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I am taking HL Physics and SL Maths, but I am not taking Chemistry for IB. I am planning on studying computer science or a type of engineering in Canada (UofT, UBC) I am sure I can score well in SL Maths. Will not having taken Chemistry and HL Maths create a barrier between me and wanting to study engineering? Canadian colleges dont seem to mind SL Maths as far as i've heard but please advise me on my situation. 

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8 hours ago, IndianTrump3688 said:

I am taking HL Physics and SL Maths, but I am not taking Chemistry for IB. I am planning on studying computer science or a type of engineering in Canada (UofT, UBC) I am sure I can score well in SL Maths. Will not having taken Chemistry and HL Maths create a barrier between me and wanting to study engineering? Canadian colleges dont seem to mind SL Maths as far as i've heard but please advise me on my situation. 

 

HL Math would help, but SL Math is not the end of the world. Not taking HL Chemistry would not in any way hinder your chances with computer science or engineering (unless chemical, then you will need it 9/10 times). Receiving an 800 SAT II Math Subject Test can help a bit, or if you could do AP Calculus BC this year and score a 4 or 5 that would be hugely beneficial to your application.

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  • 3 weeks later...

@neflenesli
It is sufficient to take 3, instead of 4, HLs and achieve good grades to be a competitive undergraduate applicant. I do recommend Math HL if you are really into engineering and want to prepare for university course load, but otherwise SL is enough almost anywhere for entry requirements. Perhaps if your school offers Literature SL or Language and Literature HL take one of those, but Literature HL could be too much and is very often unnecessary. 

The actual group 6 courses are Visual Arts, Music etc. IB rules say Chemistry is group 4 and so you'll be doing an additional group 4 instead of a group 6. The only IB subject restrictions are i) 3-4 HLs, and ii) at least 6 total subjects with at least 1 from each group 1 to 5. A friend did Physics/Biology when our coordinator said Chemistry is a must. Talk with your IB coordinator if Chemistry is necessary when you have enough HLs. I would definitely recommend Biology if that's your direction of studies. Chemistry/Biology makes sense, but if you are particularly interested in engineering, Physics/Biology is worth considering. I took physics/chemistry in IB and biology in summer class. 

For admission in US, you can take a physics SAT subject test, which is about 1 - 1.5 semester of physics to score well (say 700+). Unless you want transfer credits, taking AP tests should not be necessary. 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello! 

I am an IB Year 1 student, and I am aiming to pursue either Mechanical or Electrical Engineering. As of now my subjects are HL Math, Physics, Chemistry and SL Spanish ab initio, Economics, and English LangLit. I was wondering if it is possible to either drop chemistry and replace it with computer science HL, or make chemistry an SL subject, and Economics an HL subject. How would this affect my application for top universities? Would they prefer HL chemistry for what I want to do? Or is it perfectly fine if I make it SL, or change it with Computer Science HL? 

Another question would be, IF it is perfectly fine to take computer science instead of chemistry, could I make computer science an SL, and Economics an HL subject? 

How would all these different options affect my application for applying to top engineering universities in the UK and US??

Thank you so much, in advance, for your answers!

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  • 1 month later...

Hi everyone!

So I've chosen my IB subjects and plan to study engineering in the future. My subjects are:

HL Math, Physics, Chem, Chinese B(thinking of changing to English Lit)
SL Eng Lit, ESS, 

I want to study either Mechanical or Chemical in the future. Which one should I go for?

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On 10/10/2016 at 8:17 AM, rish1420 said:

As of now my subjects are HL Math, Physics, Chemistry and SL Spanish ab initio, Economics, and English LangLit. I was wondering if it is possible to either drop chemistry and replace it with computer science HL, or make chemistry an SL subject, and Economics an HL subject. How would this affect my application for top universities? Would they prefer HL chemistry for what I want to do? Or is it perfectly fine if I make it SL, or change it with Computer Science HL? 

Another question would be, IF it is perfectly fine to take computer science instead of chemistry, could I make computer science an SL, and Economics an HL subject? 

Generally if there are particular schools you are interested in, you may want to go to their website and check the requirements for yourself. Course changes in IB1 has no penalties in terms of fines to IB for late registration, and academically, it may seem feasible to simply switch between SL and HL in two subjects you are already taking (ie chemistry and economics). Usually chemistry is required for admissions but HL is usually not necessary. Rarely universities ask for IB Computer Science, so that will not help much in admissions if you do not meet all requirements (which often include chemistry). Of course if you know the universities you'll be applying to, you should check for exceptions. As a 7th course, computer science may make you more competitive. 

1 hour ago, chianca said:

My subjects are:

HL Math, Physics, Chem, Chinese B(thinking of changing to English Lit)
SL Eng Lit, ESS, 

I want to study either Mechanical or Chemical in the future. Which one should I go for?

I can't really choose the dream for you but you seem to meet admission requirements for either majors with your course combination. As I am pursue chemical, I of course heavily favors one of them but it's up to you. Hopefully you will have a better idea after a year in IB. 

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  • 3 months later...

