Reply to What are my child's chances of getting into the IB program?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My daughter is in 8th grade. She wants to go to the IB program at RM. She enjoys english and history class but doesn't like math. She also really enjoys her foreign language and she skipped level 2 of the language. Her spring map r was a 262 and her fall was 253 (don't know what happened there). Her extracurriculars are okay (should have pushed her more lol). However, I have heard that this program is very stressful and has a lot of work. It is also very hard to get in. Do you think it is a good fit for her and what are her chances of gettting in? (I'm hoping for at least 70%). [/quote]

The chances are slim. These decisions are random. Even if your child is a great fit, I wouldn't count on it.[/quote]

Not random for HS criteria-based magnets: application/review/selection.

There have been modifications over the past few years to the application process that make the information available to reviewers more constrcted than before, in an attempt to limit bias.  From that perspective, it may appear more random.

The litmus/lottery approach currently applies to elementary and middle school criteria-based programs (CES, Humanities, Math/Science/CS).[/quote]

The criteria makes it random. 400 applicants appear comparable on paper so only way to distinguish is random.[/quote]

This feels like sour grapes. If you count the regional IB magnets, there are plenty of spaces for kids who are qualified and interested. Most kids accepted to RMIB are also accepted to their "regional" IB program, which means a ton of spots often open up in the regional program. Now, you may or may not think that choice is valid or worth the commute, but it is a bona fide magnet program offering four years of cohorted classes and a full IB diploma option. [/quote]

That's great as long as they offer equivalent access to every flavor of IB class that is available at RMIB to any student at the regional/local IB programs.  Is that the case, no matter how few request that at a particular school in a given semester/year?[/quote]

You're the pedantic parent who keeps yammering on about this based on schools your kid didn't attend, and IB programs you've never seen.

To the best of their ability, the regional programs offer a wide variety of IB programs, and no, they don't offer AP calc and call it IB. HL IB math is its own thing. Actually there's more than one version of it at my kids' regional IB, and no, I don't know the specifics because my IB kid is a math dum-dum who takes the two-year SL class. There's not that many who do.

I would really like if we could talk about regional IBs without having people chime in to tell us:

1.) They're inferior 
2.) All IB programs are inferior.

This isn't true. And I'm very tired of explaining.

You're just coming across as someone who may be a bit ND and can't let go of the fact that they have to show us how their child is superior. Repeatedly. When I say you come across ND I don't mean that to be cruel, it's just the kindest reason I can come up with as to why you feel like you need to repeatedly contribute to this thread about schools your kids don't attend, and won't attend.

I wish you and your family all the best. And I'm very happy our children don't go to the same school. [/quote]

I think IB may have some benefits, but we’re restricting this discussion to the math pathway, consisting of algebra, geometry, (statistics), precalculus, calculus, multivariable, linear algebra, differential equations that form the foundation of high schools/undergraduate general education in mathematics for many majors and career paths.

IB along with AP and DE are some of the ways to access these courses, there’s nothing magic about the IB program that makes it notably better than the other options. If anything the IB HL math is an awkward combination of precalculus, calculus and statistics that is not the most complete or flexible arrangement. Ok, maybe it’s passable because you also have to write a ten page essay on theory of knowledge. Not sure why this is so amazing, but you can argue it’s different from the problem sets you typically do in other classes.

The question in the previous post was why chose the IB path if other options like AP and DE are available. If you’ve done AP calculus BC there’s zero reason to take two years of HL math and I maintain it’s a waste of time compared to following the sequence with multivariable, linear algebra and differential equations. If anyone has a good argument I would really like to consider it.

Often the defense of the program is something along the lines “my niece was at RMIB and she’s now at UVA and is totally not afraid to tackle on essay assignments that are 5 pages single spaced.” While I agree that knowing how to write well is important, I don’t think it’s a substitute for rigorous math education and it’s much easier to learn how to write than to build up a solid foundation in math.

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