<p>I'm interested in taking the IB Diploma Programme, but I'm unsure whether it will be too rigorous for me to properly succeed/have a balanced life for my remaining two years of high school.</p>
<p>I'm familiar with the difficulty of the average AP class, so what are some contrasts/comparisons in terms of difficulty and vigor of courses? </p>
<p>In addition, how much time will I need to be spending the IB Programme outside of schooling on average to do well?</p>
<p>IMO, incredibly tough and frankly a waste of my high school life, but I'm sure others will disagree.</p>
<p>The problem with the full diploma is you have to take advanced (AP Level, I personally found AP classes easier than their IB Counterparts) classes in all classes (as opposed to cherry picking in AP).</p>
<p>If you're in the US, despite what they tell you IB is NOT valued more than AP, it's valued LESS!</p>
<p>Well, I'm also very biased because I blamed my mental health issues on IB...</p>
<p>I'm currently taking the IB November Exams, thus i have pretty much gone through all the **** that IB throws at you.
Before doing IB here as some questions you should ask yourself:
- are you willing to sacrifice a considerable amount of your social life doing work (I had to give up some of my weekends and sleeping time to finish up work, BUT I still had plenty of time to socialize, party ect)?
- are you willing to work on a consistent basis?
- will you maintain a high standard of academic honesty and not take shortcuts? (IB CAN be easy. If you just look up everything on the net, ask your seniors ect, even schools can take shortcuts. In a nutshell, it is a very exploitable system. But it would really defeat the purpose and eliminate the benefits of the program. Once you are in it, you might as well maximize your time.)
- Are you looking for a program that will benefit you both intellectually and holistically? (Seriously, the IB does that. If you don't take shortcuts
- Do you like writing essays and reports? (major component)
- Do you speak well and with confidence? (major component)</p>
<p>Overall, I think I really have benefitted from IB (but you will find that, after some time, most people just get really disillusioned by the whole thing). It is an excellent preparation for university and life. IF YOU TAKE IT SERIOUSLY.</p>
<p>"If you're in the US, despite what they tell you IB is NOT valued more than AP, it's valued LESS!"
that's definitely not true. it is supposedly the same to U.S. universities, but in my opinion, it's more work and those who go through it learn much more.</p>
<p>definitely not a waste of time, but be prepared to dedicate a lot of time to it. I would say it would be difficult to have a "balanced life" with the IB if you want to take it seriously.</p>
<p>In addition to the (at times) difficult classes, you must also dedicate a considerable amount of time to CAS (Creativity, Action, Service) component, outside of class. You must write two rather long essays: Theory of Knowledge (I can't remember how long) and the Extended Essay, which is around 4000 words. So, yes it is a lot of work, and is definitely not the right curriculum for many. It is, though, really catching on with colleges, who are quickly learning that it is a very rigorous program, and are looking with strong interest on students who have taken it. Whether or not you get credit or advanced standing with high scores on the tests may or may not matter to you. Those policies vary from school to school.</p>
<p>even if the IBs are equally compatible with AP courses, curriculum wise, is it true that
a) that the ivys are less likely to consider/select me because I would then fall into the intn'l student category
b) ivys are less likely to select me because the IB is less well known?</p>
<p>a) absolutely not. just because you take the IB doesn't mean you're an international student. plenty of americans in the US take the IB and apply as full domestic students. international student status has to do with your citizenship and your residency permit, and not about what course you're taking.