Hi,

I'm in the process of finalizing my IB subjects for grade 11 and 12. I intend on doing a double major in computer science and economics at university. Could you please have a look at my subjects-

HL Business Management

HL Economics

HL Computer Science

SL Maths

SL English Language and Literature

SL Spanish B

I was initially intending on doing-

HL Economics

HL Comp Sci

HL Maths

SL Business

SL LangLit

SL Spanish B

However, due to the timetable requirements, I cannot choose the later combination :(

 

Do you think that the initial set of subjects are good enough for a US university for economics and CS double major?

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9 hours ago, niguy101 said:

Hi,

I'm in the process of finalizing my IB subjects for grade 11 and 12. I intend on doing a double major in computer science and economics at university. Could you please have a look at my subjects-

HL Business Management

HL Economics

HL Computer Science

SL Maths

SL English Language and Literature

SL Spanish B

I was initially intending on doing-

HL Economics

HL Comp Sci

HL Maths

SL Business

SL LangLit

SL Spanish B

However, due to the timetable requirements, I cannot choose the later combination :(

 

Do you think that the initial set of subjects are good enough for a US university for economics and CS double major?

I'd recommend you do your best to change your timetable to accomodate HL maths, as it will help quite a lot for both economics and CS (both of which are quite heavily math-based), and math is a fundamental subject in a lot of different areas.  If not, then I'd just recommend reading around on mathematics, and try your best to pick up some useful knowledge outside the SL course.  Topics such as linear algebra and group theory may be quite useful for computer science.  

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1 hour ago, SC2Player said:

I'd recommend you do your best to change your timetable to accomodate HL maths, as it will help quite a lot for both economics and CS (both of which are quite heavily math-based), and math is a fundamental subject in a lot of different areas.  If not, then I'd just recommend reading around on mathematics, and try your best to pick up some useful knowledge outside the SL course.  Topics such as linear algebra and group theory may be quite useful for computer science.  

 

But do you think that those subject choices will be good enough for the double major at schools such as UCLA, UCB, USC, University of Michigan, UT Austin, etc.?

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2 hours ago, niguy101 said:

But do you think that those subject choices will be good enough for the double major at schools such as UCLA, UCB, USC, University of Michigan, UT Austin, etc.?

Check the entrance requirements for the universities (especially CS and economics course) online - they often give certain requirements that they want met on their website for a specific course.  I don't know enough about double majors to give appropriate advice for this specifically alas.  

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Hello, 

My current IB courses are English, Turkish, ITGS, Physics, Chemistry, and Math. I also take Biology as a non-IB course (it is as strict as IB). The time for us to make HL/SL choices has come but I cannot decide which ones I should take as HL. As I read your comments through, I saw almost all of you agreed that we'd need Physics and HL Maths for engineering. 

I would like to study Biomedical Engineering and I aim for top schools; however taking HL Math and HL Physics at the same time seems quite hard and it would probably reduce my overall diploma points. Do you think that HL Turkish, HL ITGS/English, and HL Math would be a good combination? What if I take HL Physics and SL Math? 

If taking both as HL is really needed, that's what I will do; however my predicted scores won't be 43 or something. :D If you could share your advice, I would so much appreciate it. 

 

 

 

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If you have any specificuniversity, or at least country of study in mind, then the best thing to do would be to check what their requirements are. While I'm not a speciaist in the field, I have had several courses together with people doing biomedical engineering and it looks just like other engineering degrees - pretty heavy on both physics and maths. Therefore even if you take one of these subjects at SL, you'll have to work on it harder at uni.

I know I'm not giving any definite answers, but it may turn out that you will need to deal with a trade-off between having high grades and a wide range of universities which will accept your subjects.

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  • 5 months later...

Well, I am şnterested in Computer Science(s) and I decided to study Math (HL)-Phys (HL)-Eng (HL)- VArts (SL)- ESS (SL) Native Lang (SL).

They offered chemistry (SL) instead of VArts (SL) but I didn't want to go with chemistry because of my interests. Is it ok to go without chemistry? Any suggestions for it? Thanks :)

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  • 1 month later...

I am a Canadian planing to study in a Canadian University, however I only decided my career option at the end of my junior year which is civil engineering. However, the subjects I took are Physics SL, Math SL, Engish Lit HL, ITGS HL, Arabic B and ESS. I recently found out that Chemistry is supposedly mandatory for engineering courses. If so, can I still apply for engineering courses without taking chemistry?

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  • 4 months later...

Hi

I'm interested in civil engineering and mechanical engineering and so I was planning to take

HL Math

HL Physics

HL Design Technology

SL English Lang lit

SL Japanese A

SL economics

However, I am also interested in chemical engineering and I was wondering if you could still do chemistry related major without doing chemistry. Would I need to take chemistry? I felt that combination of physics math and chemistry is hard and I am kind of hesitant to take chemistry. 

Thank youu

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5 hours ago, Bii said:

Hi

I'm interested in civil engineering and mechanical engineering and so I was planning to take

HL Math

HL Physics

HL Design Technology

SL English Lang lit

SL Japanese A

SL economics

However, I am also interested in chemical engineering and I was wondering if you could still do chemistry related major without doing chemistry. Would I need to take chemistry? I felt that combination of physics math and chemistry is hard and I am kind of hesitant to take chemistry. 

Thank youu

In the U.S. you can still study chemical engineering without any kind of chemistry background. 

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