Argumentative Essay: Should I try to get the IB diploma?

This is something that I have thought a lot about and as such, I know quite a bit about it. I know there are specific class requirements in different groups that I would have to take, three higher-level ones and three standard-level classes. In addition to this, I would have to take another course called TOK. I also know that it is a pretty hard path to pursue, as I have actually never heard anyone speak highly about the diploma. However, I do know that it increases your chances of getting into some colleges, almost double at some. So, from what I know it is difficult, but there are some benefits after high school.

Mostly I want to know more about the rigor of the classes. I know generally from short accounts that I’ve heard, but I want to know more in-depth, like specific classes. I want to know also, the difference between the IB and regular diplomas in terms of the difficulty of classes. I also want to know more specifically about how the IB diploma would benefit me post-high school. This would be mostly in terms of colleges, but I want to research more to see if it is going to do anything else for me in the long run. Lastly, since I’ve been mainly looking at the IB diploma recently, I need to learn more about what classes you need to take in order to receive the standard/advanced diploma to be able to compare it to the IB.

The IB diploma and the regular/advanced Diploma contrast in many ways in terms of the course requirements and just general requirements. In terms of classes that you have to take the IB and regular diplomas aren’t entirely different, the IB classes are just harder in theory. For the advanced diploma, I would have to receive the following credits: 4 English credits, 4 mathematics credits, 4 laboratory sciences credits, 4 History, and Social Sciences credits, 2 Physical Education/Family Life Education/ Health credits, 3 foreign language credits, 1 fine arts or CTE credit, 1 Economics and Personal Finance credit, and 3 elective credits (Fccps.org.).  The IB diploma works a little differently, but still contains the same key areas of study. Specifically, the IB diploma is separated into 6 subject sections: studies in language and literature, language acquisition, individuals and societies, sciences, mathematics, and the arts. I would be required to take six IB classes, a class from each of the first 5 groups, and then the 6th can be either from the 6th category or a sub in groups 1-4 (International Baccalaureate). While the categories in both diplomas are similar, there are a couple of discrepancies in criteria that have made it harder to decide which diploma I want to get. For example, next year I want to take psychology. Per the IB requirements, it fits into the individuals and societies grouping. This is most similar to the History and Social Sciences section of the advanced diploma, however, Psychology does not count in this category, and rather I still have a US/VA course that I still need to complete before I can graduate high school. Due to this difference, I would have to take this history course over the summer should I choose to try and get the IB diploma. Its contrasts like this really stress how different the diplomas are in terms of course requirements.

There is of course a second component to the IB diploma and that is there are three miscellaneous items that need to be completed before one can receive an IB diploma. These are entirely different and unique requirements from any other form of diploma. The three are, a TOK course, an extended essay, and a CAS project. The TOK course is a fairly philosophical class, this doesn’t require an exam, but rather a 1,600-word essay and oral presentation. The extended essay is a 4,000-word mini-thesis that needs to be approved by IB. Lastly, the CAS project uses your outside experiences in a project. I would need to have three different activities (International Baccalaureate). A Creativity Activity, for me it would probably be something to do with my Clarinet or Drums playing. Next, an active activity, probably something to do with wrestling for me. Lastly, a Service activity is required, and I would probably put my work camp in which I go and work on houses for people in need. All of this is to say the CAS project specifically, probably wouldn’t be an area of worry for me.  

The next area of difference that I decided to research was how each of the degrees would set me up for college. Going into it I knew that the IB diploma would greatly impact my chances of getting into college, but I was able to find a source that mentioned the acceptance rate of various colleges upon completing the IB diploma. Within a survey of 4,000 students, they concluded that, the acceptance of Ivy League universities is up to 18% higher amongst IB diploma recipients and higher in non-ivy league colleges, up to 22%. The article lists several examples including, MIT with a general admission of 7.2% which goes up to 23.1%, and Stanford which goes from a 4.56% to a 17% acceptance rate (IB Student Acceptance Rates…). The list goes on with similar stats to these. In addition to this, the IB diploma could set me up very well in terms of course credits. At MIT if I were to score a 6 or 7 on eligible IB exams, I would be eligible for credit. Another similar example is Stanford which only requires you to get a 5 or 6 on certain eligible exams to gain credit (IB Student Acceptance Rates…). In addition to this, I read a research article titled, "The Denationalization of Education and the Expansion of the International Baccalaureate” by Julia Resnik. Resnik denotes, “The international school system provides a fast track to the top universities for global and indigenous elites and might denote the emergence of a global ruling class.” Essentially, the IB diploma, in her professional opinion would set anyone up very well for college. She also says that “The IB curriculum is described as a rare educational product that represents a "sign of distinction." Therefore saying that having received the IB diploma would make one stand out to colleges. Now on the flip side, the advanced diploma would also probably set me up well for college.  I interviewed my brother, Joseph Carpenter, who received the IB diploma and is now attending school at Tufts University. He said that “Colleges generally just want you to do the most rigorous option available at your school, so doing the (IB) diploma didn’t provide added benefit compared to say, doing AP at another school, but rather avoided hurting my application by not taking the path with the highest rigor.” All of this is to say that in Carpenter’s opinion, one that I have definitely heard before, colleges just want to see you taking the highest rigor classes and not necessarily completing the IB diploma, so if I were to just take the hardest classes I could and not do the IB diploma it could potentially set me up the same for college as the IB diploma would.

The last point of comparison and perhaps the most obvious one to make is the actual difficulty of the classes and the diplomas in general. I asked Carpenter about this point too and what he had to say was, “it depended more on the class itself than the IB label; some honors classes were harder than IB classes, but on the whole IB classes were probably harder, or at least higher workload, particularly factoring in AI’s.” In addition to this, IB classes require 240 hours of studying for higher-level classes and 150 for lower-level (International Baccalaureate). However, I have to keep in my mind that by doing the advanced diploma and taking higher rigor classes, I would inevitably end up taking IB classes anyway. In fact, everyone in the school system is required to take IB English junior or senior year, so if we take this into account it really just comes down to the miscellaneous items in the IB diploma. Carpenter says about these that, “it was difficult to fit them in between other responsibilities with more immediate deadlines, so most of us (the IB students) ended up postponing them until we didn’t have enough time.” All of this to say that yes, it would seem that the IB diploma is significantly more difficult to complete than the advanced diploma.

Throughout this paper, I learned a lot about the IB diploma and the advanced diploma. Overall, the IB diploma and the advanced diploma aren’t as different as one might think. In terms of classes, with a few key exceptions, they boil down to essentially the same groupings. In addition, IB classes are still available to take and are often taken by those who aren’t getting the IB diploma, so it really just comes down to whether or not you want to do the extra assignments that the IB diploma entails. I have learned a lot about these extra assignments throughout the paper and how hard the diploma is in general. The only reason I would want to get this diploma is in order to be more appealing to colleges and on this aspect, I got many mixed signals. Proponents of the IB degree argue that it is one of, if not the most appealing degree to colleges, but people like my brother, who have received the diploma argue that it isn’t the end all be all. So, in conclusion, it seems as though there really isn’t a consensus on which diploma is better to colleges, and the IB diploma seems significantly harder, and has more criteria. I suppose the only thing I can do at this point is to keep talking to people who have received one of these diplomas in order to garner their experience and eventually make a decision on whether or not I am going to be going after the IB diploma.