Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB)

The Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) are both school programs that offer challenging courses recognized by universities around the world. They prepare you for higher education and are a good indication of a prospective student’s academic level. So what’s the difference between AP and IB?

AP is relatively widespread, and the IB program is rarer in general since schools have to be able to offer enough classes for the diploma to host an IB program. Adding IB is often more costly than starting a few AP classes.

The programs have different goals, as well. IB has more emphasis on writing and developing critical thinking skills – and not just on the exams themselves. The IB diploma requires the extended essay, a long, college-style research paper. The IB program also has extracurricular requirements.

In contrast, the AP is a program focused on teaching students specific content and testing their knowledge for the exams. There is more multiple-choice and emphasis on meeting certain content goals.

Colleges don’t automatically consider AP or IB harder or more impressive on a transcript. They do recognize that there are huge differences in how both AP and IB courses are taught and graded at high schools across the country.

Because of this, colleges – especially the most selective ones – 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.

In most cases, if you earn a high passing score – for example a 7 on IB or a 5 on AP – you will get course credit.

But one thing to keep in mind is that while IB higher-level courses are usually accepted by colleges, standard-level IB courses aren’t always given credits. In contrast, AP is offered at one level, so if you take three higher-level IB courses and three standard-level IB courses as part of the diploma, you may end up with less credits than you would for the same six AP courses.

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