Hello, my son has been accepted to an IB program. It’s a very large program that has been in place for over 15 years – maybe close to 20. This year the IB program will have 160 graduating seniors.
My son is leaning toward the honors/AP route.
I’m curious to hear from students and parents.
Did your parents have an influence in your decision? Did they encourage you or even press you to do IB?
Are you able to participate in band, sports, and clubs?
Are you able to socialize with friends who are not in the IB program?
What do your summers and weekends look like? Do you have free time during weekends?
How about evenings and sleep? Is it true that kids are up until the wee hours doing homework on a regular basis?
My parents actually forbade me to take IB, and I had to do a lot of work to convince them. I’m so glad that I did! I love it, and I can’t imagine having done anything else. The work load isn’t really that bad, if you manage your time well. That being said, it’s definitely not for everyone. There is a lot of writing involved, and you will have most of your classes with the same people; if those things will bother your son, he might not be great for this program.
I’m actually in a lot of extracurricular activities. I’m a member of the school’s Optimist Club (volunteerism), Spanish Club, DECA, and National Honor Society. I’m also captain of a tutoring group for elementary schools, and I founded a volunteer organization at the high school. I have time to play the piano every day, which also counts for part of an IB requirement.
Something to keep in mind is that IB practically requires you to be involved in clubs and sports. You need to fulfill Creativity, Action, and Service requirements in order to get the diploma, meaning that you need to participate in the arts, physical activity, and volunteerism.
I actually don’t hang out with the kids in IB very much; most of my friends are in general classes. It’s great to have the support of a group of students for such a difficult curriculum, but I like to keep school separate from friends.
I always have homework on the weekends, but I definitely have some free time as well. It all depends on how you manage your time. A lot of kids work on their Extended Essays during the summer, but these are not due at the start of the year. I did not begin my EE until the beginning of senior year, and everything worked out very well. I used the summer to get a job and hang out with friends.
Yes, it is true that you may have to sacrifice sleep for IB. Again, this depends on how involved you are in your classes and how much you care about your schoolwork. The work load varies a lot throughout the year; there are some weeks when I get 8 hours of sleep a night, and others where I pull two or three all-nighters in a row. Really, the lack of sleep is not nearly as bad as it sounds when you’re actually in IB. A lot times, I didn’t want to go to bed because I enjoyed what I was doing. (Also, I’m a pretty intense student. )
Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any more questions.
Not really, but I had a family tradition of doing IB with two older siblings who graduated from the program. I mostly wanted to do it myself. I find that kids in IB bond through the program (well my program is a lot smaller at around 50 students). I liked the structure of it, and having a coordinator. AP classes aren't really stimulating for me.
Definitely - in fact I may have participated in too much. I suck at sports but I was captain of the debate and mock trial teams, editor of the newspaper, president of NHS...the list goes on and on. Many of my friends did sports and band, sports and clubs, etc.
I have 2 elective classes, and in those I get to be with non-IB friends. Other than that, we eat lunch together sometimes and text, and see each other outside of school. Some have definitely drifted away, but my real friends have stuck with me.
Summers aren't really dependent on IB. I spent them sleeping, hanging out with friends, working, and taking service trips. During the weekends I listen to music and basically do nothing.
My lack of sleep is entirely due to procrastination. I get home at 2:30 and start my homework at 9 or 10:00- for absolutely no reason. All of my friends who manage their time well get about 7 hours of sleep, but people who save massive projects and essays for the night before, or start all their homework at 10:00 on Sunday night (like me) get little sleep. I average 4 hours. But again, don't let that scare you. If your kid has any skill at time management he will get more sleep than I do.
@Melissawilliams, I definitely agree with the procrastination part. A lot of IB kids are major procrastinators. I also average around 4 hours a night in a normal week, but it’s definitely possible to get more.
