University of Virginia freshman Aitana Wells was one of many Marshall students who earned the rigorous IB Diploma last year. However, she says that in spite of the work she put in, she didn’t feel prepared enough for her STEM classes in college.
“STEM as a whole, the content they gave was good, but it was too much for the time we had,” Wells said. “It was too much busywork for us to understand the fundamental concepts.”
Wells said that her high school experience, while rigorous, did not align with her current college experience.
“If I think about my past schedule for the past few years, it was insane,” Wells said. “I went to school, I went to practice and I went to bed. Now, my classes are harder, but somehow the workload is just easier. I think that they give the right amount of work for how hard the class is.”
Virginia Tech freshman Rishita Jain said that there were few IB STEM courses available for her schedule.
“I felt as though at least Marshall in terms of IB, they didn’t have as many STEM courses as I wanted,” Jain said.
In addition to a lack of classes, Jain said that getting credits transferred was harder because she didn’t do the IB Diploma, despite having taken many IB courses.
“Even though I should technically be out of these intro level courses,” she said, “I have to retake them.”
Jain said that the IB Program didn’t prepare her enough for college because of how it differs from AP, the more common college-level program in the US.
“AP teaches you a little bit more to think strategically whereas IB teaches you to think a little bit more creatively,” she said. “But when it comes to STEM fields, you’re trying to think more strategically.”
“I strongly believe that it didn’t only prepare me in terms of the content that I was learning in college, but even more so the skills that I needed to thrive in
college.” – 2018 IB Diploma
recipient Pamela Paz
However, Jain said that despite the drawbacks, taking IB classes prepared her through their rigor.
“In college,” she said, “it feels like you have significantly less work because you’ve been trained to work so much through all those courses.”
Syracuse University sophomore and sports analytics major Theo Schmidt said that doing the IB Diploma helped him develop his writing skills.
“When I do have to write,” he said, “I have no issue at all. IB has prepared me for it.”
Schmidt said that doing the IB Diploma was a positive experience despite its rigor and difficulty transferring credits to college courses.
“I didn’t choose whether I went to an IB school or AP school,” he said. “I didn’t choose whether my college was going to accept my credit or not, but at the end of the day, I think it helped me get into where I want to be.”
UNC Chapel Hill graduate and Biology major Pamela Paz said that her IB courses helped her even outside of the classroom.
“I strongly believe that it didn’t only prepare me in terms of the content that I was learning in college,” she said, “but even more so the skills that I needed to thrive in college.”
Paz said that doing the IB Diploma prepared her for her life after college through the study habits she formed.
“From personal experience,” she said, “making sure I’m getting ahead and starting to study from the very beginning of the unit. I am starting a project as soon as it’s assigned. I am taking a lot of steps in my Extended Essay before it’s really due. All of that helps so that it never got to a point of too much overwhelm where I didn’t want to do it anymore.”
Paz said she credits IB Theory of Knowledge, a required course for IB Diploma candidates, for helping her develop critical thinking skills.
“Being able to be a critical thinker and think outside the box,” she said, “that’s a skill that I’m able to apply in my personal and academic life on a day-to-day basis. I believe that TOK made me very open-minded as well, which I think is a very important skill, especially in the field that I find myself in currently, which is healthcare.”
Paz said that the Diploma program was invaluable and recommends that underclassmen be open to taking it.
“It was the abilities I learned throughout my IB career that allowed me to be successful no matter what course I took in college and even beyond,” she said.
William and Mary freshman and prospective psychology and economics major Sienna Bowater said that while valuable, the drawbacks of doing IB shouldn’t be ignored.
“I definitely took a lot of IBs that made my life stressful in high school,” she said.
Additionally, Bowater said that the Diploma’s course requirements make course selections a rigid process.
“[IB has] some options but a lot of the time those are electives that are more focused towards something I’d want to pursue,” Bowater said.
Loyola Marymount University freshman and Film Studies major Francis Abradu-Otoo agreed with Bowater about the rigor of IB courses.
“I feel like IB classes are honestly a little bit harder than college classes,” he said.
Despite this, Abradu-Otoo said that although IB courses were more challenging than his current ones, they prepared him well for college by improving his study habits.
“The studying regime that I developed in IB has helped me become more independent in college,” he said.
Abradu-Otoo said that when selecting courses, people should know themselves and what they’re interested in.
“You should always be open to taking new courses and things like that,” he said, “but you shouldn’t force yourself to take a class just because it’s IB.”
Abradu-Otoo said he recommended students to take challenging courses, but maintain a healthy work-life balance.
“You should try and challenge yourself a little bit in high school. You shouldn’t have a completely breezy junior or senior year, but you shouldn’t overburden yourself. You should know your limits, but I highly recommend taking IB courses. I think they’re really good for college prep. They honestly make college, if not easy, just a lot more manageable.”
Abradu-Otoo said that although he chose not to do the full Diploma program, students who haven’t fully decided should still try it out.
“There’s really no penalty if you realize that the workload is a lot for you and you want to kind of scale back to just doing IB classes instead of doing the full diploma, like I did,” he said.