WL IB vs McLean HS is it really just demographics

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WL IB does not accept anyone that wants to take it. You have to be accepted into the program. Quite a large percentage of students in 11/12 take partial IB. They take IB in 4 or so classes and then take AP classes or Dual Enrollment classes to fill out their schedule. Not to burst your bubble, but an all A student at W-L is quite common.

If you are in zone for W-L, you can enroll in the IB diploma program by right. DC is a senior in the program now. It is crazy crazy intense, but the college admission bump is out of this world. Not sure it was worth it in retrospect, but DC has gotten incredible college admissions results so far.

Not exactly. You don't have to apply for "Pre IB" in 9th-10th but do have to meet the pre-reqs to be in the diploma program even if it's your home school

Prerequisites for the IB Diploma Program
Algebra II (preferably intensified) or greater in 10th grade. Less than Intensified Algebra II will greatly limit potential IB Diploma Program scheduling options.
Spanish, French, Arabic, Chinese or Latin IV in 10th grade
A’s and B’s in all subjects (7th-10th grade)

Interesting. I see this on W-L's IB page. Not that many FCPS students complete a fourth year of a foreign language by 10th grade, and the IB schools there don't suggest it is a pre-requisite. W-L seems to like promoting its IB diploma program as a "school within a school."

My bad—PP is right about prerequisites. But if you do the courses and get the grades, it’s yours. DS says it doesn’t really feel like a school within a school. Lots of non-IB students take IB courses here and there. The workload for the full IB program is incredibly intense. It’s a different thing than 6-7 AP courses a year. DS glad he’s done it, but he doesn’t look back with fondness. If we had to do it over again, I might push him not to do it.

The IB diploma program isn’t more demanding than 6-7 AP courses a year. In fact, if you load up on SL courses it’s probably less demanding. For that reason, most AP schools discourage kids from taking 6-7 AP courses in a single year to avoid burnout. You are starting to sound ridiculous.

You can’t load up on SL courses when taking the IB diploma. Clearly you have no idea what the IB diploma requires.

OP I did IB in high school and sometimes I feel like I learned more in IB than in college at UVA. That being said, with all the overcrowding issues in W&L, I am inclined to avoid the school for my kids if at all possible. I have no idea if McLean High is facing the same issues, but if not I would pick McLean over W& L.

[Anonymous]

All good points above. I’ll just add that the IB teachers at W-L are among the best teachers around. DC graduating this year from full IB program. Every single teacher has been a standout. Complete professionals, very bright and engaging. It’s a difficult program, but the teachers make it worthwhile.

[Anonymous]

PP, DC is on full IB track, finishing freshman year (transfer). What classes were particular standouts? DC can see many paths forward. Though science for example has no clear first choice. (Not perfectly on topic I know, but hearing about standout classes may help OP)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WL IB does not accept anyone that wants to take it. You have to be accepted into the program. Quite a large percentage of students in 11/12 take partial IB. They take IB in 4 or so classes and then take AP classes or Dual Enrollment classes to fill out their schedule. Not to burst your bubble, but an all A student at W-L is quite common.

If you are in zone for W-L, you can enroll in the IB diploma program by right. DC is a senior in the program now. It is crazy crazy intense, but the college admission bump is out of this world. Not sure it was worth it in retrospect, but DC has gotten incredible college admissions results so far.

Congratulations to your DC. McLean also has very good college admissions for a NoVa public.

Full-pay is king

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only about 100 IB grads at W-L each year who do the full program. W-L has both IB and AP. It’s a bigger and more diverse school and certainly well regarded. It’s more of an urban school where Mclean is very suburban and has a larger attendance zone too. W-L has a more down to earth atmosphere because of the population.

What does "down to earth" mean? Do the IB classes operate like a school within a school, where the more motivated IB students have mostly classes together?

Code for more poor people.

Code for families who aren’t poor-adverse.

[Anonymous]

Go private for HS. Signed, WL zoned whose kids did public APS K-8

The decline is real since Covid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All good points above. I’ll just add that the IB teachers at W-L are among the best teachers around. DC graduating this year from full IB program. Every single teacher has been a standout. Complete professionals, very bright and engaging. It’s a difficult program, but the teachers make it worthwhile.

The anthropology teacher is a perennial favorite. The English teacher Krauth is great. Zarro for math. There wasn’t a bad one.

[Anonymous]

Helpful, thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All good points above. I’ll just add that the IB teachers at W-L are among the best teachers around. DC graduating this year from full IB program. Every single teacher has been a standout. Complete professionals, very bright and engaging. It’s a difficult program, but the teachers make it worthwhile.

The anthropology teacher is a perennial favorite. The English teacher Krauth is great. Zarro for math. There wasn’t a bad one.

+1 on Anthro and Krauth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All good points above. I’ll just add that the IB teachers at W-L are among the best teachers around. DC graduating this year from full IB program. Every single teacher has been a standout. Complete professionals, very bright and engaging. It’s a difficult program, but the teachers make it worthwhile.

