我是美國(guó)大學(xué)理事部認(rèn)證的AP教師和IBO認(rèn)證的IB教師(方向:數(shù)學(xué)和物理)。嚴(yán)格說(shuō)來(lái),AP和IB是有很大不同的。IB是為期兩年的program,留學(xué)生來(lái)美國(guó)時(shí)間短的話(huà),選IB program是相當(dāng)困難的,因?yàn)镮B program畢業(yè)證書(shū)課程要求學(xué)生修多達(dá)六門(mén)不同方向的課程,而每一門(mén)課的內(nèi)容都遠(yuǎn)比AP課程要廣泛。比如說(shuō)IB數(shù)學(xué)(高級(jí))要求學(xué)生除掌握幾乎所有的AP微積分BC的內(nèi)容外,還包括代數(shù),幾何,三角,矢量,矩陣(明年開(kāi)始刪除),概率,統(tǒng)計(jì),參變量,極坐標(biāo)等。而且考試時(shí)間也不同。一門(mén)AP考試一次四小時(shí)完成。而一門(mén)IB考試則有paper 1, paper 2 and paper 3,分在三個(gè)不同的時(shí)間考。此外,IB還有internal assessment,占總成績(jī)的20% 到25%。最大的不同是IB還有CAS的要求,也就是課外活動(dòng)的要求, EE和TOK. EE和TOK要求英語(yǔ)寫(xiě)作的水平較高,這也是留學(xué)生頭疼的。
The tuition for top independent boarding school in the US is generally around US45-52,000. Some schools, like Phillips Exeter Academy, have large endowments, and they will subsidize the students’ tuition. For example, the tuition at Exeter is US46,000, but the actual cost per student is closer to US55-60,000. The difference in tuition between day and boarding is generally around US10,000.
If you are looking to apply for financial aid or scholarship, you may not want to if you are not a US or Canadian citizen. Although many of the top schools are need blind (which means that they will accept the student before they decide whether to give money to subsidize the tuition), because of the bad economy, it will affect the acceptance rate of your child.
To factor in all the cost of going to a boarding school, it would be:
1. Tuition (room and board is included)
2. Pocket Money
3. Insurance
4. Transportation (plane ticket, buses to the airport, etc.)
5. Books (this should run around US1,000 per year, although I have found that it is generally more, closer to US2-3,000 per year as my children likes to buy books other than school books to read)
6. Room and board during holidays if your child doesn’t go back to China
Recently, US colleges have become more familiar with the IB curriculum. Both the IB and the AP are evaluated similarly. Colleges are more interested in how a student has performed within the curriculum of their high school. For example, colleges would like to see a student excel in the harder classes at school, regardless of whether they are studying the IB or AP curriculum. However, the difference comes from getting credits for the courses. Some schools may give less credit for IB than AP since (a) the US colleges don’t know the IB system as well, and (b) students under AP may have more background knowledge that is required by a certain course.
Recently American colleges and universities become more familiar with IB system and tend to highly honor this system. if a student can receive a IB diploma, that would certainly be helpful since not all high schools students in IB schools are receiving the diploma. At the same time, it would not hurt if you work on some of AP exams and get high scores since schools with IB tend not to offer AP courses and students can take their own AP tests.
If you are applying very specific majors such engineering or Pre-Med, I would certainly suggest you to take some of additional advanced courses or exams such as AP exams. However, a student can have other options such as specific American college courses through online or summer terms at colleges. The most important thing is to prove that a student is capable to manage a college level of works and that can be shown through various ways such as APs, college courses, internships, research opportunities and other interesting works.
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