I have an extraordinary and passionate young student who is double accelerated (maths is 3 years accelerated). He will be 16 years old when he completes high school. He is a world class musician and has many passion driven ECs. We have an unusual admission question:
We are in a British international school (iGCSE followed by IB) and my child is about to start IB next year. We found out from the IB curriculum, he will have to give up either biology or physics as he can only choose 2 sciences (for IB diploma -he will do English, Spanish, digital society, design technology and math plus either physics or biology). However, we can talk to the school and have him do the subjects he actually wants to learn (HL: physics, biology, DT, math, SL: digital society, Spanish) but he won’t receive the IB diploma, only a high school diploma. Given my child’s strong inclination towards STEM and potential engineering/neuroscience/product design career, this second path would better prepare him. He is expected to receive top/full marks for all the 6 IB high level subjects, how would this perceived and is there any chance IB may make an exception to award him with the diploma? If only high school diploma, how can he convert IB result into GPA? Has anyone else done this?
My kids have gone to an IB diploma school here in the US. Take the grade and add one point to it. For example - he gets an A, it’s a 4.0 plus one or 5.0 when determining GPA. Honors classes are weighted half a point, IB and AP classes are weighted one point.
You’re lucky because IGCSEs will check admission requirements for US colleges so you don’t absolutely need the IB diploma. (The IBD will be more “legible” but countless applicants have IB courses without the diploma).
I’m assuming scores 6-9 (or British A*, A, or B) in 8-9 subjects including English and History in addition to Advanced Math, double science or Bio/chem/physics, Spanish, and Art/Design.
4 HLs would be exhausting though, and there’s no benefit to it. I would recommend either Society or Technology as SL.)
I would take the IB diploma
Pros when admissions compare him to other students at his school the IB diploma will be considered taking the most rigorous course load he had available.
Cons only Bio or Physics
It also depends on where he is planning on applying if very selective reach schools it can matter more than say schools with over 50% acceptance rates
All college level course add 1 point A=5 instead of 4 , B=4
Honor level add .5 point A=4.5
No IB will not make an exception
He can always try to take Bio or Physics over the summer if school has it available.
Every school does this differently. Ours provided letter grades during the year, but no “bump” for IB (or AP or honors, etc). Colleges don’t want your weighted GPA. They recalculate themselves.
Regardless of whether you do the IBD, you can submit IB scores. Because it’s a diploma, the requirements are fixed. (Lots of ways to get there, and doing the least favorite science as SL is an option.)
Many STEM focused students at our IB school choose a path that is not IBD so they can load up on science and math. They’ll take IB HL classes, but don’t fulfill all the requirements for the diploma.
I think you have 2 things to consider. The first is what provides your son with the best educational foundation for life. The IBD is great for this, and that’s why it has the breadth it does. For all students, it will include subjects theyll never study formally again, and that will represent the knowledge base they’ll use going forward.
The second is preparation for a future course of study. Ideally, you want to pursue your intended future course of study at a higher level to confirm interest and engage with the topic. You may want to have something special (research, etc) to enhance an application. This is rarely another class, btw.
You need to weigh these. As you are talking only about coursework, I suspect the IBD would be the best route for your son, but you need to weigh that for yourself. There’s a reason that schools have options and students choose different ones.
This is a really important point. Highly selective colleges in the US know all about the IB system, and in fact they do not necessarily need to try to figure out how to create a US-style 4.0 GPA from an IB transcript at all. Instead, they may go directly to some sort of internal academic rating, which is not in the form of a 4.0 GPA.
This is also what I think. I would specifically add just that in my view, Math and Physics at this level are more linear, and therefore I tend to think if a kid is interested, those make sense to take as far as you can in HS before college.
Biology quickly gets less linear past the very early introductory level. There are just so many different subfields, including different interactions with other fields (including Chemistry and Physics and more). Of course if a kid is particularly interested in Bio, they can take the available HS classes. I just think it is less obviously preparatory for college beyond the basic level, because your college Bio classes might take you in very different directions.
Indeed, Neuroscience is a good example. Typically Neuroscience tracks (majors, concentrations, and so on) will require intro Bio and Chem sequences, but then you are off into all sorts of specific Neuroscience stuff. And while IB Bio HL might let you skip the intro Bio sequence, you’d still likely need to do intro Chem.
