City College IB program

[Anonymous]

I noticed the Poly ingenuity question didn't get any responses so not sure if there's anyone on here who can speak to City, particularly the IB program? How do people compare quality of academics at City versus Poly? Poly has higher SAT probably because of Igenuity, but for a child who is good in the math and sciences but doesn't find the Ingenuity strong focus on STEM appealing and is leaning towards the humanities or a more well rounded curriculum, would he be better served at City? How many kids actually make it through the full IB curriculum? Any overall thoughts on City versus Poly in terms of vibes and students and curriculum?

[Anonymous]

For both these questions, you may get more responses on the Baltimore City Kids FB group. I think there’s a relatively small cohort of parents on here who live in the city and send their kids to city schools.

I’m one of them but my kids are younger, so no high school intel. We’ve had friends whose kids were happy in both programs, but no first-hand experience.

[Anonymous]

My kid is a graduate of City's IB program. I have mixed feelings about City and BCPS in general, but I will say BCC has a lot of very strong, dedicated teachers and they definitely helped sharpen my kid's writing skills, such that going to college and writing a 1200 word paper is no big deal.

Regarding IB, my kid will say they prefer AP to IB because the curricula is more straight forward and it seems like the AP credits are more widely accepted at colleges. (Though the second part might be a function of the college my child chose to attend.)

The positive of the IB program is that it's truly open to all -- that's one of City's mottos, "IB for All." On the other hand, I think there has been some watering down of the curriculum recently. For instance, where Theory of Knowledge (TOK) used to be a one-year class, it is now a two-year class, with most of the second year spent as a study hall cajoling the kids into finishing the paper they wrote in junior year. Likewise, the history curriculum for juniors and seniors seemed excessively focused on the IB history exam (i.e. we will cover Ghana both years, so that you can write about that in your exam.) Also, I think the City kids were not doing well on the IB Chemistry exam, so that is no longer one of the science paths the IB kids can choose from.

I think City can be a great education if your kid is self motivated. But if they're not motivated, it seems pretty easy to hide in large-ish classes and coast on grade inflation.

As you probably know, the school has been relocated to the UB campus for the next few years, which means sports are generally happening elsewhere. I don't think sports should determine the decision, but it's worth noting.

Anyway, that's my $.02. No school is perfect. My kid did fine. Good luck to you and your student!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is a graduate of City's IB program. I have mixed feelings about City and BCPS in general, but I will say BCC has a lot of very strong, dedicated teachers and they definitely helped sharpen my kid's writing skills, such that going to college and writing a 1200 word paper is no big deal.

Regarding IB, my kid will say they prefer AP to IB because the curricula is more straight forward and it seems like the AP credits are more widely accepted at colleges. (Though the second part might be a function of the college my child chose to attend.)

The positive of the IB program is that it's truly open to all -- that's one of City's mottos, "IB for All." On the other hand, I think there has been some watering down of the curriculum recently. For instance, where Theory of Knowledge (TOK) used to be a one-year class, it is now a two-year class, with most of the second year spent as a study hall cajoling the kids into finishing the paper they wrote in junior year. Likewise, the history curriculum for juniors and seniors seemed excessively focused on the IB history exam (i.e. we will cover Ghana both years, so that you can write about that in your exam.) Also, I think the City kids were not doing well on the IB Chemistry exam, so that is no longer one of the science paths the IB kids can choose from.

I think City can be a great education if your kid is self motivated. But if they're not motivated, it seems pretty easy to hide in large-ish classes and coast on grade inflation.

As you probably know, the school has been relocated to the UB campus for the next few years, which means sports are generally happening elsewhere. I don't think sports should determine the decision, but it's worth noting.

Anyway, that's my $.02. No school is perfect. My kid did fine. Good luck to you and your student!

Thank you! Would you mind elaborating a bit more on why you have mixed feelings about City? I agree no school is perfect. DC is in Ingenuity middle school right now and doing well, but for various reasons is turned off by Poly. I may be overworrying and overthinking the differences between schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is a graduate of City's IB program. I have mixed feelings about City and BCPS in general, but I will say BCC has a lot of very strong, dedicated teachers and they definitely helped sharpen my kid's writing skills, such that going to college and writing a 1200 word paper is no big deal.

