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This just isn't true. I just looked at 4 different colleges that I picked for various, random reasons:
UNC Chapel Hill, CU Boulder, Columbia University, Reed College
All 4 give credit for many HL IB exams (Columbia caps it at 16 credits - they treat AP the same however). Chapel Hill even lists online for anyone to see what minimum score you need (generally a 5 although a few 6s and 4s), how much credit you receive (from 3-9 credit hours), and which specific courses it allows you to place out of. Here are the HL IB exams they consider for credit:
Art Studio, Biology, Chemistry, Chinese, Economics, English, French, German, Math, African History, Americas History, European History, Music Composition, Philosophy, Physics, Psychology, Spanish, Visual Arts, World Religion
What is that, 19 different HL IB exams for which credit can be offered?
I will stand by the following statement with absolute certainty:
MOST U.S. UNIVERSITIES ONLY AWARD COLLEGE CREDIT FOR HL IB EXAMS WITH A SCORE OF '5' OR HIGHER. IVY LEAGUE SCHOOLS REQUIRE A SCORE OF '7'.
We are not going to sit here and pick some obscure REED COLLEGE to try and find schools that award college credit for IB SL (STANDARD LEVEL - 150 HOURS) EXAMS.
In its 42 years of offering IB Diploma examinations, the IBO has never bothered to get off its lazy, fat, Eurocratic arse to bother to VET its exams with U.S. Universities against University Freshman 101 Exams and courses the way The College Board has done! Additionally, IBO would rather stomp its little feet and whine and pout through Jay Mathews in WAPO about its SL exams being "discriminated against" by "ignorant college admissions officers".
I find the behaviour (see, I'll even use the Queen's English, y'all) of these arrogant, pompous, bloviating, special interest snakeoil salesmen called IB Consultants ........... repulsive, revolting and entirely UNAmerican.
Which is what one would say if they have no idea whatsoever about IB students.
Nooooooo ........ that is what the mother of a child who had been subjected to the IB MYP and who had to fight to switch her daughter over the AP High School in their town has to say.
The IB programme here in the USA is geared for the dumbing down of our children. AP courses teach a child within a framework of information to actually learn the material given to them.
IB on the other hand allows students with all abilities to learn the same material. An honors student who takes an IB course will sink in his teeth and devour huge sums of material, say like Math, concerning weights and measures. What will be the outcome? Material mastered. The IB student who is a regents level student, who takes the same course, will be introduced to the same material, but rather than learn and master the Math in the same manner as the honors student, he will instead be allowed to cut corners around the actual mathematic material presented each day, and instead do the recipe for Banana Bread illustrated in the book under the unit of weights and measures. To the IB teachers, each student is achieving the same results but are just going about it differently. And this seems wonderful to some people?
Your claim about IB students not having to master math etc is false. Like I already mentioned, when we had kids come I from US high schools, they'd have to repeat year just to get to the same level with the IB students. That how much harder the IB program is.
PS there is nothing wrong in teaching kids problem solving skills. I wish they did more of that in schools. Memorizing stuff to pass an exam is great, but learning how to solve problems from scratch is a golden skill in the real world.
Your claim about IB students not having to master math etc is false. Like I already mentioned, when we had kids come I from US high schools, they'd have to repeat year just to get to the same level with the IB students. That how much harder the IB program is.
PS there is nothing wrong in teaching kids problem solving skills. I wish they did more of that in schools. Memorizing stuff to pass an exam is great, but learning how to solve problems from scratch is a golden skill in the real world.
Schools can PICK AND CHOOSE which IB Math courses are offered within the IB Program(me) at ANY school. IF a school chooses to only offer IB SL Math Studies or IB SL Math or even IB HL Math, NONE of those 3 courses are as difficult as AP Calculus AB/BC. IB SL Math Studies is for math dummies and is nowhere close to a college-level course.
I will grant you that there actually is an IB SL math course called Further Mathematics which, based on testimony from Math teachers, is an outrageously difficult Math course. For this reason, you will not find IB Further Mathematics offered in anywhere but the rarest of rare public IB HSs in the U.S.
I've always wondered about the homeschool thing. How do you teach widely diverse subjects like physics, math, foreign language, literature, chemistry, etc? Does one person know enough about all subjects to teach them adequately? Or do you give your child a trig text book and say good luck?
