<p>Okay.</p>
<p>I'm a Junior in the I.B. Program. I didn't do pre-IB my freshman and sophomore years, I was in honors classes, and right now I am DROWNING. I know that Junior year is supposed to be tough in general, but my god do I want to kill myself(not really but yeah). I joined IB because I kind of really screwed my freshman and sophomore years up and I want a shot at getting into a decent college. However, at this point I'm questioning whether or not IB is actually worth all of this stress. I have no life, no extra time for friends and I'm pretty depressed. </p>
<p>So I guess my question is... is I.B. worth it? If you've graduated with an IB diploma how has that bettered your life? And who is IB for? I want to major in Environmental Science or Engineering in college and I want to go to school out of state(I'm in florida). Does IB help that? Please help.</p>
<p>Its impact on applications partly depends on how familiar the college is with IB. A couple of years ago an IB diploma student was waitlisted for our flagship state school, because his grades were lower Jr/Sr year because he did IB and the uni didn’t really “get” IB. After a letter from our IB coordinator, he was accepted, but that’s a case where IB had unintended consequences. I am really glad I did IB, because I felt really well prepared for college, but it may not be the best choice for everyone. Have you talked to a school guidance counselor about the concerns about stress/IB/college applications? I’m sure they’ve run into it before. It would be a good resource to use.</p>
<p>If you feel so strongly about IB, I would seriously consider dropping out. I decided to rough through it, and it did major damage to my GPA. As a senior, that creates problems with scholarships. Had I been aiming for a top tier college, there was no way I would’ve gotten in due to my unweighted GPA which suffered due to IB. If I could do it again, I would have stuck with AP/Honors.</p>
<p>I don’t know your specific school’s policies, but in our area, students can take IB coursework and not go for the entire IB diploma. So if you love your IB English course/teacher but not the math, then just do the IB English and transfer to regular math sequence. Also note that the courses are valuable for your preparation for actually doing college work once you get there.</p>