Reply to S/o (VA public schools). IB and college preparedness

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]quote=Anonymous]DC is looking at pupil placing into IB next year in FCPS. I would love to hear from IB parents whose kids went through IB recently (are in college), or who are getting ready to apply for college, and who pursued the full diploma. How rigorous was it/ what was the work load like?  Is it better for a humanities vs STEM kids, or do you need to be really well rounded? Do you think IB diploma track vs a comparable AP load helped or hurt college admissions?  How well did IB prepare them to succeed in college? Would you do it again?  Constructive advice (not of the IB is a waste of tax dollars variety) appreciated.  [/quote]

We were zoned for an IB school, so DD did the diploma program.  The one obvious benefit is that she was used to writing longer papers before she started college, which wasn't the case for some of her classmates.  The disadvantages were that there were many requirements and she couldn't take electives that interested her because her course schedule revolved  around the mandatory IB courses.  It was an intense work load both junior and senior year.  She generally found the classes interesting, but sometimes complained that assignments were "busy work."

She struggled on the math portion of the SAT/ACT, so even though she had a good GPA she could not get into U. Va., W&M or Va. Tech.  She chose JMU over VCU and GMU.  As far as I'm aware, apart from her experience writing papers, she isn't at any special advantage compared to her peers from AP schools (JMU is full of kids from AP and IB schools in NoVa).  She is doing fine at school, but not setting the earth on fire.

If we had to do it all over again, we'd probably opt for an AP school, as our younger child is more math/science oriented and has told us he does not want to get an IB diploma.  DD would have still taken AP courses at an AP school, just not the advanced math classes, and we wouldn't be worrying about DS's options with no IB diploma.   [/quote]

What IB math course did your dad take?[/quote]

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