Excellent questions! You are correct, I do not know enough to properly teach all of these upper level programs. The program I use has teachers, and as we move up into more complicated areas, my children are given more teachers. They do classes over the Internet (chat) to instruct on the new topic, and the course work leads one to the info gradually (so I'll be learning these items as well). The books and computer resources are amazing. We use both books and online curriculum. But I'm there, knowing exactly what is being fed into my children's growing minds. Making sure that they are learning How to find answers and information, not being told what to think.
The program I found, and love, is K12. The curriculum was founded by the Deot of Ed under Regan. It has love for family, respect for belief, and teaches love for country (rather than removing it). But, again, I'm there IF ever something is questionable.
I will stand by the following statement with absolute certainty:
MOST U.S. UNIVERSITIES ONLY AWARD COLLEGE CREDIT FOR HL IB EXAMS WITH A SCORE OF '5' OR HIGHER. IVY LEAGUE SCHOOLS REQUIRE A SCORE OF '7'.
Your initial comment (repeated many times in this thread) was that only 3 HL IB exams are awarded credit at US colleges and universities. That's just patently false. Your comment about most universities awarding college credit for HL IB exams of 5+ is correct - just like most universities only award credit for AP scores of 3+ (and only for 4+ at good schools). Your new comment about the Ivy League, however, is incorrect despite you being absolutely certain about it. I'll do your legwork for you.
Brown: Gives credit and advance placement for IB exams scores of 5+ (6 or 7 for chemistry and econ) International Certification
Columbia: Gives credit and advance placement for IB exams of 6 or 7 (caps it at 16 credits, just like for AP) Programs of Study | Columbia College
Cornell: Gives credit and advance placement for IB exams scores of 6 or 7 Credit and Placement
Harvard: You are right about Harvard - they give credit and advance placement only for a 7 (just like they only consider 5s on AP exams) Advanced Standing § Advising Programs Office
We are not going to sit here and pick some obscure REED COLLEGE to try and find schools that award college credit for IB SL (STANDARD LEVEL - 150 HOURS) EXAMS.
I chose a cross section of schools based on personal connections (I received my undergrad degree from Reed College) - I didn't go hunting for some obscure school. And by the way, Reed College does not give credit for SL IB exams (they only give elective credit for both AP and HL IB exams - they don't consider either AP or HL IB classes to be truly at college level and offer no advance placement for either exams). Reed has a wonderful reputation (well deserved) and is considered on par with any Ivy League school.
In summary, every college and university in the US I've ever looked into treats AP exam scores and HL IB exams scores equally when offering credit and advanced placement.
Last edited by hammertime33; 08-25-2012 at 02:10 PM..
Your initial comment (repeated many times in this thread) was that only 3 HL IB exams are awarded credit at US colleges and universities. That's just patently false.
No, you misinterpreted the other poster who mentioned 3 HL exams. I NEVER limited my criteria to 3 "subject" IB HL exams. The full IB Diploma requires a student to take 3 HL and 3 SL courses, plus TOK, plus CAS and the EE over the final 2 years of HS. Sometimes students can take 4 HL and 2 SL exams, but scheduling and state requirements rarely allow for this sort of scheduling in a general public high school. You CAN'T take 4 HL IB exams and 4 SL IB exams and pick which 3 + 3 you want to count towards the IB Diploma. That is unallowable. You cannot TAKE an IBDP SL exam in 1oth Grade, the way you can take an AP exam. If you start in an IB HS as a junior and have to transfer to a non-IB HS for your senior year, all of your junior year's work was for nothing! IB only allows students enrolled in an IB World School to enroll in its online courses! How 1940's is THAT?
ANYONE can sit an AP exam, be they homeschooled, in parochial school or as IB has conveniently glommed onto, a public IB school. IB NEEDS the existence of AP's flexibility and transparency to prop up its own rigid, unyielding, restrictive, proprietary, less creditworthy, less recognized exclusionary programs in hopes of satisfying uber-over-achieving pushy parents who think their little heads full of mush are future Einsteins and therefore need to sit for 8 hours worth of advanced exams in a single subject to the tune of over $300 per subject, just to prove how brilliant their offspring are and to drive up the school's rankings on the Best High School List.
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Homeschooling
