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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Last week, I went on college tours at NYU and Columbia.  At both sessions, the question of IB vs. AP was asked.  Both admissions officers stated that their school has no preference, and one officer stated that they have many students that apply to the school from outside the US, where IB is more prevalent.  In short, neither school seemed to care which system you came from, as long as you were taking challenging courses.
Regarding whether "credit" will be given for AP and IB courses, both schools stated that high school course work may allow you to enter into higher level courses, but that you still had to take the full number of required hours in order to receive a diploma.  At Columbia, one of the tour guides went further by stating that you had to take all of the first year "core curriculum" regardless of how many AP or IB credits you had.  [b]I think she said something like -- after all, you are coming to Columbia in order to get a degree from Columbia -- not your high school.
[/b]PP -- my DD transferred from an AP school to an IB school because she thought that the curriculum better suited her interests[/quote]

Thanks for posting this reality check. I think parents who haven't been through the actual process for college applications are making a lot of assumptions here about the magical power of getting credit for either AP [u]or[/u] IB courses.

The intense focus by parents on having their kids knock off college credits via AP is one problem we, and our child, have with AP. She saw older friends who spent much of high school focused entirely on how many credits they would have for college; what they were actually learning, and whether they were interested and engaged and developing skills that would serve them well in college coursework later, wasn't of much consideration for them or especially their parents. I know not all AP is like that, but it sure was among some of her friends, and their parents encouraged that attitude.

A friend's son told us how in his first freshman class at college, the instructor asked how many of the students had ever done a research paper in HS of 3,000 words or more. The son was the only student who raised his hand. He had done the IB diploma, which requires students to do a research essay of 4,000 words. He said that in his freshman year a lot of his friends (many of whom had done AP) were constantly struggling with the extensive writing requirements of college, but he was fine with it, and he credited IB.

Yes, that is just one anecdotal example, but it's as valid as the "examples" on this thread by parents criticizing IB as useless for college credits. It sure built his readiness for college work.

The parents posting about how they would never let their kids do IB when the time comes are not thinking about whether their children might want some say in their own high school curriculum choices. Looking at other posts on this thread, I'm seeing that parents who posted that their kids were moving schools in order to take IB tended to mention that the kids wanted it and the kids felt that the curriculum "better suited their interests," as above. I know several students who moved out of IB schools to pursue AP and several students who moved from AP schools to pursue IB. But in each case the choice came from consultation and parents treating the kids as responsible enough to have at least some input in choices.
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