Regarding IB, my kid will say they prefer AP to IB because the curricula is more straight forward and it seems like the AP credits are more widely accepted at colleges. (Though the second part might be a function of the college my child chose to attend.)

The positive of the IB program is that it's truly open to all -- that's one of City's mottos, "IB for All." On the other hand, I think there has been some watering down of the curriculum recently. For instance, where Theory of Knowledge (TOK) used to be a one-year class, it is now a two-year class, with most of the second year spent as a study hall cajoling the kids into finishing the paper they wrote in junior year. Likewise, the history curriculum for juniors and seniors seemed excessively focused on the IB history exam (i.e. we will cover Ghana both years, so that you can write about that in your exam.) Also, I think the City kids were not doing well on the IB Chemistry exam, so that is no longer one of the science paths the IB kids can choose from.

I think City can be a great education if your kid is self motivated. But if they're not motivated, it seems pretty easy to hide in large-ish classes and coast on grade inflation.

As you probably know, the school has been relocated to the UB campus for the next few years, which means sports are generally happening elsewhere. I don't think sports should determine the decision, but it's worth noting.

Anyway, that's my $.02. No school is perfect. My kid did fine. Good luck to you and your student!

Thank you! Would you mind elaborating a bit more on why you have mixed feelings about City? I agree no school is perfect. DC is in Ingenuity middle school right now and doing well, but for various reasons is turned off by Poly. I may be overworrying and overthinking the differences between schools.

As someone whose kids have been in BCPS from K-12, I have mixed feelings about city schools in general. I imagine my frustrations with City (large classes, an admin that often seems indifferent, a few bad teachers) would also apply to Poly. If your kid is self-motivated, they will likely stand out and do great at City. If your kid is not self-motivated, but still engaged enough to show up regularly, they will probably do well enough at City. If your kid is frustrated by classmates who often don't complete assignments, they will be frustrated by City. When my City grad went to college they were pleasantly surprised to be surrounded by other kids who cared about school -- which is an indirect statement about City.

FWIW, I think BCPS's new policy banning student cell phone use is 1. being implemented and 2. having a positive impact. Also, I'd like to think that student engagement is increasing somewhat as we get further away from the COVID shutdown of schools. Finally, I want to reiterate that the majority of the teachers my kid had at City were really good. I think the middle school Ingenuity programs have a tendency to push Poly on the kids, but don't sleep on City!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is a graduate of City's IB program. I have mixed feelings about City and BCPS in general, but I will say BCC has a lot of very strong, dedicated teachers and they definitely helped sharpen my kid's writing skills, such that going to college and writing a 1200 word paper is no big deal.

Regarding IB, my kid will say they prefer AP to IB because the curricula is more straight forward and it seems like the AP credits are more widely accepted at colleges. (Though the second part might be a function of the college my child chose to attend.)

The positive of the IB program is that it's truly open to all -- that's one of City's mottos, "IB for All." On the other hand, I think there has been some watering down of the curriculum recently. For instance, where Theory of Knowledge (TOK) used to be a one-year class, it is now a two-year class, with most of the second year spent as a study hall cajoling the kids into finishing the paper they wrote in junior year. Likewise, the history curriculum for juniors and seniors seemed excessively focused on the IB history exam (i.e. we will cover Ghana both years, so that you can write about that in your exam.) Also, I think the City kids were not doing well on the IB Chemistry exam, so that is no longer one of the science paths the IB kids can choose from.

I think City can be a great education if your kid is self motivated. But if they're not motivated, it seems pretty easy to hide in large-ish classes and coast on grade inflation.

As you probably know, the school has been relocated to the UB campus for the next few years, which means sports are generally happening elsewhere. I don't think sports should determine the decision, but it's worth noting.

Anyway, that's my $.02. No school is perfect. My kid did fine. Good luck to you and your student!

Thank you! Would you mind elaborating a bit more on why you have mixed feelings about City? I agree no school is perfect. DC is in Ingenuity middle school right now and doing well, but for various reasons is turned off by Poly. I may be overworrying and overthinking the differences between schools.

