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Did it help you guys in ANYWAY by getting a place at a college of your choice? What about financial aid? Or are the colleges only joking when they say IB Diploma candidates are given better preference than those who didn't do it?
Cos i've known people who've done the IB Diploma and decided to go to relatively unknown colleges. What's that all about?

By Yourlocalmayor (Yourlocalmayor) on Thursday, April 17, 2003 - 03:05 pm: Edit

i know someone who did that and got an IB diploma...she was sick of being at a big high school, so she went to a smaller college than her high school.

Prestige isn't everything when people look at colleges.

By Divingin (Divingin) on Saturday, April 19, 2003 - 04:16 am: Edit

umm i did IB diploma, it's good for different things, bad for different things. LET ME EXPLAIN ...

it's wonderful if you want to go to europe or britain or something like that. basically if you don't want the states, it's the best way to go. gives you a very well rounded experience in h.s. with theory of knowledge and CAS and the six subjects from diff areas.

unfortuanately, it's not worth it if you're going to the states unless you have brilliant SAT scores to match. let me say why ... you take 3 (or if you're determined, 4) HIGHER subjects in IB along with 3 (or 2) standard subjects. IB higher subjects will get you college credit- like AP. however, unlike AP, IB is over a two year period (11th and 12th grade) whereas most ppl take a bunch of APs in 11th grade. As a result, your IB scores don't come out until july of your senior year (well afte ryou're admitted to college of course). as a result, ppl who have done AP are at an advantage because if they've gotten five 5s in APs at the end of their jr year, they're getting out of apx 5 freshman classes. by the end of their senior year, if htey've taken 5 more APs and aced them all, that's 10 freshman classes- like the first year off right?? well if you do IB, then the max credit you can get is like the equiv. of 4 AP classes. credit wise for college it's not worth it. neither is the fact that we have to wait around until july for results (after senior year is over). harvard even says that if you apply while you're still in IB (basically, beginning of senior year, you're still doing the diploma) you're at a disadvantage! therefore, you have to have brilliant SAT scores to somehow help even all of that out. i have seen ppl get into princeton and univ of pennsylvania on IB though, so it IS possible, but my advice is- if you have the option of doing 10 AP classes, TAKE THEM. only do IB if you're really planning on going to europe or IF you for some reason particularly are drawn to the program.

By Whosaysimdumb (Whosaysimdumb) on Saturday, April 19, 2003 - 10:14 am: Edit

Wow Divingin...i've waited to hear this sort of answer for a VERY long time so that i make the right decision. It's a miracle someone really answered my "doubts".
I am extremely interested in attending college in the US, so i will take your good advice.

By Divingin (Divingin) on Sunday, April 20, 2003 - 01:59 am: Edit

glad to have helped

By Pennian07 (Pennian07) on Sunday, April 20, 2003 - 07:36 am: Edit

I'll be taking my IB exams in a couple of weeks time...should be studying right now. I'm at the International School of Geneva (the institution that actually created the IB system). The IB only confers an advantage if you've taken the full diploma, NOT just certificates. Universities hold the diploma in very high esteem because it is such a rigorous and well rounded program, similar to the liberal arts education in the US. Anyway, I'm happy with the results...I'll be in U Penn next year and can't wait!! ;)

By Divingin (Divingin) on Monday, April 21, 2003 - 08:33 pm: Edit

yeah i did the IB diploma ... it was alright, i wonder what life would have been like had i done 10 APs in h.s. though. i'm heading to u of chicago.

By Whosaysimdumb (Whosaysimdumb) on Tuesday, April 22, 2003 - 08:09 am: Edit

i'm doing about 6 APs and 3 IB HL's.... i think that's quite fine with me. Well, i predict my SATs will be above 1300, HOPEFULLY...

BTW, how was IB English (HL)? Like what do you usually learn?

hope u guys enjoy it at U. of Chicago and UPenn...see! they're great universities.

