Urgent Help for HL Subjects

[TheNikawi]

So over the next week, I have to choose my IB subjects and I am having trouble picking my HLs. I plan to study either in the US or in the UK with my main career paths being business and finance or computer science as I am not entirely sure yet. Because of this, my subject choices could look like this:

• SL English LangLit
• SL Spanish B
• H/SL Econ
• H/SL Compsci or Chem
• H/SL Math
• H/SL Physics

Now the question is, which combination would leave me open to taking finance or comp. sci./engineering in university and if the workload of taking all 4 at HL would be too much. I am not entirely sure of the specific uni requirements but if someone could help me with this too then that would be great. Thanks!

[kw0573]

Universities don't usually need comp sci credits if you are going to comp sci. The universities I've seen typically don't care for SL or HL. Admission is often minimum IB scores (often out of 45), or "6/7/7" scores in HL. Taking which classes really depend on your interests and HL is more for preparing for yourself or transfer credits rather than admission purposes. For many elite engineering courses though and for competitive reasons they would want 2 HL Group 4s and HL Math just because all the other IB applicants have this. 

Hopefully there is some flexibility at your school about courses. Sometimes they allow students to pick 4 HLs and drop the weakest one, or combining SL and HL classes in the first year. At my school Econ and Chemistry each have combined sessions in year I. This way you can know more certainty which classes you can score higher in.
 

[Sandwich]

I think Maths/Physics/Computer Science would all be beneficial for Computer Science applications in the UK. At minimum, HL Maths seems to be a fairly universal requirement, and I imagine that is the same for finance too. Computer Science itself isn't an absolute requirement anywhere I can find presumably because it's rare to find it actually offered anywhere. However I imagine it would stand you in good stead and obviously be very useful to you in the future! It'll also help you pick between CS/Finance if that's your challenge.

[Vioh]

6 hours ago, TheNikawi said:

So over the next week, I have to choose my IB subjects and I am having trouble picking my HLs. I plan to study either in the US or in the UK with my main career paths being business and finance or computer science as I am not entirely sure yet. Because of this, my subject choices could look like this:

• SL English LangLit
• SL Spanish B
• H/SL Econ
• H/SL Compsci or Chem
• H/SL Math
• H/SL Physics

Now the question is, which combination would leave me open to taking finance or comp. sci./engineering in university and if the workload of taking all 4 at HL would be too much. I am not entirely sure of the specific uni requirements but if someone could help me with this too then that would be great. Thanks!

Please don't post a new thread with the exact same content. You have already posted a similar topic here, which I replied. If you still need further help, you can always write another post in that same thread.

Now to your question, as I've mentioned in the other thread, it's best if you can take HL Econ, Maths, and CS. Maths HL would probably be the most important subject. Computer science is usually not a requirement to university because most high schools don't really offer it as a subject. But I can tell you that doing CS in IB would help you a lot later on (note that CS in IB is more or less like first year of uni). I'm current doing computer science in university, and I've noticed that those who have studied CS before in high school are usually the ones who are able to take more difficult courses in uni, while those who haven't studied CS before in high school are still learning the very basic stuff. Of course, this does not mean that you'll be at a disadvantage, but it is obvious that the earlier you start with computer science, the sooner you'll become a good computer scientist. So if you might go into CS in the future, I'd truly recommend you to take CS in IB.

For your last question, I'd say that it's not too much to take 4 HLs. I've seen many people who did that. But why bothers? Why do you want to make your life more difficult than it already is? Of course, I'm not here to discourage you to challenge yourself. But be smart. Sometimes it's much more fun to study in a more relaxed environment (without all the stress, you know).