<p>We have two high schools in our district, school A near our home is Highly competitive and ranks very high. School B is good but not nearly as competitive and ranks lower due to demographics yet academic standards are similar for both. School B is half hour away from home but offers IB. Which one would work better for GOA, College admission, Class rank … assuming everything else is same.</p>
<p>Is IB an academic fit for the student? If not, then compare school B’s non-IB offerings to the offerings of school A. IB or non-IB, do both schools offer the courses suitable for the student’s ability and motivation?</p>
<p>For IB and AP courses, how do A students in those courses perform on the IB and AP tests? This can be an indicator of quality, since if A students in AP courses score 1 on the AP tests, the AP courses are of low quality.</p>
<p>School A being local can be a significant advantage, especially if there is no way for the student to get to school B on his/her own.</p>
<p>Student is straight A+ student and he feels confident that he can handle and enjoy IB as well as AP. Both A & B school students perform equally well on AP, it’s just that school A has more of those students. School B offers a bus service but bus takes about 45 minute each way and doesn’t give rides for zero hour or extra curriculars. School A is just 5-7 minutes away by car and 15 minutes by bus.</p>
<p>Student may get a better class rank in school B but probably similar GPA in both schools with more EC oppurtunities in school A as its near home.</p>
<p>Not sure if you know this, but other threads have discussed IB… IB is a very structured curriculum, with limited options. The student can choose higher level (HL) in 3-4 subjects, and standard level (SL) in others, depending on which HL subjects the school offers (colleges usually only give credit or placement for HL). Super-advanced students in subjects like math or foreign language may find IB limiting in those subjects. AP is more à la carte in terms of choosing which subjects to take the AP courses in and when.</p>
<p>IB courses are said to be very high workload compared to most high school (including AP) courses, although HL test scores do not appear to give any higher placement in college than AP test scores. Perhaps that may be helpful in training the student’s time management skills in high school, but otherwise some may see the extra time as not a particularly efficient use of time relative to content learned. Given that school B will consume an extra hour per day of commuting, with worse scheduling flexibility (e.g. no zero-period or after-school sports/ECs), IB there becomes even less attractive if there is rigorous course work otherwise available at school A.</p>
<p>If school A is that close, it may be commutable by walking, bicycling, or running, if the student is athletically inclined.</p>
<p>I’d ignore “predicted” class rank and concentrate on which high school fits your child’s life. Personally, I’s go with the closer school, especially if you and he think he will thrive in a competitive environment. That will give your child more time - time to study, time to participate in any EC, time to hang with friends after school, time to go back to school for evening events. </p>
<p>If your child does not do well in a competitive environment, or you want your child to be in a more diverse environment, pick school B.</p>
<p>I was in your shoes. My advice - talk to the local parents. </p>
<p>“Competitive” “Diverse” - IMHO, doesn’t matter at all.</p>
<p>What matters (IMHO): How accommodating are school admin? How sensitive are they to the needs of students? Look at the amount of suspensions. Look at the list of colleges where graduates are going (it should be proudly displayed by the school, if it is hidden in some meaningless statistics - it is a red flag). Compare school policy on dress code with actual enforcement (how kids are really dressed). If dress code is not strictly enforced - it is a very good sign, admin allows flexibility.</p>
<p>We have 2 competitive schools nearby. Similar ranking, similar demographics, similar amount of success in terms of college admission - but very different cultures. One school has 2 suicides in the last 10 years and a “pressure-cooker” mentality. Another - zero, and supportive atmosphere. </p>
<p>My strong advice - ask local parents. You can’t deduct anything from rankings. </p>
<p>I also vote for the school close to home. It will allow the student to have more of a life outside the classroom
AND allow him 1/2 hr more sleep each night! That can make a BIG difference in classroom performance.
Too many HS students are sleep deprived as a result of the changes in their brains .
Some HS’s are “waking up” to this realization, but its better [ all other factors being equal] for teenagers to be closer to HS than farther away. </p>
<p>Close to home. Are you really going to drive an hour to deliver or pick up your student from school for EC’s when he can’t take the bus? An A+ student shouldn’t have trouble in a competitive school. As long as the environment isn’t unsafe or seriously unpleasant at the local school, this seems like a no-brainer.</p>
<p>Getting A’s in middle school is different then getting A’s in high school particularly the IB Diploma program.
My child will be graduating with an IB Diploma this June at it is a very rigorous curriculum. A student would probably have a higher gpa in an AP program but it is rare to have straight A’s in IB. Consider what student is planning to study in college. If student is looking into STEM I would not recommend IB but AP instead. Also you gain more college credit for AP classes then you do for IB classes. Based on our experience I would recommend going to the school closest to your home. If a child needs tutoring for classes it is easier to find tutors or books for AP classes. It is very hard to find a tutor or books for IB classes. </p>
<p>For very top students, I would say go to the competitive school that would get him/her better prepared for college. For students that are just above the average, I would suggest to go to the average school so he/she can get better GPA and class rank. For average and below average students, I don’t see attending a competitive school would do any good.</p>
<p>@raclut has good advise about IB, above. In our HS the STEM kids don’t do full IB, usually, because they want more STEM options than IB offers. I’ll also add that IB prepares kids VERY well for college. Every IB graduate I’ve talked to speaks of how much easier freshman year of college was for them than for their peers. Kids have to develop excellent time management skills and self-motivation, etc, that non-IB kids find they have to learn in college. Lots of colleges recognize this and really like seeing full-diploma IB applicants, because they know these kids will likely succeed in college as well.</p>
<p>I would always send my kid to the school where she could get the best education, period. What’s the point of wasting 4 years of her life just so she could get higher ranking. D2 was in the IB program at her school. She was not a fan. There was a lot of busy work. I don’t think she got a better education than D1 at a top prep school where they didn’t offer IB. D1 was able to take and get 5s on many AP exams without actually taking those courses. One other thing to consider is that a lot of IB courses do not line up with SAT II tests, so D2 had to a lot of self study whereas D1 didn’t.</p>
<p>I don’t understand the point of picking a school that is that much further away and is not even as good as the school that is closer to you. If your kid is a good student they should be able to thrive in that environment. It doesn’t get any easier at a top college. My experience at a highly ranked, large, and highly competitive public school helped me do well in college since I knew how to deal with that environment. Yes my class rank was lower since than it probably would have been if I had gone to a less competitive school since there was no grade inflation. That was discouraging at the time and made me doubt my intelligence. However, I still got into an Ivy and chose between Harvard and Stanford for my PhD.</p>
<p>I don’t the obsession parents have with ensuring their kid is a big fish in a small pond. Guess what? Life is a big pond and no matter how smart you are, you are still a small fish until you prove yourself. It might seem like getting demoralized early on, as in high school will stop kids from succeeding, but honestly everyone will face challenges and life and facing them earlier just makes you a stronger person for the future.</p>