My son is a rising senior. He has been doing the IB Diploma Program so far. He has all As In all high school classes. Right now he has taken or will be taking IB Psychology SL, IB Chemistry SL, IB Physics HL, IB Spanish 4, IB Math A&A HL, IB English Lit HL, AP Computer Science, and TOK.
His Junior year he completed about 90 hours of CAS but he is a procrastinator and didn’t enter hardly any of it into managebac. He was told in May that since he doesn’t have 18 continuous months of CAS, he won’t be eligible for his IB Diploma until the Fall of 2021 (he graduates spring of 2021). He has social anxiety so while his advisor was telling him this and told him he should consider dropping out of the program, he just sat and listened and didn’t ask any questions or tell he has done 90 hours and he did write down notes for when he entered them, so can he go ahead and enter them.
At this point, he is ready to drop out of the diploma program and just take the IB classes. Thoughts on this? I’m just looking for some thoughts on how I should advise him. Is it worth it to talk to the program coordinator and ask if he can still go back and enter in all his hours and will that work to get the diploma when he graduates? Or is it a lost cause and just not go for the diploma.
He will most likely go into engineering or computer science in college. He hasn’t ruled out applying to some of the higher ranked schools but will most likely stay closer to homes at possibly Colorado School of Mines.
Thanks!
I would not drop the program over the CAS requirement. It’s way too much work. That CAS requirement is set by the school, so talk with them. With everything that is going on, I would think many kids will have a hard time meeting it. Some schools will not take IB credit unless you are a full IB student. When he “earns” the diploma doesn’t matter, but being full IB could.
What are his grades and tests like?
Call the coordinator, ask how he fixes it, CAS is the easy part, if he is too lazy to be bothered to managbac his hours for the IBD, college is going to be a nightmare, explain he has done all the work but didn’t get it in managbac. Hopefully he has actual proof of CAS, make sure you have that clear before you phone. IMO IB classes are pointless sans the IBD. He will get into CSM without it though, but that doesn’t really mean anything. Tell him to fix it, it is fixable. Be clear that you are not fixing this but you are just assessing how HE has a route to do so. I don’t know that a coordinator would be anything but helpful unless your kid is a slacker.
I would advise him to not give up on the IB diploma if he has done well in the program so far. Maybe try to explain to your son that even though it’s difficult with social anxiety, learning how to make himself uncomfortable and pushing through the anxiety while he advocates for himself with his coordinator will not only bring benefits now, but will be good practice for so many situations in the future. My son earned the IBD in 2019 and he said that many students were behind at times with entering their hours/notes. This will be a good experience for your son to work through this kind of problem. The IBD is such a nice accomplishment and not worth giving up over CAS. He will be really proud of himself for not only achieving it, but gaining confidence by having to work through this tricky situation. These problems create a lot of anxiety but almost always are not as bad as the person thinks they will be to address them.
Thanks for the comments and suggestions! I’ve been torn between having him contact the coordinator or me contact her. He’s a great student, all A’s so a 4.0 weighted and 4.6 or so unweighted, gets everything done and turned in on time, has done all the essays (IAs and working on the EE) along the way and this is all without push or intervention from us (other than telling him to quit procrastinating). He’s pretty self motivated so I’m not too concerned about college.
Since he was a Junior this year, they didn’t do the official IB test so he doesn’t have a grade for those yet (and it won’t be from the IB test). He made a 5 on his AP Computer Science test his sophomore year.
He has all the dates and times for CAS and had already spoken to the supervisors about being listed as the contacts in managebac. For whatever reason, he just would not get CAS inputted.
Just an update, him and I sat down and had a talk and he decided to email the coordinator. I helped him craft an email and he sent it to her. She’s out of the office until next week, so we shall see. Fingers crossed!! Thanks again!!
Also, I had a typo in my original post. He was told he would have to wait until 2022 to get his IB diploma.
I agree with others that he should not give up the IBD over this. Hopefully, there’s a way to fix the CAS issue in a way that won’t require that he wait until 2022 to get the diploma, but as a practical matter, it may not really matter, so long as he can say he is satisfying all the requirements and will be receiving the diploma. My son completed the IBD program in 2019. The college application and acceptance process was over long before the diplomas came out, actually after he was already well into his first-year fall semester. What the colleges are looking at are the grades and the fact the student is pursuing the IBD. They will also want to see a final transcript, but that will, I expect, be a regular school transcript that would not be affected by IBD-specific issues like CAS, particularly as CAS is ungraded. I do believe that participation in the actual IBD program carries significant weight with the colleges, as they know the program, with its emphasis on research and writing, prepares students well for college classes. The IBD program can be very bureaucratic and rule-bound at times, so your son has my sympathy, but in a way I guess that is good preparation for life as well. My son felt like tearing his hair out at times along the way, but a year into college, we can all see the value he received.