International Baccalaureate

CardinalSM · #1 05-29-2004, 12:28 AM

Ok, this is going to show the true nerd in me, but was anyone else in the International Baccalaureate program in highschool?? I have met a few people at Mercer and we always compare extended essay and world literature topics, what our sixth area was, and how much theory of knowledge really sucked. Am I the only IB nerd out in GC land?

If you were in IB, was it worth it? If you could turn back time would you do it again?

And P.S. come on, what was your extended essay topic?

AlphaSigOU · #2 05-29-2004, 09:06 AM

My high school (North Miami Senior High School, North Miami, Florida) is the designated International Baccalaureate magnet school for Miami-Dade Public Schools.

Unfortunately, IB was not offered to students when I was in high school over 20 years ago.

Munchkin03 · #3 05-29-2004, 09:15 AM

I did it. There are two IB schools in my area.

I got the diploma. My elective was art, they chose the world lit papers for us, and my extended essay was about Allen Ginsberg. My teachers all hated it and felt like my parents were absolutely terrible for letting me write about a gay Jewish communist.

I don't know if I would do it again. Being in IB forced me to become very organized, but the whole curriculum (at least the way it was taught in my area) was terribly constrictive. It made my first year at college a breeze, but the 40 of us were so competitive with each other that it made for a very unhealthy situation.

CardinalSM · #4 05-29-2004, 03:59 PM

IB was kind of a mixed bag for me. I definitely would not do it again and I probably would encourage my kids to do AP instead. It made me really good at BSing papers but that's about it. I think I would have been prepared for college through AP at my highschool.

My sixth area was psychology. One of my World Lits had something to do with the role of women in the Awakening. I wrote my history exit paper on Dwight Eisenhower and his relationship with Chiang Kai'Shek and Nationalist China. My extended essay topic was "How did the television show 'I Love Lucy' reflect the values and trends of the 1950s?"

BirthaBlue4 · #5 05-29-2004, 09:29 PM

YAY IB!!!!!!!!

I was a diploma candidate, but no cigar. We were all screwed over, those of us who took chemistry, because they had this whore of a woman trying to teach us and she didn't know squat, AND HAD A CHEMISTRY DEGREE. Plus I had some other issues (I was sick the day the lady came to review portfolios for Art & Design). I got a 4 on the Spanish, 4 on the English, 5 on the Math and 2 on the Chemistry (which EVERYONE got, they DID NOT prepare us for that test), and I forget the others.

The program in my school DEFINATELY helped me, because we had a million page papers due in like 2 days all the time, so I got used to writing big papers, research, plageri...I mean paraphrasing

and just with a heavy workload in general. SO when I got to college and everybody is freakin out, I can get up the day of, throw together a 9 page paper in 3 hours and get an A. And I know how to BS through ANYTHING, which is the ONLY way I was able to get through 22 credits of CRUCIAL classes this semester and get 7 out of 8 classes with A's!!!

Oh, and in history, we'd have these debates which were SO much fun. This one that was the best, we were split into pairs or groups of three and were assigned a country at random, and had to determine who started World War I. And of all countries, I had Germany. But best believe Germany didn't have ANYTHING to do with the war, per my debate

. What mad eit so funny was we all took it very seiously, and were fake-mad at people for the rest of the day from other countries.

AHHHHH, the memories. I loved IB.

Optimist Prime · #6 05-30-2004, 11:49 PM

is IB like on Head of the Class? There was nothing like that in my HS

CardinalSM · #7 05-31-2004, 01:43 AM

Cliff Notes version: IB is kinda like AP, EXCEPT in AP you can play to your strengths, take AP in the subjects you are good at. IB is like AP but harder (at least at my school) and you have to take IB for all subjects, plus there are other classes you have to take and special assignments to be turned in to IB etc.

DeltAlum · #8 05-31-2004, 02:08 AM

The don't offer IB at our kids HS, but had an Honors program which won a Department of Education award our son's senior year.

Every major class he took was either Honors or AP and he basically started college as a second semester freshman. He was also a National Merit Scholar.

In the end, after you graduate from college, I'm not sure either matters. It's how you do in your college academic career that counts.

