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International Baccalaureate (IB)
The hardest academic track CPS offers outside Selective Enrollment — and it's at 24 schools.
What you'd actually do
- Take a full interdisciplinary curriculum built around inquiry, not memorization
- Write an extended research essay on a question you choose
- Study a second language seriously, for years
- Complete creativity, activity and service hours as part of the diploma
How you get in
Rank it on GoCPS, take the HSAT, and attend the school's information session — that attendance is an eligibility requirement, so book it before the deadline. Selection is straight points with no GPA minimum. If you live in the school's geographic area you get 35 bonus points, which puts your ceiling at 675 instead of 640.
Admissions test
Now, later, and after
What this gets you freshman year, by the time you graduate, and after that.
Freshman year
What you'd touch first
- Pre-IB coursework and a second language from day one
- A cohort that takes the same hard classes you do
Junior & senior year
What you'd walk out holding
- IB exams that can convert to college credit
- The extended essay — a genuine research project with your name on it
After graduation
Where it goes
- Competitive four-year colleges, often with credit already banked
- A transcript that reads as rigorous anywhere in the world
Where you can do it24
Selective Enrollment schools first, then ordered by graduation and college rates against the district average.
Visit one of these
Upcoming open houses at schools that run this program.
- 17OctLincoln Park High SchoolOpen House · 13:00
Questions
- Is IB harder than AP?
- Different, not simply harder. IB is a full connected program with a research essay, a language requirement and service hours; AP is course by course. IB asks for more writing and more years of commitment.
- What is the 35-point geographic bonus?
- Every IB program in CPS gives 35 extra points to applicants who live in the school's geographic area, so their maximum is 675 rather than 640. IB programs and Hubbard's University Scholars are the only programs that award it — it is in the official scoring rubric and almost nobody mentions it.
- Do I have to attend an information session?
- Yes. CPS requires attending an information session for IB programs, and you schedule it with the school. Unlike Selective Enrollment, where attendance changes nothing, here it is an eligibility gate.
Where this comes from
Checked 2026-09-12. Program details change — confirm with the school before you rank it.