IB courses increase the chance of being approved?

Answered

Hi @wagner, so your son goes to the Village School in Houston Texas? Or he graduated already? Just clarifying this because you said he 'went' past tense. Also please clarify that he currently is pursuing 4 (IB) subjects. Does that means he will take the exams for a total of 4 (IB)s or are you saying he is doing 4 senior year but he has completed other IB coursework and exams already. I'm asking because there is a difference between qualifying for the IB Diploma and the IB Certificate. To get the IB diploma, you have to pass 6 qualifying IB exams. The IB certificate is awarded if you do not sit for all 6 (3 Higher Level HL subjects and 3 Lower Level LL subjects.)

Here is the school profile for The Village School which shows how their IB program works and how competitive this school is compared to other private/boarding schools. In my opinion The Village School is sort of Tier 3/4 Private/Boarding School based on the quality of faculty, course catalog options, test scores, and resources. The average SAT is 1297 and average ACT 27. And the acceptance rate of 50%, avg SSAT score less than 65, and matriculation list looks comparable to better public schools in the state of Texas. A Tier 1 Private/Boarding School would be like Phillips Exeter, Phillips Andover, Deerfield Academy, Hotchkiss School, Choate Rosemary Hall, St. Pauls School, Groton School and Lawrenville. A Tier 2 school would be like Thatcher, Cate School, St. Andrews, Peddie School, Taft, Loomis Chaffee, Middlesex, Northfield Mount Hermon, Kent School.

https://img.nordangliaeducation.com/resources/us/_filecache/d71/acc/48143-2020-2021-school-profile_08_24.pdf?_gl=1*tciipn*_ga*MTA2Mzk5ODExNi4xNjU4MzQ1MDI2*_ga_ZZ4YR8CWBS*MTY1ODM0NTAyNi4xLjEuMTY1ODM0NTE0OS4w

My answer: IB courses, like AP courses show college admissions officers that students are ready and able to take college level course because they are structured as harder courses, some say equivalent to 1st year college coursework. Therefore if a student gets good grades and test scores in IBs or APs, that informs college admissions officers that those students are ready to do college level work. This is both advantageous for American colleges and non-American colleges. But take that with a grain of salt because as you know Top American colleges like Ivy League, Stanford, UChicago, Rice, Vanderbilt, and top liberal arts colleges are very difficult to get into. Most Top 25 colleges have an admit rate of between 3% and 8%. The application pool is very over subscribed because many are applying without SAT or ACT test scores. Within that pool of applicants are tens of thousands of highly qualified students that do have either IB diplomas or have taken 8-12 AP courses in HS. This means that if one is applying to a Top 25 school, having either IBs or APs is now more of requisite attribute rather than something optional as in the past. So depending on where your son applies to college, having taking IBs may not be that impressive to the college admissions officer.

My quick take is that colleges familiar the Village School like most private/public Texas colleges will be more inclined to accept students from this school than say East Coast Ivys and Private liberal arts colleges. You didn't share what his Unweighted GPA is, his SAT or ACT test scores, or what kind of extracurricular s he is good at (sports, music, art, singing, theater) so it's hard to know from your questions, what kind of colleges he is going to apply to. If he is going for some real hard schools, then I highly recommend that he submit a very high SAT 1500+ score or a 34+ ACT score and have some help with crafting some excellent essays for both his main college application essay and supplemental essays.

Good luck to both of you.