One of the biggest uncertainties that IB takers and graduates have is: How do I know if I have a chance at getting into the uni course I want?
In Singapore, universities like NUS and NTU usually publish what is called Indicative Grade Profiles (IGP), which show the scores of the 90th percentile and 10th percentile of students who are admitted into a particular course. This is the case for A Level results and polytechnic grades. The IGP is a useful gauge to high school students and applicants, making known the marks they should score in order to have a good chance to enter a course.
However, there is yet to be any official IGP for students coming from IB backgrounds. This makes it tough for IB students when choosing their university and courses, as they do not have that information to give them the confidence and certainty that they will be accepted.
Why local unis don’t publish IB IGPs
Unfair as it may seem, the unis have a pretty legit reason for not publishing IGPs for IB results. Because there are relatively fewer IB students in Singapore, the sample size of IB students who apply to each university course is also quite small. If you understand statistics, you will then understand that using such a small sample size to arrive at any average, 90th, or 10th percentile will not be very representative.
Alternatives to the IGP
So, is there any other way for IB students in Singapore to gauge their chances of getting into the uni courses they are interested in?
For a rough sense of how competitive each university course is, it is quite sufficient to go back to the A Level IGP. For example, a course with AAA/A at both the 90th and 10th percentile is super competitive, which is typically the case for courses like medicine, law, and dentistry. Accordingly, you can expect the corresponding IB scores of successful applicants to be perfect or near-perfect scores.
In contrast, a course with a lower bound of BCC/A will be comparatively less competitive, even if the 90th percentile is also AAA/A. Thus, you can deduce that there is still a decent chance of entering the course with less-than-stellar IB grades – but other factors like your portfolio may also come into play.
Another way of gauging your success rate of entering a particular course is based on anecdotal evidence of past applicants. We’ve scoured several online forums (e.g. reddit, quora) and found some self-reports of IB scores and local uni acceptances. Although some of these were shared a couple of years ago, we think the information is still useful to provide a rough sense.
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Summary of our observations:
- Most who are accepted into competitive courses like medicine, dentistry, and law have an IB score of 42 and above. There are reports of some getting in with 39 points, but their strong portfolio probably played a part too.
- For less competitive courses (e.g. accounting, business, engineering), most people are about 35 pointers and above. Some people with 32-35 points have also gotten into social science courses.
- Rather than the overall grade, it is more important to satisfy the specific subject requirements for your desired course. However, meeting the minimum requirement is never a guarantee of entry into the course. Generally a “very good pass” would mean a 7, a “good pass” 6, and “pass” 4-5.
Perspectives from international universities
Just to throw in some extra perspective, here’s what some top universities in the world have for their average IB cut-off points (ranges across courses):
University of Cambridge: 40-42
University College London: 35 and above
University of Oxford: 38-40
(source)
IB entry requirements to local universities
These links have been compiled for your convenience. For the latest updates, please check the respective universities’ site directly.
(Last updated in September 2021)
Advice to students
If you are aiming to get into law, medicine, or dentistry, prepare to work very hard to get above 42 points. For a decent chance to get a wide variety of options for university, you should be aiming to score at least a 35 or 38 and above. Although there have been cases of people with low 30s getting into uni, their choices are likely to have been quite limited.
For students who have specific courses in mind, also be sure to check out the subject requirements early, as this may affect the subjects you choose to take for your IB diploma.
Besides studying hard, building up your non-academic portfolio also raises your chances of getting a spot at uni. Invest some time in your CCA, take up leadership roles, or take part in community work – better still if these activities are related to your desired course of study. This means making good use of your CAS hours, and possibly going beyond the minimum hours required to do something meaningful.
Finally, don’t forget to keep up with skills like interviewing and oral communication. Many uni courses narrow down their potential candidates through interviews, and this could be the differentiating factor between candidates with very similar academic standing.
Conclusion
While the lack of info for IB takers may be frustrating, we hope that the information we’ve compiled can help you get a slightly better sense of the required IB scores for certain uni courses. Given the high standards of IB in Singapore, it could also be assuring to know that our schools usually do a very good job of preparing students for the IB.
If you have an interest in getting into an IB school, our tuition courses can help you pull up your grades and get you up to mark with the local school requirements. We provide classes such as IP Math tuition and IP Chemistry tuition for those in the IP-IB track. For any help preparing for your IB school application, you may also get in touch with our educational consultants and we can assist you in making the right choice!