<p>My D's high school is starting an IB program for next year. She's a freshman now so wouldn't be formally enrolled until junior year. My son, who is graduating this year (Off to U of Redlands) did the typical AP thing. Some of the parents at our school are leary of the program, fearing it is just a rigorous program with intangible benefits. They think the AP offerings are enough "prep" for college.
I don't want my daughter in IB if it just shows she can work hard. Are the course oferings intellectually invigorating? I'm hoping it is a higher level of thinking, something that will engage her. If it' s just more "rigorous" than it wouldn't be a draw for us.
If any of you have kids who are or were enrolled, please share your thoughts. Thank you.</p>
<p>The answer to your questions are more dependent on the teachers than the curriculum. I might be wary of a new program unless you hear many of the school's top teachers are signing up for it. I have an IB grad and a current student in the program. I believe there is more rigor & structure (typically less flexibility) and a lot more writing involved. As a gross generalization, in our district, the better teachers gravitate towards the program. It is definitely more work and a greater challenge for them.</p>
<p>search threads for IB - there has been alot of discussion of this topic on the boards over the last year. You will read many pros and cons.</p>
<p>My son's high school had combined AP/IB classes. The main difference between the two, was in senior year the IB students took the IB test, and the AP students took the AP tests. IB students also took an additional class in Theory of Knowledge where they had to write a research paper. At graduation, the IB students all wore a gray gown, unless they were in the top 10 students, who wore a white gown. Everybody else wore a red gown. The AP program is the one my son followed, since he passed 8 AP exams, he got a lot of college class credits. I don't know if he would have gotten the credits if he had instead taken the IB test.</p>
<p>My kids' program require that they take both IB & AP tests. Yes, there's Theory of Knowledge, but there's also EEs, IEs, and some other acronyms I can't remember that are a required standard.</p>
<p>Both of my kids went through 4 years of IB. Our school has Pre-IB in 9th and 10th grade. Both kids applied to numerous colleges. The colleges they chose all either gave credit for IB classes, just like AP classes; or at the least the school used them for placement purposes so they didn't have to take certain basic classes.</p>
<p>Personally, I and my kids really liked the IB program. AP classes are advanced classes in individual classes. IB is an advanced overall program. My kids pretty much went to school with IB kids the entire 4 years except for their 1 or 2 elective classes. Will all of your classes being advanced, my kids say they had a better learning environment. The classes were smaller and all the students wanted to be there and do well. With AP, you still have traditional classes with traditional other students. With IB, your entire day is the program. Add to this the volunteer time, community involvement, essays, etc... and you have a much better prepared student getting ready for college. In 9th grade, both kids said they didn't really like it. Especially not being in class with their friends they've always had. By the end of the school year, both kids said there is no way they could ever go back to a traditional class schedule. Even with taking AP classes. </p>
<p>Again, AP classes allow for advanced study in a particular subject. With the IB program, you entire education is advanced. You are taking the same exact classes as a kid in the program in New York, Paris, London, tokyo, etc... It is what it claims to be; an INTERNATIONAL education. WORLD history, WORLD literature, etc.... The teachers have to be selected and are specially trained in the program. (That is where a lot of bad mouthing comes from. Usually a teacher who didn't get selected for the program or some old teacher who only believes in the way she did it the last 40 years.)</p>
<p>Thanks for responses.
