My son is midway through his freshman year of the IB (international baccalaureate) program at our local high school. I guess it’s technically pre-IB as the official curriculam for the IB program doesn’t start until the Junior year.
Are their any dopers that graduated from the IB program? What was your experience? Do you think you well prepared for college/university as a result of the IB program? Any negatives, or things you regret?
Also dopers that are parents of IB kids, please feel free to respond as well.
My son went through part of the IB program but didn’t finish it. Most students don’t. He actually didn’t make very good grades either. He has gotten college credit for some of the IB classes, so I guess that is sort of a good thing. Otherwise I don’t think it was a good fit for him. The school pushes the program on all college bound student even though they know only a small precentage will finish and, I think, he would have been better served by normal level classes. Why they can’t just call it “honors” or something I’ll never understand.
If you son is a very good student and is college bound then the IB program is a great idea. The classes are more college-like, the material is more difficult and the teachers are more motivated and the best available at the school (depending on how you measure). If your child is not in the top 10% then I would say avoid the program, it is not meant for him. Just my opinion.
There are a couple of threads out there if you search, maybe try “programme”? My daughter is applying into a High School program this week. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
I was in the IB diploma program. I hated it. They used the same mostly mediocre teachers, only now they were teaching out of different books–and I didn’t think the classes were like college classes at all. Entering that program was the third worst decision of my life.
Not that I oppose, in theory, more rigorous studies, but the way they decide what’s “approved” and what’s not is so draconian. I remember sitting in a meeting going over the CAS requirements, and a lot of things I wanted to do just wouldn’t count under their system, and I couldn’t take all the classes I wanted. Kids at that age should be allowed to follow their passions. So what if kids spend all their time with their worm farms? Maybe he/she will go into agricultural research. Lord knows we could use more of those, instead of another million liberal arts graduates. (Full disclosure: I myself am a liberal arts graduate.) That is, unless, we can turn essays on The Great Gatsby into some sort of renewable energy source. Then I retract my criticism.
In order to jump through the IB hoops I had to go from French III directly to French V because of scheduling issues, and predictably, I got destroyed in French V. Believe me, whatever terrible grade I got in that class harmed my college applications more than the diploma helped.
But of course, our “regular” education in my school system was actually not that bad in the grand scheme of public education in America, so elsewhere if IB is the difference between the great teacher and the awful one, then I could see how it could be worthwhile. But don’t do it just for kicks.
I graduated in 1994. I enjoyed my IB experience (more in hindsight than in the moment). It was a higher average stress level but with lower peaks than mainstream. I had mostly fantastic teachers and one real prick.
I went through the science stream (Higher Chem, Physics, and Geography, Subsidiary level English, French, and Math). So maybe my experience differs from ReticulatingSplines.
The benefits were primarily a faster pace (I was usually bored in school) and a motivated set of colleagues and classmates. Nothing in my experience sucks worse than having a class with another student who is determined to be disruptive and contrary and waste class time. This never happened in my IB classes.
The CASS activities we held were fun: recreational beach volleyball, curling, softball, etc. The field trips were interesting and beyond the usual for high school.
The extended essay allowed me to explore an academic area (chemistry) beyond what was taught in the class.
I got some college credits out of the deal, so I was able to skip the intro to Physics and intro to Chemistry classes and jump right into the more interesting bits of my degree.
The main reason I’m intrigued to see how this turns out (my daughter’s coming experience) is that I’ve heard from a few sources that the required change in study habits makes for an easier transition to college. When I was in High School I barely needed to study to get straight As, so when I finally hit a time when I really needed to study - probably my sophomore/junior years in college - it was jarring change. My daughter also tends to breeze by, so I’d rather she learn to adjust earlier versus later.
I lost my original reply to this thread, and I just posted the highlights above, and the main takeaway I got from writing it all out.
I was a breeze-by student through high-school, and I was one of about 4-5 people in my IB program who really didn’t need to study to get solid marks. I hit the wall very hard in my second semester in University because the material was familiar but I didn’t have the habit of doing the work required to pass the courses. My understanding from my friends in the same boat in high-school was that we all had the same issues in University.
We all were aware enough that we knew that the people who studied hard to get their A’s and B’s in IB were going to kick ass in University (and they did for the most part).
The main point is this: if IB brings up the work and challenge level that your daughter needs to start learning how to study and follow through with the work to maintain her marks, than it will aid her hugely in university. If it doesn’t challenge her enough she probably won’t be any worse off in university than she would be without and she should have a better time academically with an IB cohort that will learn at a faster pace.
Am I the only person who thought college was easier than high school (IB or no)? I hated pointless busywork, and it was a real struggle dealing with hours of tedium, like coloring in all the structures of a cell. I mean, if you can just kind of look at it and learn it, why waste time? I had good test scores and terrible homework grades. And my worst grades were not even in IB classes.
Conversely, in college, I had the freedom to learn however I wanted as long as I was ready for the 2-3 big exams or papers. It was very liberating. I actually had a higher GPA in college than HS.
