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Skills to take from the IB Diploma
Watch as Brian Spittle from DePaul University talks about how life skills, including critical thinking and communication, apply across disciplines and are perfect material for applications.
Long-term Outcomes of Participation in IB Programs
Read the research summary of a study completed through the University of Melbourne
IB and Succeeding in College
IB doesn't get you into college and neither does AP, you get yourself into college. What IB does do to is prepare you for college in a way that no other curriculum could, by giving you college-style classes, homework, workload and research papers. IB is for students who want success after they get into the school of their choice, and believe me, if you really want one of the best schools in the country, you'll need all the help you can get.
-Kevin Bai, IB Class of 2014
Testimony of an IB Senior
Read here to find out what IB is really about!
In 2011, the IB Global Recognition Department conducted the IB Diploma Programme (DP) Graduate Destination Survey in the seven countries with the most IB World Schools offering the Diploma Programme: the US, Canada, Mexico, the UK, Spain, India and Australia. We are pleased to announce the release of the US results for the 2011 IB Diploma Programme Graduate Destination Survey, available online at:
http://www.ibo.org/recognition/dpdestinationssurvey
Some important findings* include:
- The average acceptance rate of DP students into university/college is 22 percentage points higher than the average acceptance rate of the total population.
- The average SAT score of Diploma Programme candidates who responded to the survey is 1953, and the average for Certificate candidates is 1794. The national average SAT score is 1500.
- 97% of respondents feel very well or well prepared for future studies.
- Approximately 70% of all respondents would either actively encourage or encourage others to undertake the IB Diploma Programme.
University of Chicago study finds CPS students completing the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme are better prepared for college
Bethesda, Maryland, IB, March 22, 2012 – The University of Chicago study released today shows that Chicago Public School students enrolled in the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme (DP) are 40 percent more likely to attend a four-year college, 50 percent more likely to attend a more selective college and significantly more likely to persist in four-year colleges for at least two years, compared to similar students who did not enroll in the IB Diploma Programme. The Diploma Programme is an academically challenging programme for students in their junior and senior years of high school.
This study looked at high achieving students in CPS high schools who graduated from 2003 through 2007. It included 1,888 students who enrolled in an IB cohort in the ninth grade; 62 percent of these students went on to enroll in the IB Diploma Programme in the eleventh grade. The DP students come from 12 neighborhood high schools, and are predominantly first-generation college students; 67% were female, 33% were male, 37% were African American, 38%were Latino, 14% were Asian/Pacific Islander, 15% were white, and 77% were eligible for free or reduced price lunch. The non-IB students in the study had the qualifications necessary to be eligible for the Diploma Programme.
IB students interviewed felt they were academically well-prepared to engage and succeed in college coursework and described strong analytical writing and math preparation, motivation, work habits, organization and time management as strengths. “The University of Chicago’s research provides evidence for what we have known all along – that the Diploma Programme prepares students for college success,” Drew Deutsch, Director of the IB Americas, said. “These findings have important implications for districts across the US interested in implementing IB programmes. We hope that this study will help policymakers and practitioners better understand how to successfully promote college readiness in high schools.”
The report authors note that “never before in our work in Chicago have we seen coursework have an effect on college persistence. The fact that it has an effect two years after students graduate speaks to the kind of powerful impact the IB Diploma Programme can have on students’ trajectories” Indeed, there is considerable cause for optimism about the power of the IB experience to prepare students with the skills necessary to thrive in college.
This study is part of the Chicago Postsecondary Transition project, a multi-year research project tracking the post-high school experiences of successive cohorts of graduating CPS seniors.
IB and Research
The International Baccalaureate Program strengthened my interest in research.
This program gave us an opportunity to think critically about the subjects that we were studying, may it be history, science, or even mathematics. Writing research papers for each class strengthened our understanding of the material, rather than just allowing us to rely on pure memorization when it came to tests. This program guided me to pursue research in my undergraduate program at University of the Pacific and even now as a dental school student. I encourage everyone who wants to excel in college and graduate programs to definitely partake in this wonderful academic program!
-Dhwani Shah, IB Class of 2008
IB and College Credit
Because of my IB classes and my IB diploma, I had senior standing after my first quarter of my second year at UCI. This senior standing has enabled me to have an earlier enrollment window for classes which was, and still is, extremely important for me as a Bio major since many bio classes at preferred times, or with preferred teachers, tend to get filled up quickly. My IB diploma, by itself, gave me roughly 22 units and my IB/AP classes got me another ~20 units which allowed me to get priority registration for my classes.
-Lawrence Liu 2009 IB
NEW STUDY FINDS INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE DIPLOMA PROGRAM PREPARES STUDENTS FOR UNIVERSITY SUCCESS
81% of International Baccalaureate students graduated within 6 years of enrolling full-time at a 4-year institution, compared to the national average of 57%
Bethesda, MD, IB, April 21, 2011 -- The International Baccalaureate (IB), in conjunction with SRI International, released the latest research on IB Diploma students’ post-secondary achievement today. The study, part of a series of three, tracks the college enrollment, performance and graduation rates for two cohorts of IB students who completed high school in the United States in 2000 and 2001.
The key findings demonstrate that the majority of these students enrolled full time directly in a 4-year institution (67.1%) rather than a 2-year college (3.8%), and 64.4% enrolled directly into institutions classified as somewhat selective or more selective. At higher education institutions with high IB enrollments, graduation rates for IB students were generally higher than the institutional average. Overall, 81% of IB students graduated within 6 years of enrolling full-time at a 4-year institution, compared to the national average of 57%. To read the full report please visit:
www.ibo.org/research/programmevalidation/index.cfm#PostsecondaryUS
Here is a message of advice from Ben Sayawat DBHS IB Alumnus, Class of 2010:
Regardless of being an AP or IB student (or neither for that regard), the most successful college student is the ambitious and hardworking one. That being said, the IB program offers one thing that I think the AP courses do not offer: writing skills. With all the (painful) Internal and External assessments, as well as the EE in particular, the IB student will learn how to write properly, which is an essential skill used throughout the rest of one's life. I'm not talking about just humanities majors or what not, but all other majors, including mathematics, business, and science majors as well. Being able to write well makes professors, employers, and peers take them seriously in any of their future ambitions. This is why it is so important to improve one's writing skills as early on (or late) as their junior and senior high school years, and for this reason alone, I would definitely recommend the IB program.