Christcorp, did your kids have other activities such as sports? </p>
<p>I did try a search using IB spelled out and just IB but it came back as no matches found. I was in a tad of a hurry at the time so I'll slow down and try again.</p>
<p>We've been told a student will get college credit for decent scores on the IB exams. As I've learned with my son and AP exams (I read several course catalogs for the colleges he was interested in), each college can be a bit different. But all of them had options for IB scores too.</p>
<p>A related question, for those whose kids were or are in IB, is the principal motivation college prep (and standing out in the crowd) or love of learning?</p>
<p>I tried a new search, and when it said "no matches" I checked my spelling, and whoops- I had written "baccallaureate", so tried again with one "l" and lots showed up.</p>
<p>Now I'm overwhelmed with the info :)</p>
<p>Haven't found any yet that say a kid can play a varsity sport AND complete IB.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Haven't found any yet that say a kid can play a varsity sport AND complete IB.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>At my son's school, the IB Theory of Knowledge class was scheduled for the same time slot as varsity sports, so it was impossible for any of the IB students to do varsity sports. That is another reason why my son chose to just take the AP tests instead of going full IB.</p>
<p>It really depends on the school and the program. True, IB does take a lot of time and requires a lot of commitment, but I think that if a kid really wanted to play a varsity sport and do IB, it would probably work out at our school. I have a friend who was captain of the JV basketball team who is one of the top students in our program, and only this year quit basketball because of another commitment. I myself am involved in Theatre at my school, which takes just as much time as most varsity sports. While it does create a lot of stress at certain parts of the year, it is doable. The only time it might not work very well is in the spring of their senior year as they prepare to take IB tests. That's where I am now, and honestly, I don't think I would be able to handle a sport right now. BUT playing a sport and doing IB could actually be effective because of the required CAS hours. A stands for Action, which varsity sports qualify for.</p>
<p>Everyone I know in IB has many many outside activities that don't interfere with it. Some even have part time jobs that would be a time equivalent of varsity training. So I guess the short answer to your question is that if your child has a high enough level of commitment, they could almost definitely do both.</p>
<p>(By the way, I'm the child of the person with this account. My mom just saw this and asked me to answer for you :-))</p>
<p>Plenty of kids in my daughters' program do varsity sports, band, or theater. However, some super serious athletes (state highly ranked tennis players, for example) did wind up transferring out.</p>
<p>maenidmom; I will tell you that it is totally feasible to do the IB program and other extra curriculum. I usually don't post my daughter or son's stats because,,,, well, just because. It's rude. But, he's already been accepted to college and everything, she's ajunior in college, so if it helps someone else, why not.</p>
<p>Daughter; Graduated 2005. IB, NHS, Choir, Non-School Soccer club, social life dating, etc.... Graduated with a 3.75GPA (UNWEIGHTED).</p>
<p>Son; Graduating this year. IB, NHS, Secretary of NHS, Varsity Football (Starter junior and senior year), Varsity Soccer (Starter Sophmore, Junior, and Senior year), National Play it smart sports organization, volunteer for children in IRAQ, Boy's State, dating, and other social activities. GPA 4.0 (UNWEIGHTED), class Rank #1.</p>
<p>Point is, you can definitely do IB, sports, and a social life. It is a personal thing however. Can your kid do it all. During my son's busiest time; this past fall with varsity football; his normal day was like this.</p>
<ol>
<li>Got to school at 7am-11am.</li>
<li>Lunch and/or free period 11am-1pm (Depending on "A" or "B" day). On the 2 hour free day, he came home for lunch and did some homework.</li>
<li>Class from 1pm to 3:30pm</li>
<li>Football practice 4pm-6:30pm</li>
<li>Home by 7pm or 8pm if he had a NHS or some other event at school</li>
<li>Homework 7pm - 10:00pm (Usually not a full 3 hrs of homework. Most time and hour less)</li>
<li>9 or 10pm to 11:00pm. Watch tv, unwind, call and talk to girlfriend, etc...</li>
<li>Saturday was TOTALLY his day. Do whatever he wanted to do. Spend time with girl friend, friends, family, etc... I WOULD NOT LET HIM DO SCHOOL RELATED STUFF; unless it was a rare scheduled volunteer event or something.</li>
<li>Sunday; sleep in. Did his homework in his time. He knew what needed to be done and he is very self motivated.</li>
</ol>
<p>End of november to february was a lot more free time. No sports. March-May is soccer. similar day to football. You can definitely do it, but you have to WANT to do it. He loved the IB program. (What boy wouldn't when you have a typical class of 15 girls and 4 boys and all the girls think you are cute). The IB program has a lot more girls in it for some reason.</p>
<p>Every college he applied to wanted to see AP or IB program on his transcript. For him, it totally paid off. It made him and my daughter a better student. It made them motivated with initiative. My daughter is doing well in college. She says the IB program definitely prepared her for college with organization. She gets homework and assignments done in much less time than her peers. I expect my son will do even better. Only because he's always been a 4.0gpa student and has always like being challenged. </p>