By Divingin (Divingin) on Wednesday, April 23, 2003 - 09:12 pm: Edit

depends on who your teacher is ... i had an insanely HARD IB HL english teacher for the past two yrs- she was incredibly good, knew her stuff, but it was a real killer. basically IB HL english is divided into several parts, like world literature, school's free choice, etc. so under world lit, you study about 4 texts that are by greek or asian or int'l authors basically- we did "antigone" by sophocles, "black rain" by ibuse, "ghosts" by ibsen, and "medea" by euripides. and you do TWO world lit essays based on those four books. THEN you read stuff that's written by western writers like bronte- we read jane eyre ... and a couple of others, and based on THOSE texts you do a formal oral presentation that has been prepared. and you study a whole mess of poetry (or at least we did) by john donne and some other poets, and you get another formal oral based on one of those poetry/prose passages that you have studied but don't know until about 20 minutes before you have to go into the exam room and start talking. the 2 formal orals and the 2 IB essays are counted towards guided coursework, which amounts to a total of 50 percent of your entire IB english grade. yeah, so the exam isn't everything. other bks that we read- a portrait of the artist as a young man (joyce), 1984 (orwell), hamlet (shakespeare) and some stuff i'm sure that doesn't come to mind. yeah it's kinda messy, but hope this helped
btw, whenever you write a english HL essay ALWAYS put in a "personal response"- this is the killer part that my eng teacher always came down hard on. it's something that AP doesn't really care for, but IB are dead hard-core on it.

By Whosaysimdumb (Whosaysimdumb) on Thursday, April 24, 2003 - 07:50 am: Edit

yeah...it sounds like a REAL mess to me.
But i wouldn't mind any advanced english course, because so far, i've found everything easy. hahaha!

I think i'm gonna do IB, even tho the AP English teacher here is AWESOME but extremely tough. They actually say IB is easier....

But i really don't care about easy or hard, cos i just want to do whichever course is more fun.

By Divingin (Divingin) on Saturday, April 26, 2003 - 05:23 am: Edit

IB takes work, you learn quite a bit, and hmm LOTS OF MATERIAL.

By Poutingminotaur (Poutingminotaur) on Sunday, April 27, 2003 - 01:34 am: Edit

at my school is a little different.
im taking 6 IB tests this year... but at the same time I already have taken 4 APs.
in the time of the 2 year higher level course, by the end of the first year, we are ready for some of the AP test already. for example: 1st year of HL math = calc bc ap, 1st year of bio HL = bio ap, 1st year of history = us history ap. so afterall we get both the ap credit and the ib credit.
so personally it seems that at my school i get the best of both worlds. also, since the IB is like the pride of my school, all the administration and the teachers like twirl around the IB candidates. we get lotsa support and resources, at the same time, we can get away with lotsa things! hehe

By Scrsteven (Scrsteven) on Sunday, May 04, 2003 - 05:12 pm: Edit

I'm in IB (end of junior year) and it's not so hard- and I know I'm pretty much gonna pass all of my IB tests- and my IB classes correspond with APs, or at least most of them do- I'm taking 7 APs in the next few weeks and IBs in computer science and spanish. Next year will be similar; you can do IB and the courses are mostly AP/IB both, at least at my school.

By Whosaysimdumb (Whosaysimdumb) on Wednesday, May 07, 2003 - 05:57 am: Edit

Scrsteven, can i please know what IB classes you're taking?

By Scrsteven (Scrsteven) on Wednesday, May 07, 2003 - 01:08 pm: Edit

ib/ap computer science a
ib spanish 5 (and took ap spanish 4 first half the year)
ap/ib english language
i think thats it for this year

By Sybil_Vain (Sybil_Vain) on Sunday, May 11, 2003 - 05:04 am: Edit

IB: hard hard hard.
of course it totally depends on the courses...

Math HL is a killer!
I am sure that colleges will favour you if you're doing FULL IB DIPLOMA.
it is very rigorous and well rounded, definately harder than just taking a couple of AP's and believe me, THEY KNOW IT.

As for simple IB Certificates, I wouldn't know.
I guess some of them, like Math HL or History or Economics are probably considered hard- I mean,come on, if you're doing IB you must know yourself THAT ITS SO MUCH HARDER THAN AP.

