

I do think, strangely, that the successful IB schools have a high diploma completion rate. I think Robinson was right around 80 percent. I remember hearing something similar about Marshall, too.

PP here. From what I recall, my son was both encouraged to re-do certain courses that he could have opted out with AP credit and he actually dropped a few classes and went back to re-do the pre-req after initially being signed up for the class voluntarily. It wasn't an either or situation. The school was really focused on him succeeding. Sure, he could have finished sooner, but I think having a stronger GPA and foundation was more important to him, so he didn't fight them on this (I assume you don't have children in a STEM major in college dealing with this -- it's apparently super common).

Are you suggesting that if your son had done the IB diploma tech would have been more supportive of him skipping college level STEM courses?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Re: post about Tech student above-- A friend's DC had heaps of AP credits and while she got out of some classes at Tech with those credits, in several she was told she would have to take Tech's version anyway. Friend said they were told that Tech wanted to be sure students had the particular foundation the departments there wanted, taught in the way the departments wanted. I offer that as just what it is--one student's experience with one college. But it does show that there is not a clear "take one AP course, get out of one college class in the equivalent course" deal. Each college is going to make its own choices and some kids and parents may be surprised to find their focus on AP as a college-credits plan isn't as direct as they thought. That's why, whatever the program, AP or IB, focusing on learning and being ready for college level work seems like a wiser way to approach things. Not dissing AP here, just saying some people look at it as a way to power through college faster and not as a way to learn skills to use in college.

I work with a bunch of recent college grads and hear the same story all the time.

I'm the PP whose son went to Tech. I think it's really spot on -- the department really did encourage him to make sure he had a strong foundation and didn't just take all of his AP credits and accelerate him. I think it's probably the right thing to do since he'd rather get it right than get it done quickly with knowledge gaps.

You said he chose to. Which is it? Forced or chose to retake?

I do think, strangely, that the successful IB schools have a high diploma completion rate. I think Robinson was right around 80 percent. I remember hearing something similar about Marshall, too.

PP here. From what I recall, my son was both encouraged to re-do certain courses that he could have opted out with AP credit and he actually dropped a few classes and went back to re-do the pre-req after initially being signed up for the class voluntarily. It wasn't an either or situation. The school was really focused on him succeeding. Sure, he could have finished sooner, but I think having a stronger GPA and foundation was more important to him, so he didn't fight them on this (I assume you don't have children in a STEM major in college dealing with this -- it's apparently super common).

Are you suggesting that if your son had done the IB diploma tech would have been more supportive of him skipping college level STEM courses?

When we visited VT, we discovered that our IB diploma student would receive in the ballpark of 30 credits for her expected IB scores, but as pps stated, they do recommend that you do not skip the foundational courses in your major.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Re: post about Tech student above-- A friend's DC had heaps of AP credits and while she got out of some classes at Tech with those credits, in several she was told she would have to take Tech's version anyway. Friend said they were told that Tech wanted to be sure students had the particular foundation the departments there wanted, taught in the way the departments wanted. I offer that as just what it is--one student's experience with one college. But it does show that there is not a clear "take one AP course, get out of one college class in the equivalent course" deal. Each college is going to make its own choices and some kids and parents may be surprised to find their focus on AP as a college-credits plan isn't as direct as they thought. That's why, whatever the program, AP or IB, focusing on learning and being ready for college level work seems like a wiser way to approach things. Not dissing AP here, just saying some people look at it as a way to power through college faster and not as a way to learn skills to use in college.

I work with a bunch of recent college grads and hear the same story all the time.

I'm the PP whose son went to Tech. I think it's really spot on -- the department really did encourage him to make sure he had a strong foundation and didn't just take all of his AP credits and accelerate him. I think it's probably the right thing to do since he'd rather get it right than get it done quickly with knowledge gaps.

You said he chose to. Which is it? Forced or chose to retake?

I do think, strangely, that the successful IB schools have a high diploma completion rate. I think Robinson was right around 80 percent. I remember hearing something similar about Marshall, too.

PP here. From what I recall, my son was both encouraged to re-do certain courses that he could have opted out with AP credit and he actually dropped a few classes and went back to re-do the pre-req after initially being signed up for the class voluntarily. It wasn't an either or situation. The school was really focused on him succeeding. Sure, he could have finished sooner, but I think having a stronger GPA and foundation was more important to him, so he didn't fight them on this (I assume you don't have children in a STEM major in college dealing with this -- it's apparently super common).

Are you suggesting that if your son had done the IB diploma tech would have been more supportive of him skipping college level STEM courses?

When we visited VT, we discovered that our IB diploma student would receive in the ballpark of 30 credits for her expected IB scores, but as pps stated, they do recommend that you do not skip the foundational courses in your major.

That's my point. I don't think the college's recommendation had anything to do with AP versus IB, but more to do with the fact that high school classes (whether AP or IB) aren't really college level.