As someone whose kids have been in BCPS from K-12, I have mixed feelings about city schools in general. I imagine my frustrations with City (large classes, an admin that often seems indifferent, a few bad teachers) would also apply to Poly. If your kid is self-motivated, they will likely stand out and do great at City. If your kid is not self-motivated, but still engaged enough to show up regularly, they will probably do well enough at City. If your kid is frustrated by classmates who often don't complete assignments, they will be frustrated by City. When my City grad went to college they were pleasantly surprised to be surrounded by other kids who cared about school -- which is an indirect statement about City.

FWIW, I think BCPS's new policy banning student cell phone use is 1. being implemented and 2. having a positive impact. Also, I'd like to think that student engagement is increasing somewhat as we get further away from the COVID shutdown of schools. Finally, I want to reiterate that the majority of the teachers my kid had at City were really good. I think the middle school Ingenuity programs have a tendency to push Poly on the kids, but don't sleep on City!

Thank you! I must admit your response did worry me slightly. I agree with the large classes and indifferent, even stubbornly difficult, administration that seems par for course for every city school, but your comment about peer motivation has me concerned. There's a part of me that thinks we should just sell up and move to Towson and not have to worry about school choices. But DC has good discipline and motivation and I've seen the City class of 2025 Instagram and there's a good number of kids going to great colleges, so I figure as long as DC keeps with the top 10%, it should be fine. It seems at Poly the real advantage is Ingenuity separates their top 10% from the rest of the school into a separate track, which can't be said for City.

In your kid's class at City, was it really a notable issue that there were plenty of unprepared kids not engaged with the class assignments and teachers? And everyone just had to roll with it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is a graduate of City's IB program. I have mixed feelings about City and BCPS in general, but I will say BCC has a lot of very strong, dedicated teachers and they definitely helped sharpen my kid's writing skills, such that going to college and writing a 1200 word paper is no big deal.

Regarding IB, my kid will say they prefer AP to IB because the curricula is more straight forward and it seems like the AP credits are more widely accepted at colleges. (Though the second part might be a function of the college my child chose to attend.)

The positive of the IB program is that it's truly open to all -- that's one of City's mottos, "IB for All." On the other hand, I think there has been some watering down of the curriculum recently. For instance, where Theory of Knowledge (TOK) used to be a one-year class, it is now a two-year class, with most of the second year spent as a study hall cajoling the kids into finishing the paper they wrote in junior year. Likewise, the history curriculum for juniors and seniors seemed excessively focused on the IB history exam (i.e. we will cover Ghana both years, so that you can write about that in your exam.) Also, I think the City kids were not doing well on the IB Chemistry exam, so that is no longer one of the science paths the IB kids can choose from.

I think City can be a great education if your kid is self motivated. But if they're not motivated, it seems pretty easy to hide in large-ish classes and coast on grade inflation.

As you probably know, the school has been relocated to the UB campus for the next few years, which means sports are generally happening elsewhere. I don't think sports should determine the decision, but it's worth noting.

Anyway, that's my $.02. No school is perfect. My kid did fine. Good luck to you and your student!

Thank you! Would you mind elaborating a bit more on why you have mixed feelings about City? I agree no school is perfect. DC is in Ingenuity middle school right now and doing well, but for various reasons is turned off by Poly. I may be overworrying and overthinking the differences between schools.

As someone whose kids have been in BCPS from K-12, I have mixed feelings about city schools in general. I imagine my frustrations with City (large classes, an admin that often seems indifferent, a few bad teachers) would also apply to Poly. If your kid is self-motivated, they will likely stand out and do great at City. If your kid is not self-motivated, but still engaged enough to show up regularly, they will probably do well enough at City. If your kid is frustrated by classmates who often don't complete assignments, they will be frustrated by City. When my City grad went to college they were pleasantly surprised to be surrounded by other kids who cared about school -- which is an indirect statement about City.

FWIW, I think BCPS's new policy banning student cell phone use is 1. being implemented and 2. having a positive impact. Also, I'd like to think that student engagement is increasing somewhat as we get further away from the COVID shutdown of schools. Finally, I want to reiterate that the majority of the teachers my kid had at City were really good. I think the middle school Ingenuity programs have a tendency to push Poly on the kids, but don't sleep on City!

