<p>I took the IB Diploma Program and I was wondering if it really does help. </p>
<p>For those of you who took IB and are now in college (or used to be in one), did it really helped you prepare? </p>
<p>Is the work in IB harder than the work in college? Or vice versa? Is the workload the same? </p>
<p>Which one is easier than the other and which one is harder than the other?</p>
<p>Everyone who graduated form my high school, whether they managed to get their diploma or not, said the same thing;the IB diploma is harder than freshman year at college. Even those who went to Ivies told me college was easier. Mind you, that may be way the IB is at my school. At some schools it is much easier/harder depending on teachers. At my school we had to do a good bit of self-learning, and we weren’t spoon-fed like a lot of others. Talk to your school’s graduates to get better info.</p>
<p>Most of the comments about IB on these forums indicate:</p>
<ul>
<li>IB is a lot of work (including in comparison to AP courses).</li>
<li>The full IB diploma program is often not very flexible, and is best suited for “well rounded” students rather than students who are much stronger and more interested in some specific subjects than others.</li>
<li>Some schools’ IB programs have only a limited selection of HL courses.</li>
</ul>
<p>I think it does in general. IB Diploma candidates are most prepared. Not necessarily if you just got the certificate.
The diploma is hard because you have a lot of IB classes at once and they all involve a lot of reading and writing. This is similar to college but there isn’t as much homework.</p>
<p>I only took 2 IB classes (and the exams are all essay…I prefer multiple choice) and I think they prepared me for what a college class is like in general.</p>
<p>I think AP courses are more useful though because a lot of my friends who were IB diploma students had problems transferring their credits to school in our area. The people that took more AP classes had more credits going into college.</p>
<p>So you should be prepared but you may find Freshman year easier since you will probably have a smaller number of intense classes and you will have less homework. College tends to get rid of the busy work and use exams, labs, etc to grade you.</p>
<p>You will get to skip the intro classes at college and you already know the type of studying required at college especially through TOK. which you’ll use in your first year seminar. depending on your college you’ll start ahead. :)</p>
<p>I took the IB program and am now a sophomore in college. IB was harder than my first year. I had more sleepless nights in IB, I had more homework in IB and in the IB program I took more classes at once than i’ll ever do in college.</p>
<p>All my friends who took IB say that it prepared them and gave them leverage (academically) over their peers who did not take IB.</p>
<p>I also got enough credits from IB that I was able to skip an entire semester of credits. I can technically graduate early if I chose to do so.</p>
<p>As a rising sophomore chemical Engineer, I can say in complete confidence that the rigor embodied by IB has thoroughly prepared me for college. I have taken no less than 42 credits in 2 semesters and yet the pressure does still does not compare with the unholy stress wrought by IB + HS + and extracurricular. </p>
<p>current GPA : 3.89 one B ^^’</p>