I had good teachers. The workload was substantial, and did make for an easier transition to college in some respects. I didn’t have the same level of workload until my Jr. year of college, and I went to a college fairly well known for piling on the work (Harvey Mudd). I was not able to get college credit for any IB classes, and did not have the knowledge to test out of any classes, either.
A few of the IB courses were excellent. English and Theory of Knowledge taught me how to think about literature, and how to write a reasoned argument (GD was good practice, too). The math and science courses were not anything special. My understanding is that the upper level AP math courses are more challenging, but IB was what my high school offered. Be wary of high school classes that technically qualify as IB, but only teach part of the curriculum. If I hadn’t been interested enough in physics to read about relativity on my own, I probably wouldn’t have passed the physics IB test because the course didn’t really cover enough IB material.
I’m glad that I took IB classes over regular ones, but, in retrospect, I’d have been much better off if I’d taken the minimum required classes at high school and taken some more challenging courses in the local community college.
The school my children attend is 100% committed to the IB which may be an advantage over schools who use the same teachers to teach both regular school and the IB. They have already been through the Primary Years Program and have just started the Middle Years program so there shouldn’t be a massive shift in study habits by the time they reach Grade 11.
Every now and then I get nervous that I’m doing the right thing for my kids, especially knowing how hard it is going to get for them regardless of the advantage of being in the system since kindergarten. Sometimes the way they teach math freaks me out and don’t get me started on their policy regarding spelling. The CEO of the venture capital company that owns the school writes a column in the Times where he bangs on about how stupid the PYP is. It kind of irks me how he can be so happy to take my money and then trash the system in the paper.
but I digress…
For every time I feel nervous about it, there are 4 instances where they do something really cool, like send Grade 11 to Tanzania to build beds at the school for the blind and I feel better about it
I did partial IB. English, social studies and bio. It got me out of taking first year history once I got to university. I would say that it did a very good job of preparing me for what would be required in writing papers in university - I clearly remember a poli sci professor being really frustrated at how most of the class didn’t get the concept of research, sources and referencing them.
Thanks, Dancer_Flight, for the feedback. If I understood your point - that there is a potential positive and at worst she’s no worse off than a normal school - that is what I’m hoping for as an outcome. I’m probably overstating it to say that’s she just breezes by. She does study, occasionally, but only when she really has to, and she also has a tendency, like me, to put off until tomorrow anything that absolutely does not need to be done today.
That said, she’s bright and has a variety of talents. She scores highest or amongst the highest at her school in math and science, is a talented artist - both her mother and I have some artistic talent and is extremely creative, taught herself music on the keyboard when she was younger, is a very good soccer player. She has been very active in drama and chorus in middle school. When the teacher offered to have another boring cop out “Mixed Up musical” for the Spring she decided to write an original play to perform (the drama sponsor/teacher won’t put on plays that are copyrighted since they can’t afford to pay for the rights). She’s been invited to Duke TIP program, some Student Congress sort of thing and recently got some invite to do something in Australia over the summer - I’m pretty dubious on the last two.
Anyway, I’m looking for something to push and challenge her and particularly that she’ll have a peer group in high school that are equally motivated. The IB program she would go to has teachers that design the IB courses and they only teach IB courses. The IB students can still take classes in the non-IB sections, but IB courses/curriculum are only open to students who have been in IB since ninth grade. My only worry is that the program at this school has only been certified since four years ago and so hasn’t got a proven track record yet. But that’s only a minor concern from my POV. If the local school system were better we would probably not be looking at this, but Florida high schools are not known for their stringent standards.
My son’s school is the largest high school in town. Student population of about 2,300 in a community of 400,000 residents. The IB program consists of about 400 students (about 17% of the school), approx. 100 in each class (freshman, sophomore, junior and senior). This school’s IB program has been in place about 20 years. It is one of only 3 in the entire state. The program produces about 95% of the cities national merit semifinalist each year. The IB faculty are dedicated to teaching only IB classes. There is a separate principal for the IB group.
My son had been in a private college prepatory school from pre-school through 8th grade. The private school has a senior high school, but when I began to compare where graduating seniors were accepted and the amount of scholarships awarded to graduating students between the two different schools, the IB program won hands down.
He seems to have made the adjustment well, and also had a few friends from his private school join him in the IB program. I’m hoping that with the history of the program at his school and the support of the administration, he will find success here.
Where are you located? My daughter’s school is about half of that size, 1200 or so, one of the smallest in Tampa also with about 400 in the IB program. There are two other IB schools in our school district, and another one going through accreditation. I think that there are also two magnet schools focused on AP courses.
My high school, across the bay, was about the size of your son’s high school. When I graduated in 1980 there were four of us that were National Merit Semifinalists. The prior year there was one. The school that she would have gone to, just a “regular” school, if we hadn’t moved back down from Ohio, had 50 out of the same sized school, the last year we lived there. I don’t know how many this new school has produced, if any.