IB sucject choices

[NadinaCastro]

Hi, 

I am currently studying the IB diploma program and am not 100% happy with my choices. Since I am not too sure what I want to study in university I want to keep my doors as open as possible, right now I think I would like to study an English course at a university in London, maybe at UCL or King's College London. When I first chose my IB subjects I thought I would want to study psychology so I chose HL chemistry and biology but seeing that I had do drop down chemistry and am currently struggling and hating biology I decided not to aim to study such a science based course. Currently, I am studying the following subjects:

English A HL Literature

Spanish A SL

Business HL

Biology HL

Mathematics SL

Theatre HL

I am aiming to achieve a score higher that 39 points by the end of the second year. My questions are the following:

I am currently hating business and am not happy with my classmates or the teacher but i do not hate the course itself since I was thinking of studying English at university and I have always loved the subject, should it be better if I swapped over to history higher level? Would this change make it harder for me to achieve my aimed IB points?

If I did swap to history HL, since this is a harder subject, would dropping Biology to SL make my IB too weak? Would it close many doors for university? 

Thank youu x

Edited September 20, 2016 by NadinaCastro

[IB`NOT`ez]

Hmm, the first thing imo is to talk with your DP coordinator and see for how long subject and level changes can remain flexible.

I've made a total of 2 subject level changes and one subject change since I started the DP, all of which I was allowed to make even during Term 4 of DP1, since my grade level's pretty small and so there's flexibility.

Right now, I also wanted to open as many doors as possible, hence my taking Biology & Chemistry HL in case I want to go science, but also Economics HL for a business-related major (the latter being the one I'm preferring now).

Unless you really enjoy Theatre, I wouldn't suggest taking it as I doubt it's even a requirement for any major in university. Seeing as you want to study in UK, they'd definitely prefer academic-based subjects, especially a hard one like History HL compared to Theatre HL.

Also Biology HL is a lot heavier than Biology SL, with the latter being much easier along with much, much less content. I doubt taking Biology SL would make you look "weaker", especially if you're not even going into a science-oriented route in the first place.

Furthermore, you might want to reconsider your subject combination, which is pretty arduous considering it consists of 4 HLs and 2 language A subjects. Seeing as your target score is at least 39 points, you're much better off trying to secure that by discarding a 4th HL as there's literally no point in even taking 4 HLs -- universities don't care about it, and would rather see you spending the time for a 4th HL instead on CAS/extracurriculars etc. 

Lastly, my DP coordinator's had students getting into King's College London with final scores of 33-34, so with what you're aiming to achieve right now, I doubt you'll have much difficulty getting in there -- so don't worry too much about it!   

Edit: What I said about theatre and academic subjects etc. is only based on UK university representatives I've spoken to, as well as my university guidance counsellors, and my own general knowledge. You won't go wrong trying to double-check my claims.

Edited September 20, 2016 by IB`ez