r/IBO•
OwnPriority8842

Is it worth it to take IB?

Advice

I am currently a grade 9 student at an IB MYP school in BC, Canada that also offers IBDP. I want to be an Emergency Medicine or ER doctor at a hospital. For Pre-Med I was considering taking IB HL Biology and HL Chemistry, along with other courses. However, these are all the courses my school offers:

  • DP English: Language and Literature SL/HL

  • DP French SL

  • DP Spanish SL

  • IB Global Politics SL/HL

  • DP Biology SL/HL

  • DP Chemistry SL/HL

  • DP Computer Science HL

  • DP Physics HL

  • DP Math Analysis & Approaches (AA) SL/HL

By taking Pathway 2 this literally only allows me to select a language course. Also I have heard that doing IB doesn't affect your chances of getting into university. I plan on going to UBC for doing a bachelor's in something like Biology. Currently I feel that I struggle with math, since I'm getting like 4s and 5s so taking IB Math AA is pretty terrifying to me. My parents literally want me to be a doctor like all Asian parents and really want me to take IB. When I said I don't want to they were sort of pissed about it even if it wasn't shown.

My school offers such a wide range of non-IB grade 11 and 12 courses like Psychology which is something I want to do. And honestly I don't feel like I'll do well in IB anyway. Will doing IB affect my chances of getting into UBC?

Posted Jan 14, 2026, 12:11 AM UTC

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