karlp

I'm in IB2 now and am applying to architecture in the US and UK. I had exactly the same worries before IB as you do - which subjects to choose. I've changed some of my original decisions and dropped one HL and now my subjects are: Math, Chem and English A2 in HL and Bio, History and Estonian A1 in SL. The only subject that seems relevant to architecture of my choices is obviously math. Maybe chem also to some extent but not much. I kind of took it as a replacement for physics since we didn't have that in IB last year. Also, the subject list in our school is very limited so I didn't really have

Okay thanks for the reply. Another question that occurred to me is about the teacher evaluations. In the US they need 2 teacher evaluation forms as part of the Common Application but the UCAS only requires one. So I was thinking whether it is okay to send the exact same evaluation to both UCAS and Common Application? Because it would feel weird to ask a teacher to customize it for two different countries.. Also, as I've understood the personal essay in the Common Application is a general one; there I wouldn't have to write about my career interest or my major, right? For this, universities hav

Hey, as the application process is approaching, I'm only discovering how little I actually know about the whole process.. I know the US universities require along with a bunch of other stuff also a high school transcript and a mid-year school report. How exactly, as an IB student, am I supposed to understand this? First of all, high school for me dates back to the 10th grade, where there was no IB yet, do they also want to see my grades in this year? Second, we don't really get any official reports in IB each semester or even year. Do you? Could predicted grades be of any use here? I checked

It's actually not so much that the topic is uninteresting but rather that I don't feel too confident in the area of physics (because I don't study it in IB anymore) and especially engaging it into a MATHS extended essay. I do like architecture and construction etc but as a subject I'm more fascinated by maths than physics. The thing is my maths teacher approved my topic, but I don't feel too confidently about that as it's her first year in IB (as well as in our school) and she did not show much interest in my EE and its methods. So I really hope to get some more experienced feedback from yo

Hey. I've decided to do my EE in maths and I also have a topic for which I also have a general outline and methods for solving etc. But now I've started to wonder if this topic is suitable as it is actually quite physics related. The current topic is about finding the most economical geometry for pole constructions. At the beginning of the work I establish that the cost of a pole structure depends on the sum of the products of the length and force in each pole. This was expressed from a number of formulas from a civil engineering related book. In essence this work is about converting the forc

Thanks a lot, Aron. That made me feel a bit more confident . Another question came to my mind. What kind of register is it best to use in the portfolio? Should I use pronouns like "by substituting this we get..." and "I will consider this variable..." or is it more appropriate to use passive voice like "from this formula it can be deduced..."?? So far I think I've used like a mixture of both.. And does anyone know for certain if there is a word limit in HL portfolios? Thanks.

Hi. We got our first IA tasks in math HL last week, which is "Modelling a functional building" and I have a couple of questions about it. Since i have never done it before and our school isn't very experienced in IB yet, i figured i'd ask for help in here.. 1) Is there a maximum word limit for the task and if yes, what is it? I have about 3000 words already and I think I have barely covered half the task. I'm explaining everything quite thoroughly but I think all I write is quite relevant and without it it would be to superficial or hard to understand. 2) How much do you need to show your calc

I am most concerned about the course requirements for applicants. So far I haven't seen any unis asking for chem HL without phys HL. Since I don't have phys HL anyway there's no way I would fill the requirement. I don't know, maybe I'm being too naive. Any other thoughts?

Hi, so I'm facing a bit of a dilemma here. I'm planning to study architecture in uni (first priority right now) but perhaps civil engineering instead (lower priority) and I'm wondering if chem HL would do any good for it. I know most unis in the UK require physics HL for civil engineering (which we don't have in our school) and I've heard that chem HL is also advisory. So would it be useful to take a 4th HL or do you think the unis don't care since I don't have physics anyway? Until now chem SL has proven quite easy for me but do you think I'd better get an easy 7 with SL or try harder to look

Whoa, I'm so jealous for the variety of courses you guys have.. In our school there's only: 1. English A1, Estonian A1 2. English A2, French B, Russian B 3. History 4. Biology, Chemistry 5. Maths 6. nothing here, gotta pick one additional subject from above:( (all subjects SL and HL) So yea, pretty poor choice. But were the first year of IB so its kinda forgivable. However, if i'd given the chance i'd have picked also physics, maybe economics and probably smth from visual arts.

What if you get accepted to an ED uni and then find out that you aren't financially able to afford it? Are you forbidden to attend any other university?

Hey I've got a question about the extensions in chemistry and I didn't wanna make a new topic. So apart from the core and AHL material we have "Extension" material in our books (year 2007 IBO books with the yellow design, can't remember the name:D) and I'm wondering if im supposed to know that stuff if I'm SL? Hope you get what I mean..

Thanks, I see what you mean. In my case however, maths is one of my favourite subjects and architecture seems to interest me the most at this point. Therefore I see doing an EE in it rather as a bonus than a setback. If I only could think of a good research topic..

Well, yes of course, I understand that. I just wanted to know in general, whether universities appreciate doing an EE in the subject one is applying to. What about yourself, sweetnsimple, planning to apply to architecture in the future? (for you are doing an EE on architecture) Edit: The problem is we have no visual arts subject in our school, thus there's no one to supervise. We are in fact the first IB class in our school.

Thanks guys. Seems like I can't do an EE in history anymore because we have a stupid rule that one teacher can supervise only 3 EEs. So I'll probably do it in maths now and also try to find a topic about architecture... From what I've heard its pretty hard to do EE in maths. Does it take a really mathematically gifted person to do a good EE in that subject? Anyhow, I was also wondering if unis really give credit for doing an architecture based EE when I'm applying to architecture? PS. If anybody else has got some good ideas or experience about how to engage architecture in maths then they're