We live in the best school district on Cape Cod but D really wanted to go to the IB school 10 miles from our house. It was a lottery and she got in. I didn’t really care one way or the other (she would have been all AP at the traditional school). My issue was distance and lack of transportation. She had to ride public buses one hour each way. If there was a half day, delay or after-school activity, the bus didn’t make a stop at the school and she had to trek from the closest stop to school and it was easily a 20 minute walk. It didn’t take her long to learn how to ask for a ride from someone heading that way though. When I could, I picked her up but the deal was that it couldn’t be a hardship for me work-wise.
Now that she has a license and car she has joined more activites and is VP of the senior class. She has always done a capella and has been the bookstore manager for the past three years. Other than that, she is very involved in girl scouts in our town.
Honestly, her socializing is broken up into two cliques, for lack of a better word: she has her friends from this IB high school but spends just as much time with her three best friends from middle school. At issue for her is the travel/distance from everyone - her middle school was/is a regional school that spans about 40 miles to the east of our home and her high school is also regional and spans about 40 miles to the west of us. So her two best friends (who are not friends lol) live at least 30 minutes away in different directions. Again, she now has a license and car and that frees her up tremendously.
She absolutely makes no plans for school nights other than her two hour job tutoring a Latin student, her girl scouts and community service commitments. She spends approximately 3 hours each night on homework (she gets home at 4, prefers an early dinner, and then hits the books around 6) and usually half day Sunday. Friday night and Saturday is free time for the most part unless there are exams or a special project that she might have get behind on. She works five days waitressing breakfast in the summer and this summer will pick up two nights elsewhere as well, probably add up to 35-40 hours/week all told.
Until she turned 16 we had a 9:30 lights out rule, no excuses. About mid-way through her sophomore year, it became evident that she had a handle on her sleep patterns and didn’t need any “rules” per se. She understands how important it is (well, to me anyways lol) to get 8 hours of sleep, eat well, etc. She now generally goes to her room around 9, watches a program and lights out about 10. She’s up at 6:15 every morning. I do see that the pattern is changing a bit, she’s staying up a bit later on weekends and sleeping in a bit more on Sunday especially (9:30 or so). I no longer feel that it’s my place to make those kinds of decisions for her athough I will prod her if I know she’s up late texting with friends, just a friendly reminder that she doesn’t want to be tired in the am.
Thank you for the replies. They are very helpful. The late nights scare me because my son can be a procrastinator. I too agree that as he gets older it is not my place to try to control his behavior or dictate his sleep schedule.
How about your goals or your child’s goals for college? Did you choose IB because you are aiming for a prestigious college, or are you seeking a challenge or hoping to be better prepared for college or a combination? I see that one commenter is a Brown hopeful.
How about other students in your program? Are most of them shooting for prestigious colleges/colleges with lower acceptance rates?
Have students dropped out of your program? If so, do you know the reasons? Our local program actively recruits applicants. I have wondered why when it is such a large program, with a great reputation, and the highschool itself is overcrowded. There are numerous portables because so many people want to attend the school in general. Thank you again for the replies.
I think that IB is definitely a plus for selective colleges, but that is not the reason I chose to take it. I really just wanted to challenge myself and improve my writing skills. Most of the IB kids at my school are applying to one or two “reach schools” (Ivies, etc.), and a few more safeties closer to home.
My school’s IB program is pretty rigorous, so not everyone graduates. We have had quite a few drop-outs, and a few more who hate the program and stuck with it anyways. Most of the IB kids love their classes, but there are a few who clearly weren’t right for the program and decided to push through. (They are all very smart, but not really a good fit for IB.)
As far as sleep goes - if you are really worried about how much sleep your son gets, I’m not sure whether IB would be best for him. My parents don’t usually know how late I stay up to work, but the few times they have seen me studying at 3:00 in the morning have caused some serious conflicts.
Well my school’s program is open to any student - there’s no application process. I think because of that, we’ve had 3 dropouts. They were the kids who everyone was wondering “Why are they even in this…?” to begin with. Never did homework, complete slackers, etc. And then there are those few kids who don’t get the diploma (due to complete slacking). But it really isn’t hard to get the diploma, so don’t let that scare you.
