Well, that's what we were told by the IB coordinator. They take 6 IB courses in both Junior and senior years. Each course has it's own 1 point bump.

Not really.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are zoned for Robinson, and I've only just learned about the IB program. I have a kid with crippling social anxiety who is good at math and tech but hates writing. The requirements for all the extracurriculars, service, and writing sound like he will almost certainly struggle. His elementary years have been miserable and I so wanted HS to be a good experience for him. With is anxiety, he doesn't want to transfer to another school away from who and what he knows. Why does FCPS maintain a program that only 10-20% of kids can finish, at the expensive of AP, which has much greater participation??

While getting the full benefit of IB requires participation in the diploma program, you CAN take IB classes a la carte, and get college credit for them. Your kid can take the math/comp sci/physics etc. IB classes at HL and otherwise stick with SL or Honors or Gen Ed classes for subjects that require more writing. Full IB program participation is equivalent to taking 7-8 APs which clearly is not most kids, even in AP schools. Don't get sucked into the simplistic vortex of negative thinking.

This is true. You can take IB a la Carter, however, most IB courses are 2 year courses ending with the exam in the senior year. They do count individually so the IB diploma is like taking 12 AP courses.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not OP but if my kid is slatted for Marshall, I should try to transfer DC to AP? Is that even an option?

As long as you aren’t greedy - Langley isn’t happening. I’m zone for mount vernon and most neighbors send their kids to hayfield

Langley accepts transfers from Marshall for AP. It’s the nearest AP school with space for many zoned to Marshall.

Anonymous wrote:Not OP but if my kid is slatted for Marshall, I should try to transfer DC to AP? Is that even an option?

As long as you aren’t greedy - Langley isn’t happening. I’m zone for mount vernon and most neighbors send their kids to hayfield

Not OP but if my kid is slatted for Marshall, I should try to transfer DC to AP? Is that even an option?

Anonymous wrote:IB was basically the consolation prize FCPS came up with 25 years ago to humor middle-class parents with kids stuck at declining schools. Some people will talk about the shiny consolation prize and others keep their eyes on the prize. FCPS stopped converting any of its AP high schools to IB about 15 years ago, so it seems they ran out of trinkets.

Ok. But as to the question - for all the poor schlubs that do not attend the best of the best school in the best of the best district - what is your opinion of the IB program available to these misbegotten souls?

IMO it has value, not the least of which is the work and discipline required to complete it.

IB was basically the consolation prize FCPS came up with 25 years ago to humor middle-class parents with kids stuck at declining schools. Some people will talk about the shiny consolation prize and others keep their eyes on the prize. FCPS stopped converting any of its AP high schools to IB about 15 years ago, so it seems they ran out of trinkets.

Without any more info on the student- from the original poster- the answer is AP.

Like so many things, you get out of it what you put in. I have one that recently completed it and one in it now.

The first was very self motivated and thrived in the program. The second one needs more prodding and time management nagging. I thought about approaching the second about not doing the full IB - it does requires sacrificing other things to carve out the time to complete it - but I decided to just try to offer support to continue in the full program. Second is already talking about grad school and if he wants to get where he say he want to get - the skills and discipline learned in the full IB will help.

People talking about what they did 20 years ago is really no help.

Everyone I know who started IB ended up quitting. On the other hand since you can pick and choose AP more stayed in it. My DD got a lot of college credit for AP and graduated early.

Op did you attend the online briefing Robinson did this week? They said they’re piled send the link around if not. I found it helpful. Also I think the Robinson experience is a bit different from most other IB schools since normally the program is in high FARMS schools but Robinson’s zone is a middle class area. I have several neighbors whose kids went or go there and they have all spoken highly of their kid’s time there.

Anyone recommend the Falls Church City IB program (entire school system)?

Did IB diploma in FCPS years ago. It’s fine. Probably largely a waste of time from a college credit standpoint, so I would recommend taking the AP exams on your own if you can and getting credit that way. From the IB diploma you won’t get that much credit vs the workload and there’s random time consuming stuff you have to do that’s just seemingly related to nothing credit wise. I’m not arguing it wasn’t a worthy academic exercise, but I do wish that colleges had a better way to credit it (perhaps this is different now?). My university at the time coded my credit weirdly as electives. They didn’t code any credit for HL history as American history, even though in FCPS (at least when I was in high school) 11 grade IB history is “History of the Americas” and the 12th grade topics in 20th century history was heavily weighted towards American history too. I suppose this doesn’t matter that much but could cause an issue if you needed specific courses for a grad program. There was one time I needed to get a manual override into another history class because of this, but I just explained the content of the IB curriculum to the professor and got it.

I wouldn’t have changed schools anyway over it. So I guess my recommendation is just go to your base school, in 10, 20 years it’s doubtful that it will alter the course of your life that much, and you can always just study for the AP exams and take those for credit if getting more credits is a concern. Or maybe enroll in summer classes at Nova or something.