IB students: Was It Worth It?

Eagles17
Mon, 21 Dec 2009 01:33:45 +0000

I don’t know, that’s a tough question.

My entire school is IB on the diploma program (for junior & senior year) - granted, it’s about 60-80 a class (63 in my class and 50-ish in the previous one).

Last year was the first class to go through the program (and to graduate from my school), but a lot of them regretted it, and I would agree that I wish my school simply offered AP courses instead. Speaking to admissions officers, of the 20-25 I’ve contacted, most of them simply stated, “IB is relatively new to us so we’re still working things out.” And that was at schools up and down the East coast (and Stanford), ranging from Rutgers to Princeton.

I also don’t like that the Diploma Program maxes out at 3 HL courses – so you can only get college credit in a maximum of 3 classes (for most schools). I’ve known people who graduated with 50+ AP credits so it’s slightly frustrating.

It hasn’t been a setback for me, but certainly not a benefit. I’ve always loved analyzing literature and such, and the IAs and lab work comes naturally to me so it was the same as regular work. Same goes for community service - I always volunteer so it wasn’t as if I had to go out of my way to earn the CAS hours. As I mentioned before, I know that I would work equally as hard in a BC Calc course - which I would have taken back at my home high school (I may have forgotten to mention that I’m at a career high school for biotech) - as my current SL Math course.

With that said, I’m taking the AP exams and studying independently for AP exams for my SL courses so I can hopefully get credit.

(Sorry about the long-winded answer, I didn’t realize I had so much to say about IB.)