My goals going into IB were to apply to top schools, and I really think that doing IB played a role in my acceptance to Harvard and Yale. Not everyone is aiming for ivies so don’t let that isolate you or your son. I just wouldn’t even know how to make my schedule rigorous enough if I was in AP - I’d probably overdo it and crush my GPA. I like that IB structures it so you have to have this many SLs (two at my school), this many HLs (at my school the most anyone does is 3, so i’m constantly baffled at CC people).
The IB crowd at my school at least tends to look outside of the state schools or local community college, although those are great options for everyone. It really varies from student to student, although my school as a whole is very average and not very competitive. And even though this isn’t verifiable, there have been several competitive AP students rejected from the state school, while kids in our IB program tend to get in (at least that’s what our coordinator has told us).
My two siblings at top 25 schools have told me time and again that IB was as hard or harder than college (probably because they get to sleep in!!) Looking back, I never REALLY struggled (except in Math SL and now in Math HL), so I would advise your son to pick fun classes he’ll enjoy, not classes that look tough to pad his applications.
I can second the part about it not being hard to get the diploma. Looking at some of the required writing, like the Extended Essay, the minimum grade is a D to pass. (It’s not easy to do worse than that.) The actual material is, oftentimes, not much harder than a more rigorous honors class. Don’t let the fact that IB is a “program” scare you.
Hi! I am in the program right now and will complete it by the end of the year
Our school offers only IB for 11th and 12th grade tho we have a choice between diploma and certificate. I chose the full program because colleges like to see IB Diploma on an application and my parents were ok either way.
2.I am in all 3 actually and it was fairly manageable if you have good study habits.
All my friends are in the IB program.
Summer is a lot of work but I can be free on weekends if I study 4 hours a day.
I have never been up late because I work when I get home and I stuck to the deadlines.
I personally think it’s a lot of work and wouldn’t take it again if I had the chance. It may look good but there is a LOT of work. A levels would be easier.
Our daughter was already leaning towards IB in 8th grade (you have to apply and be accepted to the program, as it is only at one school in the district). She did get a little nervous when people started sharing stories of pain and misery. Some were first hand and positive, but a lot were "friend of a friend of friend I know was IB and they traveled through the circles of hell" type tales. Our conversations were more along the lines of having her look at the kind of student she was, what she was capable of and which program was the best fit to her academic needs. We wanted her challenged, because at some point in our academic life, we all are.
D was a varsity and year round swimmer the entire time. She also coaches.
For our D, almost all of the friends she hangs with are not IB. Mostly, she hangs with her boyfriend and other swimmers.
D usually takes Friday night off, and a great deal of Saturday. Sunday is a work day, if she has it. Her school block schedules, and this year, we allowed her to choose whether to fill her one free block with something just to fill it, or take it as free time. The classes she could fill it with were limited, because IB does dictate what classes she could fill it with due to the mandatory classes and the times they were at. She pretty much was looking at another Art or other elective at the 4.0 level. She chose free time to protect her GPA, but uses it to work at home.
Up late only up late if she procrastinates, and sometimes, during the height of swim season. Never have I seen her go past midnight.
The kids in her class are all over the map as to where they apply and for what disciplines. IB doesn’t mean you can afford any university/college, especially at our high school. The kids here are solid middle class. I have seen Ivy, to top notch state flagships, selective LACs to ones I have never heard of, and a even few that have made me scratch my head. One of the head scratchers was a free ride, and that can be very hard to turn down for our families.
I will say that attrition has been… not insignificant. But of the ones I know of, most were a stretch for the program to begin with, with one or two who bailed because the mandatory courses and restrictive scheduling limited them in what they wished to pursue.
I am a parent of 2 IB students. My daughter is a senior, son is a sophomore. I liked how IB helped prepare them for college curriculum. They both take AP classes as well which are just as challenging. All of the students that we know that have already graduated find college about the same difficulty level or easier than high school. Both kids wanted to do IB with no parental pressure.
My daughter is in 3 varsity sports (basically year round) and is an officer in student government, active in United Way and in 3 other school clubs. My son is is 1 varsity sport, 8 clubs and an officer in 4 of them.
