If you dropout of IB and move to AP, will you earn credits for the years of IB you've already taken?

Question

OKAY! So... This year will be my first year in highschool (thats right i'm a freshman!!!)

I have signed up for IB, I thoroughly looked at the differences between IB and AP and decided IB would be better for more prestigious colleges, but now, from hearing things from others, I'm not sure.

I hear that IF I decide to dropout from IB after doing it for 1 or 2 years and drop down to AP, I won't have credits for those years in highschool.

*is this true?

and...

If I stay in IB for all 4 years, including graduation with IB diploma, is it true that all we have is the diploma, and AP students have college credit so colleges will look at them more?

*****I guess I don't fully understand the IB diploma verses AP college credit?*****

If anyone has any advice, experience, skills, information, websites, ANYTHING :p that could help me out that would be wonderful.

*Thank you in advance*

Answer 1

Choosing between IB and AP is strictly based on your school--at my school AP is definitely harder and more worth your time. A lot of people dropped out of IB after their sophomore year in my grade and they still received credit, but their schedules for the next two years were screwed up like no other. They had to take full schedules with freshman courses as seniors and stuff like that. So, if you are going to do IB make sure you are going to stick with it. Also, colleges do not prefer IB over AP or vice versa--unless you are applying outside of the U.S. and that's a completely different story. Both programs are rigorous, but you have to be dedicated 100% with IB.

Hope this helps a bit.

Answer 2

I think your decision should be based on whether you want more college credit or whether you want a more comprehensive pre-college experience. I graduated with the IB Diploma but I also took 2 AP classes online. Before it seemed that colleges preferred A, just because it had been around longer in the US, run by the Collegeboard that type of stuff. Now though, colleges regard both programs equally and in admissions they note that both are very rigorous programs. However, when it comes to credit, I think the AP students have a bit of an advantage. At least the University I plan on attending in the fall was much stingier with IB credits than with AP. For example you could only receive credit for HL IB courses. However some of my friends, who also graduated with the IB Diploma, got lots of credit for their IB classes. So one thing you could do is see how much credit your prospective Universities award for IB classes.

However, this being said, I personally prefer the IB program. I'm a bit biased, but after comparing what my friends in AP say and the AP classes I took to my experience in IB, I think IB is definitely a harder program. If you plan on getting the diploma the process is much more rigorous than anything the AP students do. Also, in AP, you can just take classes in your strengths. Say you're a math and science person, then you can just take AP Calc, AP Bio, AP Chem, that type of stuff. However, the IB Diploma program forces you to be a more well-rounded individual by requiring IB classes in the 6 main categories. You can still play to your strengths though and take your HL classes in what you are good at. If you're doing Diploma then you also have to worry about the CAS hours (50 hours creativity, 50 hours action, and 50 hours of service) and the Extended Essay (a 4000 word essay that is pretty much a practice term paper). The thing about IB is you really have to be very focused and be prepared to work.

Just some things I noted was in IB, you are evaluated on so many different aspects. Sure in English you have to write essays. But you also have to give oral commentaries that will be sent abroad to be graded. You'll to take an exam where you come in, receive a random passage, and you have to talk about it for 15 minutes. You'll have to write a paper in IB Math and send that abroad to be graded. The IB exams, from my experience are much harder. In History HL, I had to write 3 essays after selecting the prompts from a list of like 20-30, in 2.5 hours (of course with the 2 essays in 1.5 hours and the DBQ). The amount of material I had to review to prepare for that test was insane. The AP Test I took was mostly multiple choice, and the small essay portion at the end...they gave you an outline. It was pretty much short answer the way they layed it out for you. Maybe that one AP test was very easy. I don't know. Just in my experience, the IB process is more rigorous.

So if you want the college credit, and that's it, go for AP, but if you can give up some college credit (you will still get some if you score well on the IB exams) in favor of a more in depth and comprehensive pre-college education, then go for IB, I think it will prepare you better for college. Regardless they are still both very prestigious programs.

As for dropping from IB to AP, if you take the exams after your 1 or 2 years in IB, then you will get credit (based on how you score). But if you don't take any exams then you will only get the acknowledgment during the college application process that you took IB courses, no credit. College credit is all based on test scores, whether it be AP exams, IB exams, or SATs and SAT IIs.

Hope that helped and good luck with your decision! =D