Together English and Economics count as one third of the courses needed for the IB diploma. This counts as one more course required for the diploma. The IB foreign language requirement often turns people off. Actually, the mediocre amount of foreign language skills required to do OK in the course is surprising. The weekly speaking on a tape and the written monthly essays may appear time consuming, but the tape recording only has to last two minutes and it takes only about thirty to forty-five minutes for the essay.
Colleges prefer high schoolers that take challenging course loads.
They d rather see a B in a college level course, maybe even a C, than an A in an extremely easy course. Some prestigious colleges, like Duke, even ask applicants to list any IB courses they ve taken. Money is a nice thing to have and saving it is even better. The city pays for IBs, but you pay for APs. Moreover, you can also be awarded college credit in many of these courses, thus saving hundreds of dollars in college.