<p>I’m going to talk to one of my counselors today… Wish me luck. Is skipping a year in language feasible?</p>
<p>I have known people who have skipped a year in a foreign language in high school:</p>
<p>One skipped Latin I by self-studying.
One skipped French II by self-studying (I believe she used Rosetta Stone plus standard textbook).
One skipped French IV and went directly from French III to AP French. </p>
<p>These kids are language-oriented – took multiple FL’s in high school and did well in them; continuing to learn multiple FL’s in college.</p>
<p>Yes, we know folks who have self-studied foreign languages to get up to speed for entrance to IB programs.</p>
<p>I don’t think you can skip a year of foreign language once in IB but you can skip one before you get to IB.</p>
<p>In our school the IB foreign language requirement is only allowed in the fourth year. They don’t offer it as lets say Spanish III or French III it is only part of Spanish IV or French IV or Japanese IV. So if he had dropped out of Spanish III he would not be able to get his IB diploma. </p>
<p>In our school there are generally a lot of kids that do just AP and not IB, but the trend has been that the top ten students are all enrolled in IB.</p>
<p>Marian – yup. The question then becomes whether the school will accept self-study, administer a test for placement or insist on credit in an actual course.</p>
<p>IB only allows the IB exams to be taken in junior and senior year – so we know of kids who came into HS at level 5+ in French, Spanish or Chinese and were advised to take another language (generally Latin) until they could take SL or HL in the other. One person I know passed French AP Lang as an 8th grader, but has had to wait to take French HL/A2 til senior year.</p>
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<p>It’s true that organizational skills are an absolute must in IB. I have no idea about the gender breakdown nationwide/worldwide. It’s pretty even at D’s former school, I think because they decided from the beginning (22 years ago) to emphasize science, which I suppose has drawn more boys than would be the case otherwise. It has paid off; last year our team (4 boys, 1 girl) won the National Science Bowl. But there were plenty of girls wearing the full diploma regalia at graduation as well.</p>
<p>In my s’s school it appears that there are slightly more girls in the IB program. But, that is fine by him. Some of his best friends are girls which has been wonderful when they get together for study groups etc… My son has learned a lot from these girls too. His organizational skills are much better than pre IB. And, he has benefitted from taking both the IB exams and the AP exams giving him a better chance for college credit, not to mention the well roundedness of having been in the IB program.</p>
<p>Does anyone have more recent IB acceptance rates vs AP/Regular applicants?</p>
<p>Pruneface, my guess is that acceptance rates are highly personalized to the school. I will say that as a general rule, the acceptance rates for students from our school are about double the official rates. Caveats: it’s a smaller applicant pool than overall admissions rates, it has selective admission to the IB program so the kids are pretty talented already, there are some schools that historically have not loved this HS, and my focus was on schools my S was considering (highly selective, not Ivies, known to like IB).</p>
<p>At my other S’s (non-IB) school, the admit rate to MIT runs on the order of 35%. Many caveats abound.</p>
<p>Well this school has people going to Princeton, Harvard, MIT, Duke, Notre Dame and UF so it is supposed to be at least a “good” if not great program.</p>
<p>I would agree that overall admission rates of IB vs. AP would essentially be meaningless, because of the variation in quality of program in different high schools.</p>
<p>I think it has more to do with the individual student in regards to getting into a great college vs not. An IB or stellar AB program is not what will get a kid in. My sons IB program is good, but probably not the best that is out there. It is what he has made of it that will matter most.</p>
<p>I will say that in my sons school that the recent couple of classes have had IB kids get into and not limited to the following schools:</p>
<p>Darmouth, Yale, Princton, Brown, Oberlin, Swarthmore, Whitman, Harvard, all the UC’s including Berk, UCLA, … The list goes on and on.</p>
<p>Princeton, Yale, MIT, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Chicago, WashU, Reed, Amherst, Tufts, Northwestern, JHU, W&M, etc. in the past two years just off the top of my head…</p>
<p>^And I could make a similar list for our non-IB high school - it’s not even one of the highly desirable high schools in the county. I think both programs meet different needs. Younger son would have been well served by IB, older son would have hated it.</p>
<p>That’s what one of my counselors was getting at yday ^^^ Ive emailed the school for info so hopefully they’ll get back soon.</p>
<p>At the end of the day, it really is all about what you do with the opportunities a) you are offered and b) create for yourself. A student may be better served by taking a reasonable level of APs and pursuing an EC or two at a very deep level rather than IB or a specialized program.</p>
<p>Do what challenges you and gives you joy. Don’t do it for the sake of college acceptances.</p>
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<p>Agreed but most people only do stuff so they can put it on their resume to get into college.</p>
<p>Are students ever allowed to take more than 3 HL courses? I also asked a counselor at the school but haven’t received a response yet.</p>
<p>I believe you can take up to 4 HL exams, but no more. That may not be possible at every IB school, though.</p>