hi! i’m currently a junior and i’m debating on whether or not to take the IB Diploma course next year (i’m on the path atm) and i’m a bit afraid that the workload will exhaust me.
does NEU favor students who are doing the IB Diploma course? how about the scholars program? will i have a greater chance in getting accepted into the program? if so, i’m willing to do my very best even though it can be tiring.
thanks for answering!
It’s hard to say explicitly how much weight they place on the IB diploma, but it’s definitely looked on favorably. In the lab I was TAing yesterday, there were 3 students out 20 or so who had done the diploma, and I know many other people here who have done it as well. Doing the diploma is taking the most challenging coursework available to you, and they are of course looking for students who challenge themselves academically.
I did the IB diploma and high school, and while it’s impossible to say exactly what role this had in admissions here, I can definitely say it was a big benefit once I started. I have heard horror stories of students really struggling when they start college because their high school curriculum didn’t prepare them well enough. In contrast, after full IB, my first semester of college was surpresengly easy, even after placing out of a lot of intro classes with IB credit. Then I was quickly able to get into higher level, more challenging coursework after that. When I was deciding whether or not to go for the diploma, my thought process was that if I started it and didn’t like it or it was too overwhelming, I could always switch to the IB certificate. But I couldn’t go the other way and switch into the diploma program later. So I figured I’d give it a shot. Yes, it was loads of work and many nights with little sleep, but even as a senior in college, I’m still using knowledge and skills from IB.
@nanotechnology ohh i see. thank you so much for your advice (: i decided that i’m going to go do the full IB. wish me luck! (i can always drop out of it too if i really can’t do it, so why not?)
My 2 cents…
Go for the Diploma. At least on your APP you can say your an IB Candidate. My dd also got credit from NEU for some IB classes. Best of luck.