Both kids never really socialize with non-IB students by choice.
They have summer reading and essays to write on 1 book.... no big deal. The extended essay is also not as bad as they thought it would be (4000 word maximum). My daughter did hers that combined with her science project, so it was a 2-for-1!
Never needed a late night until senior year. They each have about 2 hours a night homework except for big projects that take up more time. They do work on projects over the weekends. We find that ALL IB students are procrastinators! ALL of them!!
I am sure each IB school is different, we are in central Florida with 2 IB schools in our town. I think our school (120 IB students in a class of 400) has seen about 10% drop out of IB before Junior year.
Not much. It was mostly up to me as the school I attended at the time (non-IB school) also had a program that was equivalent to IB (a levels) that would get me into colleges. I actually applied to the IB program at the school I currently attend on a whim as a safety option in case I didn’t want to stay at my old school anymore (teaching was horrendous there). After I got into the program and talked to the IB coordinator my parents were really impressed and thought I should seriously consider attending and forgo applying to the school in my area that follows the American curriculum (my top choice). I did A LOT of research on the pros and cons of doing the IB diploma in comparison to A levels and AP. I found that the pros of attending the IB schools (in terms of teaching, extracurriculars on offer and opportunities) far outweighed the cons of the IB diploma program. Do note that I wasn’t merely deciding between IB/AP/A levels, I was also deciding between schools as the AP & A level schools had less opportunities, AP school was less academically rigorous and the A level school had pretty bad teachers.
Yes, definitely. In fact, I’m much more involved extracurricular wise in IB than I ever was in my schooling career. The school I currently attend has way more activities that interest me and as such I’m involved in a lot more extracurriculars. With that being said, I’m not involved in a team sport (which takes up A LOT of time in my school) but I am involved in pretty time consuming activities (community service - run some of them, Editor of school magazine, MUN, peer tutoring etc). As with everything, if you do it in moderation you’ll be fine and will still be able to do well school wise and get involved. A lot of my friends are always complaining about how their CAS activities are interfering with their school work - that isn’t how I feel and that’s because I don’t take on too much. If your son balances out his school work with his extracurricular then he should be fine!
All the students in my school are doing the IB diploma or are taking several IB classes so I don’t think I’ll be able to answer this question. However, I do still keep in touch with friends from my other school and we do go out occasionally so I wouldn’t stay that doing IB has hindered my social life.
I’m in my first year of IB so I can’t say answer your question on how my summer was. My weekends are pretty hectic in all honesty. I’ve got HORRIBLE study habits and thus only study (or should I say cram) for all my tests the night before the test. To get over that bad habit, I try to study read over my notes and what not over the weekends but it hasn’t worked thus far I’m the type of person who leaves all their big projects (posters, presentations etc) and essays for the weekend. And since IB is notorious for high workload, I’ve got A LOT of work to get through in the weekend. It usually takes a full day during the weekend to get through all the school work I’ve got so I’m typically only free for one/half a day during the weekends which isn’t all that bad as that was how it was before I was in the IB diploma program (+ I’m a perfectionist so…).
I sleep as much as I did before IB, so 6-8 hours. That only applies to people that have bad time management skills. I’ve yet to pull an all-nighter and I doubt I’ll ever need to. I just do all my big projects in advance so I never feel the need to finish a bunch of work the night before it’s due. The key is to organize yourself and get your work done well in advance of the deadline so all your work doesn’t pile up (very common in IB!). The only time so far that I’ve slept for <5 hours was the night before a big biology test - studying for tests is the ONLY thing that keeps me up late at night (I mentioned my study habits before…that explains why lol :stuckouttongue: ).
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I’m the type of person who leaves all their big projects (posters, presentations etc) and essays for the weekend. And since IB is notorious for high workload, I’ve got A LOT of work to get through in the weekend. It usually takes a full day during the weekend to get through all the school work I’ve got so I’m typically only free for one/half a day during the weekends which isn’t all that bad as that was how it was before I was in the IB diploma program (+ I’m a perfectionist so…).