AP or IB, That is the Question: The differences between East’s honors programs

As second semester begins and junior year enrollment approaches, sophomores find themselves debating the tough decision every upperclassman has told them the “right” answer to — AP or IB?

Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) are East’s honors course options for upperclassmen. While they both are weighted with an honors credit and feature more rigorous course work than standard core classes, the classes vary heavily in structure and educational emphasis — so the decision carries a number of factors with it.

IB coordinator Monique Goodeyon emphasized how neither program is better than the other, but that some students may be inclined to enjoy one over the other. She recommends students research colleges they’re interested in to see which program works best for what they hope to achieve.

International Baccalaureate (IB)

The IB program has an internationally identical curriculum. Students read foreign literature in English, have their extended essays graded by people around the world and focus on more universal approaches to learning. 

The work for IB students is heavily presentation-based. Along with having daily homework in all classes, students are working on long-term projects, such as their individual assessments — projects that display a student’s knowledge in each of their classes. The IB teachers coordinate with each other to make sure that students don’t have tests and project due dates put on them all at once, according to Goodeyon.

“AP is more of an individualized course where, for example, I never speak to any other AP teacher, even though I’m an AP Calculus teacher,” Goodeyon said. “So all of those courses are taught in isolation, whereas IB courses are taught in succession with each other and we all talk about the teaching prospects and trying to show congruence throughout all the courses.”

If a student chooses to take IB, they’re committing to the program for their junior and senior year — this eliminates the possibility of them backing out as a senior just because they decide it’s not a good fit for them. The classes are two years long, so if you take junior IB English, you’ll also be taking senior IB English.

The IB Diploma shows a student’s success in six different fields: English, math, science, social studies, foreign language and an additional IB course of choice — for example, psychology, music or art. But mere participation doesn’t guarantee an IB Diploma on your resume.

To receive the IB diploma, students must take all six courses their junior and senior years and demonstrate their knowledge through a series of tests at the end of their senior year. But Goodeyon says that it rarely happens where a student does all the work and doesn’t earn their diploma.

If students lack the schedule and time to commit to the full diploma, they may also choose to do IB Certificate, where they take a minimum of two IB classes for two years instead of all six.

Former IB Diploma student and sophomore at NYU Isabella Kloster feels that IB has made her college life easier in the sense that it’s prepared her for the college workload and enhanced her ability of time management.

“I think one of the biggest things IB taught me is that I’m very capable of getting it done,” Kloster said. “It’s just like a matter of sitting down and doing it. I have the skills to do the task at hand, and everything’s going to get done eventually.”

However, IB does come with additional requirements that need to be completed for students to earn the diploma. In addition to the six IB classes, diploma students must also participate in Theory of Knowledge, a class during seminar and advisory where students discuss the ways we use and obtain knowledge. Students are also required to do CAS (creativity, activity, service), hours dedicated to these areas of the community.

Junior and IB Diploma student Sophie Rice says how the IB juniors will get together to work at completing their CAS hours through organizing Mole Day, helping with the lobster sale or even going on walks after school together.

The small group involved in the IB program has made it a tight community because they are enrolled in the same classes and spend a majority of their school day together.

“It’s kind of like I have 27 new best friends really,” Rice said. “We’re all super close.”

Advanced Placement (AP)

Compared to IB, AP is made of individual courses that do not follow a full two-year commitment. Students can pick and choose which and how many AP courses they would like to take. Good at English but not as great as math? Consider AP Language and Composition with a standard-level math class. 

Junior Lily Utt is enrolled in six AP classes and chose to do AP for its schedule flexibility and a stronger focus on extracurriculars.

“If you like theatre or you like taking PE classes, whatever it is that you want to do, you’ll still have that room in your schedule to make sure you can do all of your extra curricular and co-curricular activities during the day,” Utt said.

Another benefit Utt sees with AP is that it allows you to test out of certain classes in college based on how well you score on the class’s AP test.

The AP test grades on a scale of one to five, five being a perfect score. It varies from college to college on how many credit hours can be received for each score. Right now, with the number of AP classes Utt is taking, she could potentially be entering college as a sophomore or even a junior — that is, if she scores high enough on the AP tests. 

Utt sees this as the major benefactor towards taking AP because it can reduce the stress of college classes.

AP offers greater diversity in the types of classes students can take, such as computer science and statistics. This groups a much wider variety of students in AP classes than the smaller group of IB students consistently in the same class.

“You’re able to meet a large variety of people and make a lot of friends through AP,” Utt said. “I think at East, we’re all a really tight knit community, so we know a lot of people, but you’re gonna be able to see a lot of different people throughout the day and get to interact with different people [through AP].”