IB Programs
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Anonymous
There is self-selection with AP but the nature of IB is that it creates more of a program within the school. You can think that’s not worthwhile or that kids looking for that should go elsewhere but just waving your hands and pretending it doesn’t exist does suggest you are more interested in denigrating IB than a fair useful discussion. |
Anonymous
Wow you got me. There are also more than 33 1/3 students on the list. The magnet decisions are not yet out and my 8th grade DC strongly prefers SMCS. So I don't really have a dog in this fight but I am following because it could possibly become very relevant to my own family. I was very surprised by these college placements. I am open to all evidence that says the list is not accurate. I am IB curious but open to different perspectives. The list was my first post on this topic. |
Anonymous
Nonsense, you've latched onto the wrong shortcomings. It's no brainer that self-selection in AP classes doesn't promote peer interaction, or robust esprit de corps, like IBD does. Why not? Because most MCPS high schools are A) very large, and B) teaching up to 30 AP courses. Moreover, the AP peer group in any particular MCPS high school is invariably bigger than the IBD group, as much as six times bigger. The result is that AP students are sprinkled around courses. Thus, IBD students are far more likely to overlap with one another in class moving up the chain. Have you ever worked on an Ivy admissions committee? The Ivy where I once worked in admissions admitted many IBD grads from all over the country and all around the world. In fact, top government high schools abroad are often IB World Schools, particularly in China/Hong Kong, Canda, the UK, the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand. Look, it's not a bad idea for ambitious IBD students in this country to double up on AP exams where there's significant content overlap, particularly for sciences, environmental studies, the arts and foreign languages. As noted several pages back, the timing of the IBD HL exams (June of senior year) is unhelpful vis a vis the US college admissions calendar. It may also behoove an ambitious IBD student to take an AP or two, or a Cambridge Intl exam, they've self-prepped for to emphasize academic strengths. But to write-off the IB curriculum as inadequate as compared to AP for admission to the most highly competitive colleges in this country is to throw the baby out with the bath water as an exercise in America First thinking. Believe it or not, particularly able, industrious and resourceful IBD students from government schools in this country, and many others, crack Ivies, or at least the one where I worked. |
Anonymous
The numbers at info nights for IB programs are notoriously deceptive. Look for example this document posted on Kennedy IB website: https://kennedy.auhsd.us/files/page/7517/IB_University_Acceptance_Rates.pdf If you read carefully you see it’s actually “based on student survey”, whatever that means. |
Anonymous
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Point taken. I will mention that RMIB list looks different. It is titled "IB college list for classes 2024, 2023, 2023, 2021 attending. Attending is repeatedly underlined for each class.
It doesn't talk about applications, admissions.. gives no percentages. Just a list of colleges and the number of students from each class attending each of the colleges. There is no disclaimer that it is student reports. However, the source of the list is unclear. The list was given to parents in the hallways during orientation together with list of clubs, flyers about IB and similar. |
Anonymous
IB curriculum is inadequate at least in math and sciences. It’s a combination of high school and college topics, and because of that take twice as kind as the equivalent AP class and usually receive less college credit. If you need to supplement IB with AP classes to be competitive, it follows that IB isn’t that great, especially if you need to double up on equivalent classes. Esprit de corps and peer interaction is more along the lines of pretentious and vacuous talk IB is famous for, personally I think the “global citizen” is the best. And no you didn’t work as admissions officer at no ivy, you’re just making that up to give some cred to your post. |
Anonymous
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RMIB is not the typical IB program
SMCS is not the typical AP program AP > IB SMCS > RMIB |
Anonymous
You know the numbers are made up because if you look at this document the quoted admission rate from IB at Berkeley is 58%, while from the other link it was 24%. https://kennedy.auhsd.us/files/page/7517/2017_JFKIBDP_Presentation_Enlgish.pdf Needless to say it’s neither. For Kennedy I suspect it’s closer to 0%. If a high school lies so blatantly to parents at info nights, that’s enough for me to not send my kids there. |
Anonymous
| My daughter is now at College and claims she is much better prepared having done the IB than friends who just did the AP, FWIW. |
Anonymous
I believe what they are saying is that IB is +32% percentage points higher than "total population acceptance rate"), so 24+32=58. Population percentages seem a bit high here (does Berkeley really accept 24%?) Now that I look at it, the source is I-graduate.org (whatever that is but is seems focused on California state schools) and this is for IB programs generally, not the one at Kennedy necessarily. It explains why data is old, as reflected in high acceptance rate. Again, this list should not be confused with the list parents got at RMIB, which was different and focused on their particular IB program (not IB generally) and attendance vs. acceptance. |
Anonymous
that depends on what you are looking for. If you are looking for a strong program in critical reasoning, analytical writing, then IB > AP. If you are only looking for as many college credits, then yes, AP > IB. |
Anonymous
Yes, this is true. My own kid said the same, and I've know a few adults who have said this, also. I think it's because IB requires so much critical reasoning and analytical writing that it really forces the student to be organized, and churn out long papers quickly. That would obviously help in college. I also find that a lot of the IBD students are good speakers in part because IBD assessments has an oral component. Many go into debate. My own kid did, and they are a STEM major. |
Anonymous
You seem to have as much of an agenda as the RMIB boosters do. |
Anonymous
I am the PP with 8th grader who posted the college list and I find contribution from both sides here to be really helpful. It doesn't matter and it might even be a plus that true believers are putting forward their strongest arguments, even if those are, individually, one-sided. Thank you everyone for the effort you put here. We are new to MCPS and I found this particular board to be extremely helpful. Honestly, I am not sure what I would do without you. |
Anonymous
| Regarding IB exam and college credit, DC took IB physics and math HL and said they got 8 credits for each (scored 7 on both) in college. They said that most of the AP content was covered in IB classes, so they just self studied the small portion of the AP exam that wasn't covered in the IB classes. For every IB class they took, they took a corresponding IB and AP exam. They got 58 credits total. They said if they hadn't taken all those IB exams, they wouldn't have had that many credits going in. They scored all 5s in their AP exams. |