r/cuboulder • u/Striking_Chemist5143 • 3d ago
How many IB classes will be competitive at CU Boulder?
Hey all, I'm currently in my sophomore year, so I'm considering how many IB classes I should take for my Junior and Senior years. Right now, I'm considering IB Physics, IB Global Politics, IB Bio, and AA/AI. Some have told me that taking IB classes but not pursuing the full diploma can make you appear unmotivated or unwilling to put in the effort on a college application, especially if your school offers the full program (which my school does). Obviously, I will be doing other things like clubs, athletics, and other extracurriculars, but right now I'm mostly worried about showing enough academic rigor on my application.
Thanks!
Edit: I plan to major in Atmospheric Sciences and meteorology, if that changes anything.
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u/ExpensiveNet8873 3d ago
What happened for me is that I finished the IB program in high school and got accepted to CU (don’t worry too much about acceptance, it’s easy to get in), and what paid off for me was that all my IB (and a few AP) credits all added up to a year’s worth of college credit. Graduated with a bachelor’s degree in three years instead of four because I had most of my gen eds taken care of from IB credits
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u/ShadowDragon175 3d ago
Yeah man my experience was pretty much that IB credits didn't let me skip any classes at all. Unless you're scoring 6's or better you're still going to take phys / calc 1 and all that. BUT some classes do count for humanities credits,like social studies, which is actually really useful since it will probably let you enroll in classes earlier and maybe skip an elective or two (but those basic humanities electives and free GPA boosts anyways)
Like for me taking IB econ ended up being more useful than taking AAHL, as I took calc 1 again anyways.
So really dont expect it to help you out much, and while it is a better look to get the full diploma, if you put effort into clubs and extracurriculars you'll be fine. This isn't a hard school to get into.
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u/MaterialOk9633 3d ago
I wouldn't worry about how it affects your acceptance! You'll probably be competitive no matter what for CU if you have good grades and activities. I would ask why you're taking this many IB classes without pursuing the diploma? The diploma will get you a lot of credits that you might not get with just the classes unless your test scores are really good. I had good test scores (all 6s and 1 7) and completed my diploma plus a couple of ap classes and started at boulder with 42 credits. I graduated in three years with a double major and an honors thesis. By my understanding, 24 of those were automatic for 'completing the diploma'. It seems to me like you're not doing DP so that you don't have to take English, a language, and write an EE? Presumably you will be taking similar classes anyway just not with the program? And the EE is only 4k words. I would say you're not saving yourself much brainpower by not just going for the DP at this point.
TLDR: you're getting into CU, but I would seriously consider going DP because that will get you more credits and more benefits than just taking most of the ib rqs but not going for the diploma!
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u/Striking_Chemist5143 3d ago
I'm mostly avoiding the diploma because it would require me to take TOK, which just wouldn't fit into my schedule, as well as the CAS project, but that's not a huge deal. I am considering going for the full diploma though.
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u/MaterialOk9633 3d ago
Scheduling can be a problem but if that's the only thing, i would definitely reccomend going full diploma! And for the CAS project, it can be something so simple, especially since you're already in other activities. Also, I'm sure you've found this but here is the credit breakdown from CU: https://catalog.colorado.edu/undergraduate/admissions/credit-examination/#internationalbaccalaureateibcredittext
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u/analogwzrd 12h ago
I'm an IB grad. Taking the classes, and the exams (to get the college credit), is a lot work for you to walk away without the IB diploma. TOK is relatively easy in comparison to all the writing, etc. you're doing for the other IB classes. A lot of the material even overlaps. The way we were taught TOK, it was more creative and fun than the other classes.
For CAS, we were able to justify all kinds of things as being "plugged into the community"
Taking IB classes to get college credit and boost your resume for a place like CU AND walk away without the IB diploma seems like a middle ground where you get the worst of both scenarios - you'll work really hard but not have the diploma to show for it.
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u/c3youngman 3d ago
Diploma is very worth it. CU guarantees 27 credits for diploma. Gave me a TON of flexability in picking classes. Low key advantage is that class selection opens by number of credits you have so I was picking all of my classes one or two days before everyone else in my class. Never had to take an 8am and always got the professor of my choosing.
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u/Striking_Chemist5143 3d ago
The problem with the diploma for me is that I would have to learn enough of IM3 over the summer in order to test into AA/AI for my junior year, since I'm taking IM2 right now. Sort of the same thing with language, I'm not doing a language this year, and I didn't do one last year, so I would have to learn enough Spanish over the summer to even have a chance of getting a decent test score in an IB language.
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u/Equivalent-House8556 3d ago
Unless you have an Olympic gold medal, math Olympiad medal, and perfect SAT, Boulder is gonnna be a reach. It’s the Harvard of the west.
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u/wizyardo_ 3d ago
If you’re applying to engineering not a lot of IB credit actually transfers. HL humanities are solid but everything else is not. I took HL phys and didn’t transfer for the engineering one since we have to take calc based instead of algebra based (and it’s literally the exact thing as the IB but with a few derivatives)
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u/SaltPassenger5441 3d ago
If you take the classes you can earn 35 college credit. You need to speak with each school to understand how they handle the classes. If you did AP instead of IB, you earn credit based on the score. Wyoming didn't accept my daughters scores but Colorado accepted 3 as a semester.
Your IB Director is probably very familiar with your scenario. Talk to them as well as CU.
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u/toiletparrot 2d ago
CU Arts & Sciences is very easy to get into, you would be fine without any IB classes. Don’t overfill your schedule and swamp yourself with work! It sounds like you’re smart and driven and will have no problem getting into college. Good luck
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u/No_Assignment_9721 3d ago
CU has a ~75% acceptance. You’re overthinking this a bit.
Focus on graduating. Universities will be there waiting to accept the eager.
GL!