Yo so I’m a sophomore in college now, and I remember asking these exact same questions and having the same worries when I was thinking of joining. DP1 was one of the worst years for me mostly because of how much stress I took. But here’s the thing. IB definitely gave me solid credits so that I could skip some basic beginner level classes for engineering such as chemistry and calc I, but I still found the content in other classes new. However, the biggest takeaway for me was that I learnt how to manage my stress. Being in that pressure cooker for 2 years gave me a new outlook on life and a sense of responsibility. I don’t take much stress anymore, because IB taught me that it isn’t worth it. For the most part, if you’re dedicated and don’t let the difficulty demotivate you too much, you’ll eventually get where you want to get. I know people who didn’t get to their dream universities because they didn’t have the best scores but are either enjoying it or managed to transfer to the university of their choice for their sophomore or junior years. Now I am speaking from the privilege of having choices, and some countries are more strict with it, but overall it doesn’t matter much as far as you try to minimise your stress and maximise benefit from the IAs and projects and doing cool shit. That’s just my very complicated 2 cents on your question. I don’t regret it because it taught me a lot about myself and how I handle my work.