IB Program- What is it? IB or AP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:IB is a very hard program. My kid was in a magnet IB program in MoCo and it was HARD.

That being said, DC doubled up on APs for all the IB exams as well. Full scholarship in college now. STEM student and I am not scared that DC will change major. College can not throw anything on this child that he cannot handle.

Having said that - IB is intense and some of the time line clashes with the college application process. It does curtail some of the typical teen HS experience as well.

But, is it the best and most rigorous education a kid can get? Absolutely. It is like being a Special Ops soldier vs just a army or navy soldier. It is that intense. Not for everyone. The standards are quite high and it means that for many bright students it will bring down their GPA.

Students in magnet IB course were not doing IB and AP to get college credits (though some colleges were giving them as much as 24 - 50 credits) but mainly as a signalling device to universities about their capabilities.

The IB programs in FCPS aren't magnet programs, so the magnet IB in MoCo (RM?) isn't a particularly meaningful comparison.

You'd probably see more interest in IB in FCPS if there was a selective IB program along the lines of RM, as students could then use it as, to quote the above post, a "signalling device" to schools. But there isn't, and universities know that the largest cohorts of high-achieving kids in FCPS are at AP schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:IB is a very hard program. My kid was in a magnet IB program in MoCo and it was HARD.

That being said, DC doubled up on APs for all the IB exams as well. Full scholarship in college now. STEM student and I am not scared that DC will change major. College can not throw anything on this child that he cannot handle.

Having said that - IB is intense and some of the time line clashes with the college application process. It does curtail some of the typical teen HS experience as well.

But, is it the best and most rigorous education a kid can get? Absolutely. It is like being a Special Ops soldier vs just a army or navy soldier. It is that intense. Not for everyone. The standards are quite high and it means that for many bright students it will bring down their GPA.

Students in magnet IB course were not doing IB and AP to get college credits (though some colleges were giving them as much as 24 - 50 credits) but mainly as a signalling device to universities about their capabilities.

I heard MoCo's IB magnet is the most rigorous HS program in DC area - private and public combined. Do you think that's a true statement based on your DC's experience? Was it worth it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IB is a very hard program. My kid was in a magnet IB program in MoCo and it was HARD.

That being said, DC doubled up on APs for all the IB exams as well. Full scholarship in college now. STEM student and I am not scared that DC will change major. College can not throw anything on this child that he cannot handle.

Having said that - IB is intense and some of the time line clashes with the college application process. It does curtail some of the typical teen HS experience as well.

But, is it the best and most rigorous education a kid can get? Absolutely. It is like being a Special Ops soldier vs just a army or navy soldier. It is that intense. Not for everyone. The standards are quite high and it means that for many bright students it will bring down their GPA.

Students in magnet IB course were not doing IB and AP to get college credits (though some colleges were giving them as much as 24 - 50 credits) but mainly as a signalling device to universities about their capabilities.

I heard MoCo's IB magnet is the most rigorous HS program in DC area - private and public combined. Do you think that's a true statement based on your DC's experience? Was it worth it?

How would the poster know unless she'd also had kids at TJ, Langley, St. Albans, Sidwell, Blair, etc. All she can really do is say it was rigorous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IB is a very hard program. My kid was in a magnet IB program in MoCo and it was HARD.

That being said, DC doubled up on APs for all the IB exams as well. Full scholarship in college now. STEM student and I am not scared that DC will change major. College can not throw anything on this child that he cannot handle.

Having said that - IB is intense and some of the time line clashes with the college application process. It does curtail some of the typical teen HS experience as well.

But, is it the best and most rigorous education a kid can get? Absolutely. It is like being a Special Ops soldier vs just a army or navy soldier. It is that intense. Not for everyone. The standards are quite high and it means that for many bright students it will bring down their GPA.

Students in magnet IB course were not doing IB and AP to get college credits (though some colleges were giving them as much as 24 - 50 credits) but mainly as a signalling device to universities about their capabilities.

The IB programs in FCPS aren't magnet programs, so the magnet IB in MoCo (RM?) isn't a particularly meaningful comparison.

You'd probably see more interest in IB in FCPS if there was a selective IB program along the lines of RM, as students could then use it as, to quote the above post, a "signalling device" to schools. But there isn't, and universities know that the largest cohorts of high-achieving kids in FCPS are at AP schools.

That is some absolute bull$#\+.
Universities are not that naive. They look at students individually. If anything a student from a "high achieving cohort" is just going to look awful if they're not at the top.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IB is a very hard program. My kid was in a magnet IB program in MoCo and it was HARD.

That being said, DC doubled up on APs for all the IB exams as well. Full scholarship in college now. STEM student and I am not scared that DC will change major. College can not throw anything on this child that he cannot handle.

Having said that - IB is intense and some of the time line clashes with the college application process. It does curtail some of the typical teen HS experience as well.

