Reply to Is there any place for math/science kid (not TJ level) in IB HS?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]IB = International Baccalaureate

HL = Higher Level
SL = Standard Level

To get the full IB diploma, you have to take 6 IB courses, and 3 or 4 of them have to be "Higher Level" (plus theory of knowledge, plus the big essay, plus a service project).[/quote]

This is a very important post for people considering IB and very hard to get.  Please make sure your school offers the full compliment of HL science courses, if that is important to your kid.  The challenge we saw with IB was that my kid would have to spend too much time in humanities to meet the HL requirement, and not really get a chance to do all the science he wanted.  This is school specific, so ask.

[/quote]

My dd is a freshman at an IB school and her projected schedule includes plenty of science and math, and no more humanities than she would take at an AP
school.

It looks like this...
Math:
(8th geometry honors)
9th algebra 2/trig honors
10th IB math SL 1
11th IB math HL 1
12th IB math HL 2

Science: 
9th bio honors
10th IB Chem 1 SL
11th IB physics HL 1 AND IB systems and societies or IB bio HL 1 or IB Chem HL 1
12th IB physics HL 2 AND the second year of any of the above mentioned classes

She will be taking one IB history, IB English, and IB language class her junior and senior year. This is exactly the same amount of humanities that a student would take at an AP school. [/quote]

Thank you for posting.

Is it possible to include IB Computer Science SL or HL in the course schedule as well?[/quote]

Yes and no.  This is where the trouble comes in.  Comp soci and all of the sciences are in the same group.  There are a whole lot of other requirements, and it is a challenge if too much of what interests your child is all in one group.  Throw in the limits on what the school actually offers, the sl/hl required mix, and it is not obvious what to do.

The big takeaway from all these posts with inconsistent school-specific answers is do your homework.  The other thing is think about what happens if your kid doesn't turn out to be exactly who you both thought he would be as high school progresses.  Don't choose a program with no flexibility.  You don't want to trap your kid d in a math trajectory that turned out to be a bit too hard, or not enough of something else after he discovers what he really loves.

We all mean well, but this is really a question to take up with your specific school admins.  At least in Arlington, a lot of the science kids opt out of IB. Not all, but many.
[/quote]

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