<p>Hi there. I am an IB student who was admitted to Harvard EA. Is there any point in my pursuing the IB diploma? I enrolled in the program in order to take all the advanced classes and to have a good high school transcript. The diploma now seems unnecessary: I have to write an extended essay of 4000 words and document my 150 CAS hours with pre-proposals and reflections.</p>
<p>Will I regret dropping the program this late into it? Is an IB diploma even beneficial at Harvard or in life? At Harvard, I don't plan to excuse any of my credits.</p>
<p>joker, i knew someone like you in high school. she did IB to get automatically registered for all the AP classes she could take in order to get the perfect GPA and dropped it when she got what she needed from it. i don't understand how anyone who has the motivation to get into harvard can't even finish something they started four years ago. i hope i don't sound harsh when i say suck it up and finish it like the rest of the IB students staying up to 3:00 in the morning trying to finish the EE.
on a side note, i think harvard will suspect something weird is up when you decide to drop out of the program, especially since they might have accepted you on the basis of the strength of your high school curriculum. but then again, i wouldn't know how admissions work so you can drop out of the program and let me know if they didn't rescind their offer of admissions. congrats on geting accepted</p>
<p>This is the first year my high school has adopted the IB program. For the past years, the AP classes have had excellent success, with among the highest pass rates in the nation. The adoption of the IB program was the principal's attempt to gain a little more "prestige."</p>
<p>Furthermore, since it's the first year, you can expect the program to not run very smoothly. In fact, it's been practically butchered by all the teachers (who have not yet made the switch from the AP to the IB curriculum) and coordinators (who constantly lose my CAS hour logs, and who don't even know what an extended essay is).</p>
<p>In terms of practicality, I already have 5 5's on APs, and after taking AP tests this year, I will have earned all the "college credit" I could have ever desired.</p>
<p>All I am saying is that I joined IB because I like challenging myself. I wouldn't rest at ease knowing I didn't take the most rigorous classes anyway. That is the motivation that got me into Harvard. And it's the time I had that I could spend on meaningful activities out of the class that got me into Harvard, not my dedication to stick to a task that I started. Anyone can complete an IB diploma. The real question is whether it's worth the effort now.</p>
<p>Joker123: I would urge you to complete the program (I am in IB too, btw) True, you have to write a 4000 word extended essay, but it doesn't have to be a GOOD essay. As long as you completed the assignment, you will get credit for completing it and you can get the diploma (even if you don't get any points from EE and TOK essay combined). If you don't do it, you can't get the diploma. PLEASE, for the sake of mankind, just do the essay in one Sunday and get it over with. For CAS, there's no easy way around it.</p>
<p>I agree. It's the paperwork that gets to me. And it's the idea that the program thinks it can teach you to like service. If anything, CAS has the opposite effect.</p>
<p>What does the extended essay have to be on? Four thousand words isn't that long. I've done that in a day before. I mean, it wasn't a fun day, but it was a day. </p>
<p>What's CAS?</p>
<p>I think you should do it. It might be annoying, but it's not a terrible amount of work. It's worth it, in my opinion.</p>
<p>You are right, the admissions officers look at the complete package and one of the factors they consider is your academics.
If you felt the need to ask someone if IB is worth it, then there's some part of you telling you that to drop IB is risky so why are you still considering it?
There's a better way to answer your question, ask the Harvard Admissions counselors. Does that sound like a bad idea? If it does, then dropping IB is a bad idea.</p>
<p>dump the ibac its a joke anyway and everyone who has done it knows it its just a BS to add prestige and bulldoze the adcoms. dont waste your time the real hard work is done with the 5's in your APs. Face it nobody can get 5's in their AP's unless they work hard. The Ibac on the other hand PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEE give me a break!! So bottom line DUMP IT - its a joke!</p>
<p>It doesn't hurt to complete the program. If you drop the program, the adcom will think you're not truly passionate about education at all (for you to be using the IB program as a tool for admissions). </p>
<p>Joanna Lynch: Shut up. AP is the joke compared with IB. Let's see you do a 4000-word research paper, 300 hours of CAS on top of your studies, complete 3- to 5-hour-long exams in all your IB subjects, and then come back and tell me whether you still think IB is a "joke."</p>
<p>I think denouncing either program as a joke is kind of silly. I think they're both wonderful programs, personally. I don't see any reason to get so militant about it.</p>
<p>My advice..you have been doing avance academics since 9th grade...you are a senior and you are barely at the end of the line....you should just do it..all that work will go to waste that you have spent long hours for...the diploma should be rewarding. :)</p>
<p>dropping it would be just stupid and so would be doing the program just to 'look good' on your application. The IB is designed to give a valuable educational experience, it is there to teach you how to cope with stuff you're going to do in the university, to teach you time management, to teach you to appreciate education and to bring things to an end. If you drop the IB, you should not have entered it at all because you did not learn anything from it and there are millions of people who would be so grateful for such an opportunity; if you don't bring the IB to an end, you won't bring your university studies to an end either.</p>