But, is it the best and most rigorous education a kid can get? Absolutely. It is like being a Special Ops soldier vs just a army or navy soldier. It is that intense. Not for everyone. The standards are quite high and it means that for many bright students it will bring down their GPA.

Students in magnet IB course were not doing IB and AP to get college credits (though some colleges were giving them as much as 24 - 50 credits) but mainly as a signalling device to universities about their capabilities.

The IB programs in FCPS aren't magnet programs, so the magnet IB in MoCo (RM?) isn't a particularly meaningful comparison.

You'd probably see more interest in IB in FCPS if there was a selective IB program along the lines of RM, as students could then use it as, to quote the above post, a "signalling device" to schools. But there isn't, and universities know that the largest cohorts of high-achieving kids in FCPS are at AP schools.

That is some absolute bull$#\+.
Universities are not that naive. They look at students individually. If anything a student from a "high achieving cohort" is just going to look awful if they're not at the top.

You don't really believe that, do you? If it were true, people would be flocking to IB schools like Mt. Vernon and Lee so their kids wouldn't look so "awful." Does. Not. Happen.

[Anonymous]

At W-L High in Arlington, both AP and IB are offered, and kids can take IB classes without pursuing the full diploma. My kid has taken a handful of each, and overall has preferred the IB classes, which seem to him to be less focused on teaching to the test.

There is no evidence that colleges prefer AP to IB among W-L grads.

[Anonymous]

Anyone who thinks that colleges prefer kids from lily white upper-class high achieving high schools is stuck in the 1980s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone who thinks that colleges prefer kids from lily white upper-class high achieving high schools is stuck in the 1980s.

Actually, anyone who thinks this area has any lily white high schools is stuck in the 1980s, although the high-achieving high schools in this area do tend to have a lot of white and Asian kids. In NoVa, they are usually AP schools.

[Anonymous]

George Mason is IB. The rest of the top 10 from this area are AP.

http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/virginia

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:George Mason is IB. The rest of the top 10 from this area are AP.

http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/virginia

That is based on their geographic location and demographics. Not their AP course offerings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:George Mason is IB. The rest of the top 10 from this area are AP.

http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/virginia

That is based on their geographic location and demographics. Not their AP course offerings.

Actually, it's the level of interest in AP courses and performance on AP exams at those schools that elevates them to the top, along with good SOL scores. As a PP noted, you don't find parents at those schools clamoring for IB instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:George Mason is IB. The rest of the top 10 from this area are AP.

http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/virginia

That is based on their geographic location and demographics. Not their AP course offerings.

Actually, it's the level of interest in AP courses and performance on AP exams at those schools that elevates them to the top, along with good SOL scores. As a PP noted, you don't find parents at those schools clamoring for IB instead.

That is what makes the school score well...it's not what makes the students score well.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't be so sure, but I'd like that poster to elaborate on the claim that IB grading is biased against American students and will pull down their GPAs. I don't understand that, as I understand IB courses get weighted the same extra 1.0 as AP courses. If he/she is referring to the grading of IB exams, that's a different point, but it wouldn't have any impact on a student's GPA.

I am that PP. Thank you for not slamming me as the others have.

Regarding GPAs, yes, the IB courses are weighted the same as AP courses, but the structure of the IB grading system pretty much ensures that students will not receive the equivalent of an A as easily as a student in a comparable AP course would. The bar for an "8" or "10" on the IB scale can be very high. (And no, I am not suggesting that AP is any less rigorous, it's just different).

Regarding the bias against American students, you rightly discerned that I was referring to IB exam/project grading. This is work that is shipped off to IB evaluators in other countries for grading to see how it fares against IB cohorts locally. There is most definitely a bias in certain localities against the American IB students. And yes, it can affect the student's GPA, because that feedback is supposed to be folded into the student's grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I wouldn't be so sure, but I'd like that poster to elaborate on the claim that IB grading is biased against American students and will pull down their GPAs. I don't understand that, as I understand IB courses get weighted the same extra 1.0 as AP courses. If he/she is referring to the grading of IB exams, that's a different point, but it wouldn't have any impact on a student's GPA.

I am that PP. Thank you for not slamming me as the others have.

Regarding GPAs, yes, the IB courses are weighted the same as AP courses, but the structure of the IB grading system pretty much ensures that students will not receive the equivalent of an A as easily as a student in a comparable AP course would. The bar for an "8" or "10" on the IB scale can be very high. (And no, I am not suggesting that AP is any less rigorous, it's just different).

Regarding the bias against American students, you rightly discerned that I was referring to IB exam/project grading. This is work that is shipped off to IB evaluators in other countries for grading to see how it fares against IB cohorts locally. There is most definitely a bias in certain localities against the American IB students. And yes, it can affect the student's GPA, because that feedback is supposed to be folded into the student's grade.

You are making quite a few assumptions and presenting it as fact.

[Anonymous]

AP is easier and has no organized diploma that's why parents like it