International Baccalaureate College Graduates

Parents Forum
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<p>I am interesting in gathering some information from IB Diploma/IB Certificate students who have already completed their college studies or have finished the first two years. I am trying to compile a list of answers to several questions so that I can provide the answers to parents who are looking at IB at our high school. I want a variety of IB Programs from around the US and World so it doesn't look like our IB graduates are singing "Be True to Your School". Here are the questions:</p>

<p>1) Did IB help in college prep? What helped? Writing skills? Study skills?</p>

<p>2) Did you receive college credit or advancement for your IB work? Did it help you to be advanced? </p>

<p>3)Did you graduate from college? What school? Or if still in college what was your GPA after 4 semesters? </p>

<p>4)If you graduated from college, are you in a career related to your college degree?</p>

<p>5) In high school, did you take any AP exams in addition to IB exams? If so, what did you score and did you take without additional preparation? Did your school offer joint IB/AP courses?</p>

<p>6)Did you get a Diploma or only IB certificate(s)? If certificates, how many? Where? What State or Country?</p>

<p>I am interested in getting as many responses as possible and compiling the answers. I will share with it with anyone who wants it after I get a large enough sample.</p>

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<p>You might get a better response if you post this in the College Life Forum instead of the Parents Forum, if you haven't done so already.</p>

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<p>I will be following responses to this thread as it is of dear interest of mine as well. S will be attending an IB school next year...</p>

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<p>Great questions. Isn't it funny how an organization (IBO)that has been selling its programmes for 40 years has never bothered to try and collect relevant data to support its claims of greatness? Oh sure, every IB proponent is sure to mention "studies" that claim that IB students are better prepared for university, but where are those studies? Where can we read them? </p>

<p>Truth</a> About International Baccalaureate</p>

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<p>I completed the IB diploma in Fairfax Co VA. I chose to go to the IB school instead of my own AP school which is considered a great H.S.</p>

<p>In terms of college admissions I think the IB diploma really helps. Adcms understand the rigor and the fact that IB diploma candidates can't pick and chose like AP students can. </p>

<p>In terms of college credit IB is valued less at colleges b/c the college board who owns the AP exams "sells" itself to universities and they understand it. The IB is much less understood by profs. Here is an example. An IB diploma candidate must take 5 years of one language. Most take SL b/c you must be a native speaker to take HL. So after 5 years of a language and a perfect IB score of 7 I got zero college credit. As an AP student I could have taken 3 years of a language 1 year of AP Language and with a score of 4 I would have received 8 credits.</p>

<p>I know a teacher who taught both IB and AP Spanish and he said that it is a marketing/money issue. The IB has to cover the whole world and the AP only covers the US. </p>

<p>In terms of taking the AP test it is not as clear cut as you would think. If I had thought of it, and had the time, I would have studied the AP language book gotten some tutoring and taken that test.</p>

<p>As far as being being prepared for college it would have worked out either way. As I said my regular H.S. has a great reputation for rigor, and all of the schools in FFX Co. are considered good.</p>

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<p>Since this is a parents' forum, you're going to get some answers from parents of IB students, rather than the IB students themselves.</p>

<p>My daughter is a second semester sophomore in college who completed the IB diploma program. Here's what I know about her experiences.</p>

<p>1) Did IB help in college prep? What helped? Writing skills? Study skills? Yes. Study skills, writing skills, experience with college-level work, time management, dealing with bureaucratic details.</p>

<p>2) Did you receive college credit or advancement for your IB work? Did it help you to be advanced? Yes and no. My daughter got absolutely no college credit for her IB work per se. Her college does not give credit for IB scores, no matter how high, in any SL subjects. It also does not happen to give credit for IB history or music, which were two of her HL subjects, and it gives credit for IB HL English only if you get a 7 (she got a 6). However, my daughter took AP tests as backups to several of her IB exams and got a total of 9 college credits that way (she got another 21 from AP tests that followed actual AP courses).She also found that introductory college courses were routine after completing IB and that there was no jump in difficulty between the last year of IB and the first year of college.</p>

<p>3)Did you graduate from college? What school? Or if still in college what was your GPA after 4 semesters? Only three semesters so far. Cornell. Above 4.0 (Cornell has A pluses).</p>

<p>4)If you graduated from college, are you in a career related to your college degree? NA</p>

<p>5) In high school, did you take any AP exams in addition to IB exams? If so, what did you score and did you take without additional preparation? Did your school offer joint IB/AP courses? She took three AP exams after IB courses (Environmental Science after SL Environmental Systems, English Language after HL English, Spanish Language after SL Spanish) with no additional preparation and got 5s on all of them (she got two 6s and a 7 on the corresponding IB tests). This would not work as well for all IB students, though. Her school specifically designs its courses to prepare kids for both tests.</p>

<p>6)Did you get a Diploma or only IB certificate(s)? If certificates, how many? Where? What State or Country? Diploma. Maryland</p>

<p>Question you didn't ask: Now that the student is in college, does he/she think IB was worth it? * She very definitely thinks it was worth it.*</p>

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<p>
[quote]
This would not work as well for all IB students, though. Her school specifically designs its courses to prepare kids for both tests.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I wish my HS had done that.</p>

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<p>Vistany,</p>

<p>My kids' classes are combined HL IB & AP Lit, SL IB & AP Lang. The teachers go by the AP Lit curriculum because it's more challenging.The Spanish SAT II, HL IB and APs are all very difficult for non-native speakers. Anyone can take the AP language exam without a special course; it is just very difficult if you're not a native speaker. (At many schools, a high SAT II score will work just as well for placement.)</p>

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<p>I did the SAT II route and got placement but those 8 credits would have been nice.</p>

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<p>Vistany,
Are you an IB graduate or still in high school? If a graduate and been or going to college, can you answer the questions.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
Are you an IB graduate or still in high school?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I am a first year at UVa. I thought I did answer them..</p>

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<p>Sorry, I missed the response was from you. Thanks for you answers.</p>

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<p>
[QUOTE]
In terms of college credit IB is valued less at colleges b/c the college board who owns the AP exams "sells" itself to universities and they understand it.