The anthropology teacher is a perennial favorite. The English teacher Krauth is great. Zarro for math. There wasn’t a bad one.

That’s awesome that IB teachers are top notch, but they don’t get into IB until 11th grade. And the last semester of 12th is always a coast. So you are talking about 3 semesters of “the good stuff”?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WL IB does not accept anyone that wants to take it. You have to be accepted into the program. Quite a large percentage of students in 11/12 take partial IB. They take IB in 4 or so classes and then take AP classes or Dual Enrollment classes to fill out their schedule. Not to burst your bubble, but an all A student at W-L is quite common.

If you are in zone for W-L, you can enroll in the IB diploma program by right. DC is a senior in the program now. It is crazy crazy intense, but the college admission bump is out of this world. Not sure it was worth it in retrospect, but DC has gotten incredible college admissions results so far.

Congratulations to your DC. McLean also has very good college admissions for a NoVa public.

Full-pay is king

Not at schools worth bragging about

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All good points above. I’ll just add that the IB teachers at W-L are among the best teachers around. DC graduating this year from full IB program. Every single teacher has been a standout. Complete professionals, very bright and engaging. It’s a difficult program, but the teachers make it worthwhile.

The anthropology teacher is a perennial favorite. The English teacher Krauth is great. Zarro for math. There wasn’t a bad one.

That’s awesome that IB teachers are top notch, but they don’t get into IB until 11th grade. And the last semester of 12th is always a coast. So you are talking about 3 semesters of “the good stuff”?

Do not go into IB thinking last semester of senior year is a coast. DC just finished. Heavy work until the bitter end. DC worked tail off, but the teachers are amazing. The IB coordinator is also great. College admissions have been impressive. The UC schools seem to love IB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All good points above. I’ll just add that the IB teachers at W-L are among the best teachers around. DC graduating this year from full IB program. Every single teacher has been a standout. Complete professionals, very bright and engaging. It’s a difficult program, but the teachers make it worthwhile.

The anthropology teacher is a perennial favorite. The English teacher Krauth is great. Zarro for math. There wasn’t a bad one.

+1 on Anthro and Krauth.

Bui for Comp Sci is top notch. I’m a PhD in CS and think his class looks good — based on what DS is learning this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WL IB does not accept anyone that wants to take it. You have to be accepted into the program. Quite a large percentage of students in 11/12 take partial IB. They take IB in 4 or so classes and then take AP classes or Dual Enrollment classes to fill out their schedule. Not to burst your bubble, but an all A student at W-L is quite common.

If you are in zone for W-L, you can enroll in the IB diploma program by right. DC is a senior in the program now. It is crazy crazy intense, but the college admission bump is out of this world. Not sure it was worth it in retrospect, but DC has gotten incredible college admissions results so far.

Not exactly. You don't have to apply for "Pre IB" in 9th-10th but do have to meet the pre-reqs to be in the diploma program even if it's your home school

Prerequisites for the IB Diploma Program
Algebra II (preferably intensified) or greater in 10th grade. Less than Intensified Algebra II will greatly limit potential IB Diploma Program scheduling options.
Spanish, French, Arabic, Chinese or Latin IV in 10th grade
A’s and B’s in all subjects (7th-10th grade)

Interesting. I see this on W-L's IB page. Not that many FCPS students complete a fourth year of a foreign language by 10th grade, and the IB schools there don't suggest it is a pre-requisite. W-L seems to like promoting its IB diploma program as a "school within a school."

My bad—PP is right about prerequisites. But if you do the courses and get the grades, it’s yours. DS says it doesn’t really feel like a school within a school. Lots of non-IB students take IB courses here and there. The workload for the full IB program is incredibly intense. It’s a different thing than 6-7 AP courses a year. DS glad he’s done it, but he doesn’t look back with fondness. If we had to do it over again, I might push him not to do it.

The IB diploma program isn’t more demanding than 6-7 AP courses a year. In fact, if you load up on SL courses it’s probably less demanding. For that reason, most AP schools discourage kids from taking 6-7 AP courses in a single year to avoid burnout. You are starting to sound ridiculous.

The IB program requires a lot of writing, this is absolutely different than an AP class. This includes writing a 2000 word paper for your math class, history, science,etc. If you are doing full IB you are writing 10+ page papers in each of these classes. This is in addition to the content that your learning and being tested on. It is a lot and like others have said, intense. There is also a capstone extended essay of 4000 words that is done in addition

[Anonymous]

Totally agree. An IB class might be commensurate with an AP class, but the IB diploma program is a completely different animal than a full AP course load. People who think they’re similar are just advertising that they don’t know what the IB diploma program is.

DD graduating this year in a Fairfax full IB diploma program. I can’t say I’d recommend anyone do it because it’s so much work! That said the college admissions speak for themselves.