And after your first job (or so), even that doesn't count as much as your on job experience.

kdonline · #9 05-31-2004, 09:59 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by AlphaSigOU
My high school (North Miami Senior High School, North Miami, Florida) is the designated International Baccalaureate magnet school for Miami-Dade Public Schools.

Um...sorry, NM is not the "designated" IB school in Miami. Miami-Dade has no one designated school.

Coral Gables High, Coral Reef High (where I taught), and Ferguson High (pending) also have IB programs. I believe CG's has been around the longest.

Many of my former students who were in IB ended up feeling like, though it DID prepare them well for college, it was very stressful. Some of the IB kids even ended up dropping out of school, because they were finally "set free." But others are doing very well at their chosen schools. One student I still keep in touch with was admitted to the accelerated med school program at her university.

As a teacher, I DO think a lot of pressure is put on IB kids, and often, it's not worth it. Yes, IB kids have the highest GPAs, but they also have such rigorous requirements that they miss out on a lot of "typical high school" activities - such as newspaper, yearbook, TV production, debate, etc.

And I think it's ironic that so many of our students ended up at the University of Florida - where you really don't need an IB diploma to get in...but it helps. If my kid received the IB diploma, I'd sure hope they'd end up at an Ivy League school, for all the effort they put into it. (Unless there are othe extenuating circumstances.)

Munchkin03 · #10 05-31-2004, 10:18 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by kdonline

And I think it's ironic that so many of our students ended up at the University of Florida - where you really don't need an IB diploma to get in...but it helps. If my kid received the IB diploma, I'd sure hope they'd end up at an Ivy League school, for all the effort they put into it. (Unless there are othe extenuating circumstances.)

This is what basically pisses off the Northeast college recruiters in my hometown. All of the "prestigious" institutions offer a year of college credit for the diploma--which is what the state schools offer as well. The combination of Florida Academic Scholars (sorry, don't know what it's called anymore) and one year of academic credit was too good to be true for even the kids who got into places like Harvard and Princeton.

For what it's worth, I didn't take my year of credit.

-------------------------------------

DeltAlum, I don't think anyone is suggesting that it matters if someone did IB or AP or got National Merit after college. For the most part, I doubt that stuff--including valedictorian and salutatorian--matters after HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION. Having the IB diploma did help me, however, when I was applying to British schools for my junior year abroad--since the IB diploma is equal to the British A-Levels, I had that edge over American applicants who just had AP.

DeltAlum · #11 06-01-2004, 01:02 AM

Oh, that wasn't meant as a putdown of IB -- a number of the kids friends did it and it was pretty impressive. Had their school had it, they probably would have done it. It wasn't worth it to them to go to a different school, and the one they attended did have other things they wanted. I do think it is a nice calling card for college admission. My point was only that it seems that as you take each "step," the things that may have helped in your last aren't nearly as helpful anymore.

MSKKG · #12 11-23-2004, 11:30 AM

My boys' HS is going to start this program next year. My older son will not be able to participate because he will be a senior next year, but this would probably be right up his alley.

I was so glad to find this thread because I wasn't sure if it would be something my younger son should do when he gets to be a junior. From all your comments, and knowing my son, it sounds like it would be better for him to stick with his AP/Honors courses.

Thanks!

AlphaSigOU · #13 11-23-2004, 12:16 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by kdonline
Um...sorry, NM is not the "designated" IB school in Miami. Miami-Dade has no one designated school.

Coral Gables High, Coral Reef High (where I taught), and Ferguson High (pending) also have IB programs. I believe CG's has been around the longest.

My bad... thanks for the correction. Forgotten how huge Miami-Dade County is...

KSigkid · #14 11-23-2004, 01:15 PM

Was in AP for all my senior year and most of my junior year classes, but I don't believe IB was offered in my school system (or in the state of CT for that fact...I could be wrong on that).

AlphaSigOU · #15 11-23-2004, 01:34 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by kdonline
As a teacher, I DO think a lot of pressure is put on IB kids, and often, it's not worth it. Yes, IB kids have the highest GPAs, but they also have such rigorous requirements that they miss out on a lot of "typical high school" activities - such as newspaper, yearbook, TV production, debate, etc.

Yep... it effectively killed my high school's yearbook and newspaper production classes.