<p>Anyway, hope this "Day in the Life" helps you out. It was not meant to brag; but I do admit that I am very proud of both my kids. I haven't really written much about them before and still don't. This isn't a competition of my kid vs your kid. Each kid is different. Anyway, good luck..</p>
<p>My student is a junior in our school's IB program and is a varsity soccer player. Because of the academic workload and the time committement to soccer, it is nearly impossible to do both well. My student decided to accept lower grades (currently a 3.2 in all honors/AP/IB during the past 3 years) and participate in soccer and have a active social life. </p>
<p>At our school only a handful of kids are in sports and the IB program. A higher precentage of IB kids are in Jazz Band or Orchestra. Many of my student's friends opted for 'partial IB'. They take many of the same IB classes (but usually not TOK), they sit for the exams, but do not get the IB Diploma. You need to take the 'full' IB program to be a diploma candidate.</p>
<p>The IB kid's schedules are usually so full that there isn't any room to take any non-IB (fun) classes like photography or sports medicine. It's a big trade-off, and I'm not sure if the IB Diploma is really worth it.</p>
<p>Your student may have a better idea by the time she gets to sophmore year when she need to commit to the program. It also might make a difference what her friends decide to do as well. When she's up until 3 AM trying to finish a TOK paper it's good to have buddies who are also wake and working that she can text or IM.</p>
<p>Sports are definately doable with good time management. My D swam approximately 20/hrs./week her entire Junior year, then dropped out of swimming her senior year, but not to "lack of time" for both IB and sports.</p>
<p>I'm envious of Christcorp. None of our IB kids have days that easy, for some reason. The amount of work involved in the IB classes is enormous when taking 5 or 6 of them. Maybe his children are much better time managers than mine! But, since you asked, I have a kid who had all IB classes jr and sr year and all pre-IB before that and played two varsity sports, plus editor of school paper and one national level EC of business type. So yes - like the other posters - I would say it can be done. What he gave up jr year especially was sleep. He had class from 7 -3, then sports, and usually homework for at least 3 hours. Lots of hours on newspaper, though.
The preparation for college level work is really superb - your IB grad won't have trouble writing a college paper. Most colleges however, seem to give credit for only the IB Higher level exams, so some students take AP exams in their SL subjects. The other thing to answer about your own student is how they like writing. If your student is very very into math and science and does not like writing, they may not love the IB program.
Good luck sorting through all the past info -- there is good stuff there!</p>
<br>
<blockquote> <p>We've been told a student will get college credit for decent scores on the IB exams<<</p> </blockquote>
<br>
<p>Our experience was that schools would give a certain number of credits for an IB diploma, but did not give credit for a la carte IB tests taken. In our AP/IB school, the IB kids also take AP tests to make sure that they get credit from somewhere.</p>
<p>Ok, I am not a parent but I hope that you don't mind if I answer your question.</p>
<p>"Are the course oferings intellectually invigorating?" </p>
<p>Yes they are. The work load might be hard for some students but they actually have a chance to challenge their ability of thinking and to even challenge what they are taught through the TOK essay and presentation.</p>
<p>The students don’t just learn what they find in the books. The IB give them the opportunity to venture beyond what has been taught in class and to challenge themselves. For ex: The students have to do a math project, where some of them can invente their own formula to solves problems with methods that are different from the eternal math formulas that we use. Some might try to explore the truth or the lie behind the Golden Ratio Theory. A “genius” from UWC got his math project published in a scientific journal for top notch mathematicians. He reinvented an existing formula and impressed a lot of people with the new theory that he came up with. For group four, they also have to create a project.</p>
<p>“'m hoping it is a higher level of thinking, something that will engage her.”</p>
<p>The EE or extended essay, is an opportunity for the student to think and do research on his own. Whether it is in a natural sciences, the humanities and so one.</p>
<p>“if it' s just more "rigorous" than it wouldn't be a draw for us.”</p>
<p>The IB is not only about taking classes. There are also the CAS which is pretty important in the IB program. If the student takes advantage of it and if the school has the resources to help the students, your kid will develop good leadership skill and maybe a strong interest in community, art and more…. </p>
<p>If she speaks a second language she can do her EE in Spanish , French, Italian in the B group. </p>
<p>Some colleges give credit to HL level IB courses and If I am not wrong, I think that Tuft let students place skip some lower level classes if they got a 7 or a 6 in a particular IB standard level course. Even if some colleges don’t give credit for standard level, the kid can get 30 credits or more if he obtain 30/42 for his IB.</p>