b) although the IB may not be as well known to the average folk on the street in New York City, when compared to say, the AP system, universities know very well the rigors and requirements of the IB. to them, they know the IB as much as they know any other system.</p>
<p>having taken AP and IB together, i have to say IB is considerably more difficult. for example, in my IB biology class, to get a 7 (which is the highest score) you need to get as much as 33 out of 36 points during some years (the criteria is weighted by how well all the students of that year do). however, in AP classes, a 5 is often obtained by only getting a 75% on the test. plus, as stated before, it's an entire program with 6 mandatory classes, plus extra CAS hours, AND extra essays.</p>
<p>i'd have to disagree with what politicsfreak said. I think AP and IB are valued equally depending on the circumstance. for example, some students take 10 AP tests in a yearly sitting (yes i've heard of this). So the colleges are naturally going to say that that student has a more demanding courseload than a person taking 6 IB classes. </p>
<p>So that's basically what it comes down to: circumstance. Colleges are going to favor a student taking a balanced set of IB classes more than a student taking, say 3 AP classes in "cherry-picked" courses. After all, the IB forces you to take advanced classes in EVERYTHING, from math to science to social studies to english. </p>
<p>In my experience, the IB is very draining but it is manageable. It's all about how you spend your time. It isn't for everyone. You'll spend a considerable amount of time doing homework outside of class. But time management is key.</p>
<p>My question is you're considering taking it is to compare your current courseload to what you think the IB course load might be like. Are you barely coasting through? Then probably not. Do you think you can manage it? Then by all means yes. The IB program is the world's most rigourous course load. I'm not saying that in a biased way at all, but looking at it from both an AP and IB perspective.</p>
<p>Good luck! PM me if you have any more questions.</p>
<p>"The IB program is the world's most rigourous course load"</p>
<p>very true.</p>
<p>^ I am not sure how IB matches up to the HKALE or the Singapore A-levels though. They seem to be about equal to me.</p>
<p>"that's definitely not true. it is supposedly the same to U.S. universities, but in my opinion, it's more work and those who go through it learn much more."</p>
<p>I disagree...most universities don't give credit for IB SL classes (only for IB HL classes) even when the IB classes have more work than the AP classes (An example is economics). AP Macro/Micro gets credit, but not IB Econ SL. I have first hand experience regarding the rigor of these courses as I'm in a combined AP/IB class (we IB students just have more work and have an extra chapter - International Economics)</p>
<p>What I'm more concerned about is not receiving credits, rather admissions and etc. But since the topic came up, does transferring credits from high school offer a good advantage? Or is it mostly a monetary advantage?</p>
<p>my son did IB and what PoliticsFreak said is right, they don't give credits for SL level and only 20 credits for the IB diploma and to get credits for higher level, you need to get a certain grade. Most of the other freshmen with AP courses end up with a lot more credits than him. The advantage of transferring credits is getting to register earlier so you can get the courses that you want and also you may be able to bypass certain requirement courses.</p>
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But since the topic came up, does transferring credits from high school offer a good advantage? Or is it mostly a monetary advantage?
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<p>Most private and many public colleges simply charge "full-time tuition" regardless of how many credits you actually take, so there is no monetary advantage unless you decide to graduate a semester or a year early. As bmom pointed out, some colleges have students register by their number of credits in which case the transfer credit might come in handy, but not all do (my college does registration by class year rather than accumulated credits). </p>
<p>I personally enjoy my transfer credit because it got me out of a few mandatory courses, and because it allows me to carry a reduced course load and still graduate on time (I will start taking graduate courses this upcoming semester and taking a full undergraduate course load would practically be suicide).</p>
<p>I think IB is more rigorous than AP, but I don't think it gets valued as much. The extra things (ie. EE, TOK, CAS) seem like a lot, but I guess they prepare people well for college, even if the colleges don't look at them. I have no idea, since I'm just starting to take IB. But even in my first year, I'm suffering. You have to be prepared to make sacrifices, like blocking facebook.</p>
<p>Colleges usually only give credit for HL exams, with scores of 6/7 right? A lot of my friends are taking a lot of AP exams, and getting good grades in it, so they'll definitely get more credits than the IB people, who can only take 4 HL classes, maximum. It's also harder to get 7s in IB exams than to get 5s in AP exams.</p>
<p>Another option is to not take the diploma, and just do a lot of HL classes. It will probably rob you of your social life, but hey, why not accept the challenge?</p>
<p>I think the colleges are starting to look at IB more though...</p>
<p>What do you mean by 'blocking facebook?'</p>
<p>And I understand now that it is likely that the majority of my credits would be non-transferable. But I'm concerned that if I join the IB programme, I'll be unable to devote enough time to properly preparing for my ACT/SAT's, and that will therefore damage my chances at national schools in the US.</p>
<p>Has anyone run into this problem/discovered that it is untrue?</p>