Thank you! I must admit your response did worry me slightly. I agree with the large classes and indifferent, even stubbornly difficult, administration that seems par for course for every city school, but your comment about peer motivation has me concerned. There's a part of me that thinks we should just sell up and move to Towson and not have to worry about school choices. But DC has good discipline and motivation and I've seen the City class of 2025 Instagram and there's a good number of kids going to great colleges, so I figure as long as DC keeps with the top 10%, it should be fine. It seems at Poly the real advantage is Ingenuity separates their top 10% from the rest of the school into a separate track, which can't be said for City.

In your kid's class at City, was it really a notable issue that there were plenty of unprepared kids not engaged with the class assignments and teachers? And everyone just had to roll with it?

Dp, but you’ll find many of the same issues in the county. Large high schools are large high schools. Plenty of county kids at private high schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is a graduate of City's IB program. I have mixed feelings about City and BCPS in general, but I will say BCC has a lot of very strong, dedicated teachers and they definitely helped sharpen my kid's writing skills, such that going to college and writing a 1200 word paper is no big deal.

Regarding IB, my kid will say they prefer AP to IB because the curricula is more straight forward and it seems like the AP credits are more widely accepted at colleges. (Though the second part might be a function of the college my child chose to attend.)

The positive of the IB program is that it's truly open to all -- that's one of City's mottos, "IB for All." On the other hand, I think there has been some watering down of the curriculum recently. For instance, where Theory of Knowledge (TOK) used to be a one-year class, it is now a two-year class, with most of the second year spent as a study hall cajoling the kids into finishing the paper they wrote in junior year. Likewise, the history curriculum for juniors and seniors seemed excessively focused on the IB history exam (i.e. we will cover Ghana both years, so that you can write about that in your exam.) Also, I think the City kids were not doing well on the IB Chemistry exam, so that is no longer one of the science paths the IB kids can choose from.

I think City can be a great education if your kid is self motivated. But if they're not motivated, it seems pretty easy to hide in large-ish classes and coast on grade inflation.

As you probably know, the school has been relocated to the UB campus for the next few years, which means sports are generally happening elsewhere. I don't think sports should determine the decision, but it's worth noting.

Anyway, that's my $.02. No school is perfect. My kid did fine. Good luck to you and your student!

Thank you! Would you mind elaborating a bit more on why you have mixed feelings about City? I agree no school is perfect. DC is in Ingenuity middle school right now and doing well, but for various reasons is turned off by Poly. I may be overworrying and overthinking the differences between schools.

As someone whose kids have been in BCPS from K-12, I have mixed feelings about city schools in general. I imagine my frustrations with City (large classes, an admin that often seems indifferent, a few bad teachers) would also apply to Poly. If your kid is self-motivated, they will likely stand out and do great at City. If your kid is not self-motivated, but still engaged enough to show up regularly, they will probably do well enough at City. If your kid is frustrated by classmates who often don't complete assignments, they will be frustrated by City. When my City grad went to college they were pleasantly surprised to be surrounded by other kids who cared about school -- which is an indirect statement about City.

FWIW, I think BCPS's new policy banning student cell phone use is 1. being implemented and 2. having a positive impact. Also, I'd like to think that student engagement is increasing somewhat as we get further away from the COVID shutdown of schools. Finally, I want to reiterate that the majority of the teachers my kid had at City were really good. I think the middle school Ingenuity programs have a tendency to push Poly on the kids, but don't sleep on City!

Thank you! I must admit your response did worry me slightly. I agree with the large classes and indifferent, even stubbornly difficult, administration that seems par for course for every city school, but your comment about peer motivation has me concerned. There's a part of me that thinks we should just sell up and move to Towson and not have to worry about school choices. But DC has good discipline and motivation and I've seen the City class of 2025 Instagram and there's a good number of kids going to great colleges, so I figure as long as DC keeps with the top 10%, it should be fine. It seems at Poly the real advantage is Ingenuity separates their top 10% from the rest of the school into a separate track, which can't be said for City.

In your kid's class at City, was it really a notable issue that there were plenty of unprepared kids not engaged with the class assignments and teachers? And everyone just had to roll with it?

Dp, but you’ll find many of the same issues in the county. Large high schools are large high schools. Plenty of county kids at private high schools.

Adding that you will probably find better college placement for the top kids at City or Poly than at Towson or Dulaney. Colleges still have a preference for kids coming from urban highiy diverse high schools. I think your choice is private or stay in city public, I do think the more selective privates will have the best college placement, particularly for the kids just outside top 20 percent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is a graduate of City's IB program. I have mixed feelings about City and BCPS in general, but I will say BCC has a lot of very strong, dedicated teachers and they definitely helped sharpen my kid's writing skills, such that going to college and writing a 1200 word paper is no big deal.

