HL Selections for Engineering Majors

[Adastra]

Hello, 

I am a first year IB student and we are about to finalize our HL decisions. I am not sure about my courses so I wanted to hear your ideas.

I want to study biomedical engineering in college -but I might also apply to other engineering branches. My courses are Turkish A, English A, ITGS, Chemistry, Physics, and Math. Three of my HL subjects are certain: Physics, Math, and Turkish A.

The thing is, I wanted to take 4 HLs to strengthen my application. My counselor advised that if I also take Chemistry as HL that would look good. In our school sciences are always taught as HL, the only thing that changes are the exams. Still, I am not really sure if I can handle the courseload of Physics+Math+Turkish+Chemistry HL. Is this too tough?

My other option is to take English A as HL. My grades are pretty good at languages, and I think English+Turkish+Physics+Math combination is much more manageable. However, I do not know how two Language A HLs would look in a profile of an engineering applicant. Do you think that it is something like a sign of broad interests, or is it just useless? 

I can also take ITGS HL instead of these two, but again I do not know how a social science HL would look and ITGS HL seems a bit harder than English A HL.

Thanks for reading this long and indecisive post; if you could share your ideas, experiences, or suggestions I would be more than grateful. 

Edited March 25, 2017 by Adastra

[SC2Player]

Having Maths as HL is arguably the most important, at least from what I've read, for pretty much all engineering subjects.  Physics HL definitely helps too.  For biomedical engineering, Chemistry at HL would also provide a major benefit, as you'd be able to apply it to the course at hand - a fair bit of biology is applied chemistry, but Physics and Maths are probably more important.  English/Turkish A HL aren't particularly useful towards engineering - as long as you have the capacity to write appropriate reports with a good understanding of grammar and mechanics, you should be OK.  From what I've read on these forums and elsewhere, most universities don't really care whether you have 3 or 4 HL subjects.  Overall score, and the marks you get in your required subjects, are more important.  Of course, if you want to do 4 HLs and feel you can handle it, then feel free.  

As for your choice of HLs, it really depends on what your strengths are.  If you're good at languages but not so good at sciences, I'd recommend going for the dual language HL, while if you're better at sciences, I'd recommend the dual science+math HL combo.  If you're similar at both, I'd recommend the dual science+math HL combo, as that would probably have more direct utility towards your choice of career.   

I doubt that ITGS HL would be as beneficial as either a Physics or Chemistry HL, for lack of applicability in engineering.  

It's probably best to try to specialize in your area - most universities look for certain scores in certain subjects AFAIK,