<p>IB was definitely worth it. The extreme rigor was just what i needed to motivate me to succeed!</p>
<p>I will tell ya after I get the scores back in July… :D</p>
<p>However, right now, it seems like it has. While I have developed as a student, I have also developed into a competative, passionate, and learned person, both of which are important in the eyes of the officals.</p>
<p>My son just completed a 4-year IB program. It was a wonderful program for many reasons. 1). All the kids into the Junior Year (50% drop out Freshman/Sophomore), were very engaged. 2). He was in a tight knit school of kids just like him. Hence, he was influenced to perform. 3). He came out of the IB program beyond fluent in Spanish (he received the “Native in the Second Language” award 3). Fluent in English. Now while my kid consistently tested in the top 1-2 percentile IQ and just about everything else, he just thought writing was “too much work” and well you do not get to be a good writer unless you practice. So many projects and papers over time he nailed the ACT with near perfect score and became at the top 1 percentile in English from the lower 20th percentile. If he went to our local HS, no doubht he would not have had to step up his performance to the IB level. Now, for college. Did it get him into the college of choice (Cal Tec, MIT, Harvard, NO. Did it get him into a top 5 Engineering School, yes. Did othter kids from his class get into what are viewed as the top schhols in the US, yes. Bottom line, hard work does benefit you for life. An education is never a waste of time or too much work. You can never get “too much free education”. Our IB school was comparable to high cost boarding schools ($45K / Year + Room and Board). Busy work or not, bottom line no matter how smart you are or what degree you have when you get out into the world the world will expect you to perform intensly. You will face intense competition, do “busy work that you see as stupid”, re write papers over and over and over, etc. If you can do this in high school you are prepared for the workforce. If you do this in High School this thought process and work ethic flows with you in life. If you believe it is “too much work” and / or “not going to get you free college credit”, and / or “not going to be viewed as better than so why do all that extra work”, your future is doubtful. You choose a path for life; not a short term goal</p>
<p>Those saying there are no benefits to the IB diploma are clearly wrong. D1 got the IB diploma. She got into gr8 school with low admit rate…same GPA as a couple of friends, same ACT score 31, similar EC’s the only difference essay and IB diploma. The other 2 didn’t get admitted. Second, several state schools threw her immediate merit money based on the IB dipoloma…not the GPA or test score. Third, while her college is tough, she notices that her peers who didn’t have IB, are not used to the writing rigor that the college is demanding. Her h.s. experience makes this almost second nature to her. Finally…D2 is a rising h.s. senior this summer. Has visited a well thought of public with good honors program. They’ve already told her that her IB dipoloma will elevate her status for admit to the honors program given similar grades as the next person. With all that said, IB is not for everyone. And one other caveat. D1 says that she had to really work hard in college freshman year with multiple choice tests. She had gotten rusty on taking them. AP candidates may initially excel in college with multi choice test based classes. However that challenge is quickly overcome. Good luck all.</p>