[/QUOTE]
</p>

<p>This is incorrect information. Colleges grant credit for AP exams more readily than IB because The College Board has aligned the curriculum of its courses with intro college level courses. This is why AP can truly declare its courses to be "college-level" while IB can only claim its courses to be "college-preparatory". IBO has had 40 years to align or better yet, have its courses vetted by college credit policy setters and has chosen instead to stamp its feet and whine about how unfair it is that its SL courses don't get credit.</p>

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<p>some people are against IB because they think it's unpatriotic, or some other nonsense. I think that's what Observer is trying to get at. There are a lot of those lurking around.</p>

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<p>Yes, ObserverNY has long been opposed to IB, ever since it entered her children's high school. She frequently posts on the Washington Post's "admission 101" forum, a forum in her neck of the woods called "leader online" and has her own website now (which she linked above). </p>

<p>OP, if you want info from students (and your questions are certainly geared towards them) you should probably pose the questions on another thread.</p>

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<p>


I have yet to see a single college guarantee a scholarship to AP students. Quite</a> a few offer scholarships to IB students.</p>

<p>America is behind the rest of the world in recognizing the IB programme. Certainly in the UK both the IB and A-levels are considered superior to AP. Anyone who has taken both IB and AP exams would laugh at the insinuation that AP is more difficult; multiple choice has no place in "college-level" examinations.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
1) Did IB help in college prep? What helped? Writing skills? Study skills?

[/quote]

The most useful thing I got was time management, an essential skill to have. Although I was assigned several hundred pages of reading a week and lengthy papers even in my first semester, I was well prepared. I hated taking it at the time, but TOK proved very useful for several of my courses.</p>

<p>
[quote]
2) Did you receive college credit or advancement for your IB work? Did it help you to be advanced?

[/quote]

I have enough credit to graduate a year early. </p>

<p>
[quote]
3)Did you graduate from college? What school? Or if still in college what was your GPA after 4 semesters?

[/quote]

4.0 major GPA, 3.8 overall GPA.</p>

<p>
[quote]
5) In high school, did you take any AP exams in addition to IB exams? If so, what did you score and did you take without additional preparation? Did your school offer joint IB/AP courses?

[/quote]

AP English (5), AP Calculus BC (5), AP Biology (5), AP Chemistry (5), AP Physics C (4), AP Psychology (5), AP French (4), AP US History (5). I took comparable IB classes to all of them except Calculus BC, which I took as an AP. </p>

<p>
[quote]
6)Did you get a Diploma or only IB certificate(s)? If certificates, how many?

[/quote]
Diploma, with two extra HL certificates.</p>

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<p>I'm a parent and my answers reflect my impressions of my son's experience.</p>

<p>1) Did IB help in college prep? What helped? Writing skills? Study skills?
Absolutely, not just writing skills but also analytic skills. Understanding of how to structure a research paper. Confidence in dealing with abstract ideas, both in writing and orally. </p>

<p>2) Did you receive college credit or advancement for your IB work? Did it help you to be advanced?
Not at all.</p>

<p>3)Did you graduate from college? What school? Or if still in college what was your GPA after 4 semesters?
Yes, Williams. I'd rather not reveal the GPA, but it was respectable.</p>

<p>4)If you graduated from college, are you in a career related to your college degree?
Yes, and planning on graduate school.</p>

<p>5) In high school, did you take any AP exams in addition to IB exams? If so, what did you score and did you take without additional preparation? Did your school offer joint IB/AP courses?
No, he didn't take any AP exams. His high school offered both IB and AP programs, but I don't remember if they offered joint courses.</p>

<p>6)Did you get a Diploma or only IB certificate(s)? If certificates, how many? Where? What State or Country?
Diploma. In Asia.</p>

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<p>Observer,
While I appreciate your right to have your opinion, I am seeking information from people who actually have experienced it by having taken and graduated from an IB program. They are the ones who would know whether they were prepared or not for college and whether it helped in their college career. I have gone over your website and I appreciate the information and I will file it. And by the way, I have read the studies that IBO has referred to and the National Research Council , Fordham and National Research Council and the even the National Center for the Gifted They are available for those that want to read and learn from them. All you have to do is ask the authors or query the Internet to find them. AP and IB are both fine college prep programs. Thanks for contributing.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
I have gone over your website and I appreciate the information and I will file it.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I read the website too. Must of what was said was contrary to my experience in the IB Diploma program. I never felt that the curriculum was anti American. There is no way my parents would enroll me in a program that was. As a card carrying member of the National Eagle Scout Association and an Orthodox Christian I would have been unhappy with anything approaching Anti Americanism. Math is Math, Spanish is Spanish. The IB program is simply a body of work with specific requirements. No hidden agenda.</p>

<p>As far as the parents who did not want their students to attend an IB school you can always pupil place in Fairfax County into an AP school just as i pupil placed into an IB school. The IB is alive and well in South Lakes High School, although I didn't go there. Overall I felt the website was a collection of articles that were against the IB.</p>