And I am not sure actually skipping your department’s intro Bio is all that good of an idea anyway. In fact, at least in the US, you likely will have core/distributional requirements in English, a language, or so on. You might actually be better off using IB credit, if possible, in those areas, and get your department’s own flavor of Bio.
My understanding is that there are no “available HS classes” beside igcse&ib since OP is abroad in an international school that offers IGCSEs then IB. Basic requirements for UK and US admissions are fulfilled through that combination.
OP will correct me if I misunderstood but it sounds like the international school offers 2 possibilities: prepare the full IB diploma (taking English and Spanish past IGCSE level) or taking HL and SL courses in a “build your own curriculum” system allowing more science courses and either Spanish or English (since IGCSE English and Spanish typically fulfill university entrance requirements in the UK and are recognized in the US.)
I would keep a native language or language A/B as part of the final choices though and drop the foreign language provided a 9-6/A*-B was achieved in it at IGCSE.
Yes, I was trying to phrase things more generally because I was suggesting a general consideration. But I understand the format of this school is forcing a specific sort of choice on the OP. As others pointed out, this is a known tradeoff of the IB system–which has a lot of merits, and I think is in many ways great for US college admissions. But one thing it is not so good for is allowing you to explore as many subjects at a very advanced level as you sometimes can in other US HS formats.
My son did the IB diploma, but I’m not sure you would get much of a bump from the Diploma so long as it’s clear that the student has succeeded in classes that are at the same level of challenge. The diploma is actually awarded after US admissions decisions have been made, because the final IB grades come out so late. So what the schools would be looking at is the actual courses and predicted grades. On the other hand, I suggest you take a look at a couple of US schools you anticipate your student may be interested in and see what high school classes they are looking for. Some schools may have actual requirements (the University of California schools, for example), some have just recommendations. I just grabbed Dartmouth’s minimum recommended courses as an example:
- English: 4 years with a preference for writing-intensive literature courses
- Mathematics: 4 years, through calculus for students interested in engineering and the STEM disciplines
- History and social science: 3 years
- Science: 3 years of laboratory science with 4 years including physics for students considering engineering
- Foreign language: 3 years of a single language (ancient or modern) with 4 preferred
I note as an observation many US colleges do not seem so good about explaining what they would recommend for A Level or IB type systems. I suspect their answer if pushed would be something like they are prepared to take into consideration the differences. But I know a lot of people in those systems would appreciate at least some sort of more specific guidance.
Although, with IB, between the HL and SL classes, I think it would be difficult to argue there are differences that would make it impossible for a student to satisfy at least most sets of required or recommended classes. I just looked at Harvard for another example and they say: “There is no single academic path we expect all students to follow, but the strongest applicants take the most rigorous secondary school curricula available to them. An ideal four-year preparatory program includes four years of English, with extensive practice in writing; four years of math; four years of science: biology, chemistry, physics, and an advanced course in one of these subjects; three years of history, including American and European history; and four years of one foreign language.” So they offer some flexibility but they also have an ideal in mind. Maybe an IB student would have difficulty showing three years of history, as some schools group the humanities together through tenth grade, but US universities would understand that. If a student did not take four years of English, on the other hand, a US university might wonder. I don’t think this is an insurmountable problem by any means, I just wanted to make sure the OP is aware these requirements/recommendations may come into play when the student applies.
An IBD program will meet those requirements. It’s just what you do SL (often an AP equivalent) and what 3 classes you do HL. Kids in US schools who do the IBD end up with 2 high school diplomas - one from their high school and one from the IB. I think this is helpful in framing the requirements as it highlights the goal.
The OP, if I understand correctly, is deciding which diploma path to choose, noting that the requirements of each are making the decision difficult.
of my two kids, my D22 did the full IB Diploma and my S24 took almost a full IB load but was 1 class short so that he could take more classes in his intended major- computer science. I think some schools would have preferred he did the full IBD and others that he took computer science classes and has many certifications. So my answer is- it depends on the school. My D22 insists my son would be better off if he had done the full IBD but my son is happy with his acceptances and where he is going to college (note he was not targeting T20 schools).