<p>When you do the IB, you are so ready to kick college. The student might finds the IB hard while he is doing it, but once you are done with the IB, you can say" Thanks IB for twisting my brain". It's just dedication that you need and if the teachers make it fun, the kid will have fun with the courses.</p>
<p>:D Go IB!!!</p>
<p>O2B and orjr; it is definitely about time management. Each semester my son was taking 9 classes; daughter 8. Later on, the TOK counted as one of those classes. Out of those 8-9 classes, 2 of them were always ELECTIVES. My kids took a lot of "FUN" classes. My son took Weight-Lifting classes. It helped his stress; kept him in shape for sports, and helped his time management so he didn't have to do weights later on after school or such for sports. My kids have taken computer classes, psychology, art, music, and other electives. So, the course is laid out for you, but there's always room for electives.</p>
<p>The time management thing is the most important. I admit that my kids learned how to many time. I helped my daughter, and my son learned from his big sister. Even in his busiest part of the year, he was usually home by 7pm. He would have 2-3 hours of homework. Shower and whatever, and be in bed by 11pm and start all over again. That was will 8-9 classes a semester. 4-5 classes a day.</p>
<p>As for colleges; each school is different. My daughter did NOT receive the IB diploma because she was a couple of points shy based on her HL and SL scores. She did however receive 12 credit hours towards college for the classes she did do well in. That was a whole semester. A friend of hers did get the diploma and had her ENTIRE FRESHMAN YEAR WAVERED. She received 27 college credit. However, each school is different. Even with the IB diploma, an Ivy league school usually doesn't give credit for IB or AP. They do however expect these classes and they use them for placement purposes so you don't have to take pre-req classes. Service academies and many other schools don't give credit either. Just placement points towards Pre-Req classes. Some give some, some give a lot. Again, each school is different.</p>
<p>We also had 2 student a few years back who wanted to go to England to study and attend college. 1 student was IB and the other was a traditional student with a lot of AP classes. Both excellent genius kids. They were to start in October, transcripts had to be in by August. They both got in, but the traditional student spend a couple of months having her transcript verified and qualified to ensure the classes were appropriate. The IB diploma isn't awarded until almost end of summer. She sent her normal high school diploma and transcript (Which you still get), but when they saw all the classes were IB, they told her if she gets the diploma then she is automatically accepted. That was Oxford. Not a bad deal. Of course, if you don't care about studying abroad, then it doesn't matter. Again, each school is different.</p>
<p>My son sounds like a clone of Christcorp's son, except his passion was for singing and theater. He wanted to do IB because of the intellectual challenge and because he was seriously considering studying in Europe. BTW, he absolutely LOVED the TOK part of the IB program. It was his first introduction to philosophy and he found it fascinating. The Extended Essay was a source of particular pride for him because he chose a subject (linguistics) which none of his teachers could help him with and researched it on his own. This became part of one of his college essays and one of the teacher/interviewers for one of his scholarships was amazed that he had done this on his own.</p>
<p>His day begins at 6:30 a.m. (because of choir classes) and classes end at 3:00 p.m. There are eight class periods and he takes eight classes - no lunch. If he is involved in a theater production (he has done three school productions and one out of school production this year), his day will end between 5:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. He was in all-state choir, takes voice lessons once a week and he is working to complete his Eagle requirements for Scouts.</p>
<p>Although homework is rarely more than three hours a day, as you can see it is occasionally a problem. Maybe his teachers are more forgiving than most, but he never has a problem turning in homework late. I remember going to a school meeting where they discussed IB and they had a panel of six IB kids to answer questions. Someone asked about homework and one of the panelists said that he spent about six hours a day on homework. The other panelists looked at him like he had just grown a second head and unanimously agreed that they spent nowhere close to that amount of time.</p>
<p>I think that IB kids generally lose out on college credits compared to AP kids. The IB kids can take the AP exams (my son has taken four and will take five this spring) but they need to do a lot more self-preparation because their IB classes will not match the AP curriculum. Most elite colleges will only give credit for the Higher Level IB tests and then sometimes only for a 7. However, I found many state schools, including our state flagship school which give enormous general credits (24-30) for having the IB diploma. One kid entered our state flagship school as a sophomore and a half (three semesters of credit).</p>
<p>As someone else said, every kid is different and they need to determine if they can handle the workload and get in some activities that they care about. If nothing else, they will learn time-management.</p>
<p>I did the IB, but if the school is new to it, your kid will probably end up getting terrible grades. I'd suggest doing the AP programme.</p>