IB Programs

CountingDown
Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:30:11 +0000

DS2 is in a competitive admit full diploma IB program. Works his %$#@ tail off. Would not leave for anything (and we have asked). Grades are definitely .2 to .3 lower than what he would be earning with a fraction of the effort at our local HS.

One dirty secret: I have yet to find a college that accepts SL IB exams for college credit. For DS2, the equivalents are AP Calc AB and AP Spanish (since the SL exams required five years of foreign language). So, on top of the IB exams, add APs to cover those two IB topics. Add five or six more IB exams to cover areas of study DS would take no matter what (econ, psych, comp gov’t, enviro science, USH, US Gov’t). HL exams are taken senior year, which means they won’t be useful for college admits – and these are DS’s three strongest areas. Add at least two more APs (English Comp, Euro, maybe Bio) to demonstrate competence in those subjects. Insane…

He also plays a heavy-duty, time-intensive sport, and does debate, Model UN and newspaper. We will see how much of this he can maintain junior and senior year. He is lucky that the other ECs don’t really kick in until his sport is finished. The upperclass students at his program are giving him tales of IB reality – and it makes me wonder what the colleges must think when kids start dropping activities junior year.

I suspect that in the long run, DS2 may take the ton of AP credits, go to a state school that will give him close to soph status (and, we hope, merit $$), and use the credits as a cushion to take a year abroad to study and travel.