However, lessons like Bussiness HL or Social Anthropology HL and the like will probably not help you as much.

By Divingin (Divingin) on Sunday, May 11, 2003 - 07:00 pm: Edit

history HL rocks- exam this tues and wednesday (yeah THREE papers baby!) ... total time: 5 HOURS! but i love hist anyway

By Unicorn (Unicorn) on Friday, May 16, 2003 - 07:54 am: Edit

the history paper sucked it has prbly ruined all my chances at uni in the UK.

i am pissed pissed pissed

(i do standard - wars and dictators + stalin documents)

By Divingin (Divingin) on Friday, May 16, 2003 - 10:34 pm: Edit

dang are you serious? i do HL ... i did the stalin document (paper 1), the causes practices and effects of war section for paper 2 (the china question on civil war) and single party states (quotation- all single party state leaders are ruthless, blind to human suffering quotation do you agree question) ... but i do have to say that paper 3 (although is supposed to be the hardest) was the best paper of all. best questions, couldn't have gotten better. are you a UK resident? coz i konw if you're int'l then they sometimes let you in even tho you don't get the exact points

By Sybil_Vain (Sybil_Vain) on Sunday, May 18, 2003 - 07:45 am: Edit

Hey divingin I did the single party state leaders too!
and Stalin for paper 1!
I thought it wasn't really hard, yet paper 3 was DEFINATELY easier than Paper 2!

Are u all done w/ IB? I had Math HL, Environmental Systems, Economics HL AND english first week, and then History, so now I only have Modern greek to go!!!!

However the first week REALLY sucked for me...
If you think 5h in two days is bad, you should try 5h in ONE day (3h paper 2 Math HL + 2h papers 1&2 economics) and then 6 more hours of studying at home (the following day i was taking four more exams -5 MORE HOURS!!!)

OH YES IB IS HARD -especially if ure unlucky enough to get a •••••• up schedule for your finals.

By Divingin (Divingin) on Monday, May 19, 2003 - 03:40 am: Edit

ok well get this ... i had history paper 3 (2 and a half hrs) in the morning and then chemistry papers 1 and 2 in the afternoon (total of 3 hrs and 15 mins). i was at school until freakin 5:00 pm that night!!! anyway and the next day i had the chem option paper 3 ... but everything's over!! i did econ in my first year of IB (standard) and got a 6 ... but it wasn't that hard last year- from what i heard econ SL was a killer this year ... was it??

By Divingin (Divingin) on Monday, May 19, 2003 - 03:41 am: Edit

Sybil_Vain, where are you going for college this fall?

By Sybil_Vain (Sybil_Vain) on Monday, May 19, 2003 - 10:33 am: Edit

I'm still trying to decide between Yale and Oxford... what do u think?

I'm doing Econ HL and I thought the paper was harder than most past papers... especially the Essays in paper 3 -I thought they were too vague.

Math HL on the contrary was much easier than I expected it to be...

By Divingin (Divingin) on Tuesday, May 20, 2003 - 02:19 am: Edit

depends ... i know if you're a UK resident oxford's pretty good in terms of finances. but if they're both the same financially and it doesn't matter, i'd go with yale.

By Sybil_Vain (Sybil_Vain) on Wednesday, May 21, 2003 - 11:47 am: Edit

well I am not a UK resident but I'm an EU resident so it's still very cheap.
but I think I kind of like yale better.

and what about you? where are you going to college?

By Poutingminotaur (Poutingminotaur) on Wednesday, May 21, 2003 - 06:51 pm: Edit

the tests over all i thought was ok. i had a test everyday for first week. then i did history HL and now i have two more test to go... math further studies and latin SL tomorrow. so i'll probably test for like 6 hours tomorrow!

By Divingin (Divingin) on Thursday, May 22, 2003 - 06:02 am: Edit

Poutingminator: all the best w/ your exams ... only two to go!! just think- you've done all this work for two freakin years and now you get to show them ALL THAT EFFORT ... yay! almost there!

Sybil_Vain: go with yale! i'll be at the university of chicago this fall duke waitlisted me, princeton and harvard said no (but that was pretty normal i guess ...).