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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The only reason many prefer AP is because it is easier to be able to pick and choose AP courses than to take all IB courses for the diploma. However, a full IB diploma graduate is much more rare and desirable in the eyes of most colleges. The amount of credits awarded at some schools may be fewer, but they do recognize that it is the most rigorous program available.

My son in planning on majoring in pre-med, and most medical schools will not accept AP or IB credits in lieu of any of their undergrad requirements (4 years of college science, 2 years of calculus, etc). For that reason, he wants to do IB instead of AP. [/quote]

Many AP courses are considered more demanding than their IB counterpart, and some have no IB equivalent.  Colleges will not necessarily know when students are applying for admission whether an applicant will receive an IB diploma because that decision is not made until after the student graduates.  If you really believe what you write here, you should make sure your child both obtains an IB diploma and then takes a gap year so the schools to which he's applying know he received an IB diploma.

Colleges aren't necessarily blown away by an IB diploma.  They also look at SAT/ACT scores and the overall academic reputation of the secondary school.  What does concern many parents is the perception that non-IB diploma candidates at IB schools are relegated to the bottom of the candidate pile in a way that isn't true for students who take a healthy, but not exclusive, selection of AP courses.  Also, before you get too enamored of your own rhetoric, you should realize that the most prestigious universities may have pre-med programs, but not pre-med majors.

[b]I have nothing against IB for those prefer its [b]Euro-centric perspective [/b][/b]and comparatively rigid curriculum, but when the county is paying extra money for IB program coordinators and dues at schools where the percentage of students getting IB diplomas is ridiculously low, I think it requires closer examination.  I'd rather see Falls Church HS getting renovated earlier, for example, rather than continuing to spend extra money on IB at each of Annandale, Edison, Lee and Stuart.  [/quote]

Last time I checked, Brazil, as mentioned in an earlier post was in South America.  Another very popular IB history course focuses on the Middle East. So much for Eurocentric.  Please get your facts straight before you start calling for the end of a program you don't understand. And lets remember that extra money, if it's that much was directed at schools that weren't doing that well. If you want your child to take advantage of IB, you can people place instead of whining about not getting your share of resources.  As for that argument, don't even get me started.  There are plenty of parts of the county that have much bigger gripes and at least IB and AP are made available to everyone as opposed to TJ or the so-called gifted programs in elementary and middle school.   [/quote]

IBO is based in Geneva and the tests are administered out of the UK.  It is indisputably a Euro-centric organisation even if some of the course material examines other cultures.  Your argument is akin to claiming the College Board isn't an American institution because students read Shakespeare or Sundiata in an AP English class.[/quote]

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