I always wonder and had asked some college counselors; what is more important ie diploma or higher GPA? Never really got an answer so my child decided to go for “diploma” and sacrificed some GPA points. Actually her grade dropped .2 from 3.88 down to 3.65 due to projects and work load of these diploma criteria. It hurts!
She applied 7 schools, 6 of them accepted with Pres scholarships offered. USC did not even accept her but one of the top 10 did and with scholarships. Go figure! I still wonder if she just did the IB classes like some students and keep the GPA high, will it make a difference? Yes, she got leadership, music, talent etc…the whole 9 yard.
Can anyone who knows behind the scenes guide some lights here?
Congratulations. I assume she is attending a college already?
IB diploma comes after graduation which means it is not really making an impact during the admissions. However, pursuing IB probably provided your daughter with valuable tools including writing well which helps with essays.
Yes, she ended up at Purdue. I am curious because I have second son who will go apply for college 18 months from now. He needs to decide whether to do diploma or not in a few weeks.
My daughter was and still is a great writer to start out with. She is not good at time management so overload did affects her dearly. When she applied, there is no indication on the Common App but now, they just added a check box whether you are “Diploma” or not. I wonder did the college ever give any credits and weigh on this?
Texas state schools automatically award 24 college credits for anyone receiving a diploma (state law).
I don’t think that flag makes any difference. One can do all the paperwork for a diploma and once admitted to colleges, not even take the tests. Only UK (european) schools have a requirement to show certain scores overall or in individual subjects if you claim to be doing IB classes for conditional admission. If you never take a test, there is no penalty in US schools.
Does your school have APs if not going the diploma route?
In OR, OSU and UO gives you credits if you passed with certain grades(5/7 or 6/7) and $2000-$3000 for the diploma itself. most high schools are either AP or IB system, not both. Ours is IB and offer couple of APs classes. Yes, my daughter received some minimal credits for her IB classes but a lot less than if she had stayed instate.
Midwest school such as Purdue and East coast seems to give a lot more credits and weigh to AP classes but from our experiences, many IB classes are much harder than AP (Calculus, Physics, Biology) in comparison.
I am looking at U of Texas at Austin, USC, Purdue, UC Berkley etc. since he is heading for Engineering and Comp Eng. He is considering just taking IB classes and take the test but not doing the diploma program. His GPA currently is close to 3.9 with SAT 2100 already. Hopefully with some prep, his scores will build up higher.
Want to keep him closer to home due to his physical health. He has Asperger but no academic handicap, on the contrary, very good in Mathematics and Logics, just not reading people’s body language and sometimes, speak non-stop. Some friends said it will be to his advantage if we tell the school then he is in minority group. What do you think? I am worried that the school will see him as un-fit and it will be to his disadvantage instead.
As a senior in high school right now, I definitely don’t think doing the diploma is worth it. You receive the diploma once you’ve already been accepted into college, so colleges don’t even see your scores. Plus, you’re restricted in what classes you can take and you have to write an extended essay. That being said, I definitely recommend taking IB courses. The courses themselves are great; it’s the diploma that causes unnecessary trouble for virtually no extra edge.
I’m not so sure I agree. My D and I attended an admissions conference at a well-regarded LAC. The admissions officer was talking about IB and taking questions and at one point asked a student if she was just taking classes or was a diploma candidate. When the student replied she was full diploma, the rep said, “Good!” My impression from the rest of her talk was that they felt the IB diploma program provided a really good foundation for succeeding in college. Probably because all those extra pieces (extended essay, CAS) teach skills that simply taking a variety of demanding classes might not. So I think that, at some schools at least, it’s probably more favorable to be a full diploma candidate. Just my 2 cents.
There are advantages to both. However, as an IB Diploma student I’m biased towards that route. While the above posters are right in that since you receive your IB Diploma in November it technically won’t make a difference in terms of admissions. However it does have advantages.
Credits - several public university systems give a lot of credits for the IB Diploma. I personally know that the UC system gives 20 semester credits (for UCB) and 30 quarter credits (for the other UCs) so long as a student has scored more than 30 on the IB Diploma.
GPA - this kinda depends on how your school works. In my school IB Diploma candidates get a much higher GPA than non-diploma. The fact that all 6 classes (my school only has 6 periods) are weighted gives high achieving students a pretty high GPA.
Education - completing all the IB requirements really improves a lot of skills. IB English improves your writing, TOK helps with your thought process and analytical skills, etc. Additionally completing the CAS requirements automatically fills out your EC list. The Extended Essay is like no other high school assignment and will give you a fell for what actual, professional research would be like.