AP vs. IB: How do I decide which one is right for my child? Do Colleges prefer one over the other?

Recently, a 9th grade parent asked me for advice about choosing the right international curriculum for high school. Her child’s school offered both the IB and the AP, and she was unsure which one would better fit the needs of her child.

To better answer this question, let’s first take a closer look at how these two programs were developed. Both the AP and IB programs offer challenging courses to high school students that they can earn college credit for. But their philosophies and goals are quite different.

The AP program was developed in the US to help high school students prepare for college by taking advanced courses, with no set program of courses. Students could take just one or even a dozen AP classes, depending on their school, schedule, and goals.

In contrast, IB was developed in Switzerland to be an internationally recognized diploma. To earn the diploma, you have to take a certain amount of courses in a range of subjects. It is possible to just take a few IBs without earning the diploma, but IB was developed to be a set program of courses. 

Which one is more popular? The AP’s, just because this curriculum is more widely offered in the US. In 2023, over 5.2 million students worldwide took the AP exams. In the US, over 30% of public high school students took at least one AP exam. But the national average for getting a 3 (passing score) is only 21.6%.

Source: https://reports.collegeboard.org/ap-program-results/class-of-2022

For the IBs, according to its program website, “The IB offers four educational programmes to more than 1.95 million students aged 3 to 19 across the globe. As of November 2023, there were over 8,000 programmes being offered worldwide, across over 5,700 schools in 160 countries.” Over the last 5 years, the number of IB programs offered worldwide increased by 34.2%

Source: https://www.ibo.org/about-the-ib/facts-and-figures/

Now, to compare and contrast the two programs.

Weaknesses of the IB Program:

• IB exams occur after two years of instruction at the end of senior year. Therefore, IB examination results are not included in the college application process. This provides less quantifiable information about a student’s standardized testing abilities.

• Some students who take the IB program in junior and senior year take AP courses and exams as freshmen and sophomores to compensate for the above difficulty.

• The IB Program requires course enrollment for two years. This is both a strength and a weakness. Students have to select classes and commit for a long period of time. Also, this limits the opportunity to take certain classes.

Strengths of the IB Program:

• The IB Program includes designed curricula for all instructors ensuring quality education.

• The IB Program’s international focus exposes students to literature, politics, and social issues from around the world.

• The additional requirements of the IB program, such as Creative Activity and Service (CAS), expose students to real-world applications of their learning.

• This is an integrated program, so the classes complement each other.

• The IB Program requires course enrollment for two years. This is both a strength and a weakness. Students acquire deep knowledge and apply their knowledge rather than studying for success on a single test.

• ·      The IB models very closely the kind of pressure students could be under in higher education, such as time management, prioritization, research methods and presentation, critical thinking, abstract reasoning, independent learning, teamwork, and goal-setting. 

Weaknesses of the AP Program:

• Fewer and fewer college are offering college credit for a “passing score” of a “3” or even for a score of a “4” over the last few years.

• Recent scientific studies have demonstrated that students who enroll in AP science courses are not notably more or less prepared for college work than students in non-AP science courses.

• The existence of AP classes is not a gauge of high school quality.

• AP is a North-American centric program in history, design, and focus.

• AP classes “teach to a test.” Therefore, the teaching is focused on, and limited to, what will be on the test.

Strengths of the AP Program:

• The AP Program is broadly familiar to college and admissions officers and recognized as rigorous and impressive.

• Top scores on AP exams and high grades in AP classes make students competitive candidates for the best colleges and universities in the U.S.

• There are comprehensive test-prep materials and resources for all the AP exams.

• The AP Program allows students to select a course schedule that meets their needs. They can select AP courses in certain subjects and not others. Outstanding students can challenge themselves with additional AP courses.

• The AP Program is offered at more high schools throughout the U.S. and around the world. International students can use AP exams to show how they’re competitive with U.S. students.

In the US, students take AP courses and exams to not only demonstrate their aptitude in certain subjects, but also show their interest and related academic abilities for a potential major. The AP program prides itself on being “college-level studies” that are approved by college faculty in US universities. Depending on the college, if you passed the AP Economics exam, for instance, you can earn college credits for introductory economics. And if you pass enough AP exams, you can get Advanced Standing in college and graduate early, saving time and money. 

The AP Program currently has 37 courses, spanning Art, History and Social Sciences, Math, Sciences, English, and World Languages. So, how many AP courses should you take? Is there a magic number that would tip the admit-or-reject scale in your favor? The short answer, is unfortunately, no. The long answer is that colleges consider a plethora of factors, such as the difficulty level of the courses you take, the number of AP courses offered in your high school, and your overall academic achievement. For example, if students at your school take an average of five AP courses when you only decided to take one course, colleges might consider you to be a low-achiever. If you are an engineering student but scored 5’s on the AP World History/Art History exams, colleges would look upon you as a well-rounded student with a strong intellectual curiosity.

Finally, don’t try to fool colleges by taking a bunch of easier AP exams. Admissions officers know exactly how difficult each exam can be (they might have even taken quite of few APs when they were in high school!), and they would definitely appreciate the effort you put in to challenge yourself by opting for a harder course.

So now that you know more about the two programs, we’ll get to the big question – which one do colleges prefer? Which one looks the most impressive?

Actually, colleges don’t automatically consider AP or IB harder or more impressive on a transcript. Since IB is a rarer program, they can’t penalize students for not taking it. Plus, there are huge differences in how both AP and IB courses are taught and graded at high schools across the country.

Princeton University acknowledges a similar approach: “Whenever you can, challenge yourself with the most rigorous courses possible, such as honors, Advanced Placement (AP) and dual-enrollment courses. We will evaluate the International Baccalaureate (IB), A-levels or another diploma in the context of the program’s curriculum.”

Remember, colleges just want to see you have taken the most challenging course load available at your high school. That means instead of worrying about AP versus IB, you should worry about taking the most rigorous classes your high school offers.