Regarding IB, my kid will say they prefer AP to IB because the curricula is more straight forward and it seems like the AP credits are more widely accepted at colleges. (Though the second part might be a function of the college my child chose to attend.)

The positive of the IB program is that it's truly open to all -- that's one of City's mottos, "IB for All." On the other hand, I think there has been some watering down of the curriculum recently. For instance, where Theory of Knowledge (TOK) used to be a one-year class, it is now a two-year class, with most of the second year spent as a study hall cajoling the kids into finishing the paper they wrote in junior year. Likewise, the history curriculum for juniors and seniors seemed excessively focused on the IB history exam (i.e. we will cover Ghana both years, so that you can write about that in your exam.) Also, I think the City kids were not doing well on the IB Chemistry exam, so that is no longer one of the science paths the IB kids can choose from.

I think City can be a great education if your kid is self motivated. But if they're not motivated, it seems pretty easy to hide in large-ish classes and coast on grade inflation.

As you probably know, the school has been relocated to the UB campus for the next few years, which means sports are generally happening elsewhere. I don't think sports should determine the decision, but it's worth noting.

Anyway, that's my $.02. No school is perfect. My kid did fine. Good luck to you and your student!

Thank you! Would you mind elaborating a bit more on why you have mixed feelings about City? I agree no school is perfect. DC is in Ingenuity middle school right now and doing well, but for various reasons is turned off by Poly. I may be overworrying and overthinking the differences between schools.

As someone whose kids have been in BCPS from K-12, I have mixed feelings about city schools in general. I imagine my frustrations with City (large classes, an admin that often seems indifferent, a few bad teachers) would also apply to Poly. If your kid is self-motivated, they will likely stand out and do great at City. If your kid is not self-motivated, but still engaged enough to show up regularly, they will probably do well enough at City. If your kid is frustrated by classmates who often don't complete assignments, they will be frustrated by City. When my City grad went to college they were pleasantly surprised to be surrounded by other kids who cared about school -- which is an indirect statement about City.

FWIW, I think BCPS's new policy banning student cell phone use is 1. being implemented and 2. having a positive impact. Also, I'd like to think that student engagement is increasing somewhat as we get further away from the COVID shutdown of schools. Finally, I want to reiterate that the majority of the teachers my kid had at City were really good. I think the middle school Ingenuity programs have a tendency to push Poly on the kids, but don't sleep on City!

Thank you! I must admit your response did worry me slightly. I agree with the large classes and indifferent, even stubbornly difficult, administration that seems par for course for every city school, but your comment about peer motivation has me concerned. There's a part of me that thinks we should just sell up and move to Towson and not have to worry about school choices. But DC has good discipline and motivation and I've seen the City class of 2025 Instagram and there's a good number of kids going to great colleges, so I figure as long as DC keeps with the top 10%, it should be fine. It seems at Poly the real advantage is Ingenuity separates their top 10% from the rest of the school into a separate track, which can't be said for City.

In your kid's class at City, was it really a notable issue that there were plenty of unprepared kids not engaged with the class assignments and teachers? And everyone just had to roll with it?

Dp, but you’ll find many of the same issues in the county. Large high schools are large high schools. Plenty of county kids at private high schools.

Adding that you will probably find better college placement for the top kids at City or Poly than at Towson or Dulaney. Colleges still have a preference for kids coming from urban highiy diverse high schools. I think your choice is private or stay in city public, I do think the more selective privates will have the best college placement, particularly for the kids just outside top 20 percent.

I'm the poster with the kid who went to City. The top kids at City do very well with college placement and the school's college advisors are great. Also, if your kid is a good test taker, a strong SAT score is going to stand out at City, where the average scores tend to be lower. Re: the IB program, freshman and soph year tend to be easier, then things kick into a higher gear in junior and senior years.

[Anonymous]

+1. BSA had 2 full Banneker key winners last year - both had SATs in mid 1500s and were top 5-10%. Looked really good compared to SATs Ave of 1000. Other classmates with similar stats at Penn, Duke, Middlebury.