Do Students do IB Because They Want to or Do They Feel Pressured to

What is IB

“IB is maybe the hardest thing i’ve ever done” One student said about the IB. “Hanging out with friends became a once a week thing. Didn’t have time to do other things.” Another student said, and she would go on to say that the IB had “A lot more work. The amount of work you had to do every night was insane.” These are just a few comments students had to make about the IB. Now before we dive deeper, what is the IB? IB, short for International Baccalaureate Organization, is a nonprofit foundation stationed in Geneva.

ISB’s Culture around IB

Now what is this so-called culture? It isn’t an actual culture that people express and can show but there is something there. There is some sort of custom that high schoolers take IB. According to Mr.Cohen, an IB evaluator and English teacher at ISB, “Students are peer pressured and pressured from the culture of our school. Our school highly values [the IB diploma]”It’s not just teachers that notice the pressure, students notice and feel the pressure. Current Senior Cherry Ingkasampan said that because she “grew up at ISB” she was accustomed to “IB is a massive a thing.” Because of this ever since Cherry was in middle school year “[she] knew [she] was gonna do IB” From a teachers perspective or a students perspective, either way both know there is some sort of culture built around students taking IB.

Alma Rortveit, a current Senior at ISB, said that she “felt like she had to do [IB]”. Now although IB isn’t a bad thing to do, some students aren’t prepared for what comes with taking IB.

Stressed and Unprepared

As Freshman and Sophomores, we are told constantly by our peers in Junior and Senior year that IB is difficult. We are told by our teachers that IB is difficult. We are told by tutors that IB is difficult. Even though this thought is forced into our heads for years, some students still feel unprepared for IB and what it takes to commit to the diploma. Unfortunately, some students rush into the IB program without fully understanding what comes with taking the courses.

For Alma’s sake, she “was overwhelmed when [she was] told to pick [her] IB classes” which ended up with her taking “other classes” to “fill [her] schedule”. This led to her being unhappy with a lot of her choices and led to her dropping most of her IB classes last year. Alma also went on to say that she felt that she was unprepared for IB. When asked “did you feel prepared for IB”, she responded “No, not at all. They were always like ‘IB is gonna be so hard’ but then you get there and it's so hard. They didn’t do anything to make you deal with it.” Unfortunately Alma was left unprepared and stressed for IB, same as Cherry.

What you can do without IB

There's an ideology that IB is required to get far in life but in Mr.Cohen’s perspective, you can do plenty without it. He says that “students who don't take the full diploma program actually have more opportunities than students who do take the diploma program.” This is because students who don’t do IB have more opportunities in taking electives and after school activities without the stress of IB. He also went on to say that “If it's not necessary, I think it's unnecessary for the student to go through the program.” If a student is sure about attending a college in the United States, Mr.Cohen argues that it is unnecessary for the student to go through the tribe and tribulation of IB.

Advice for incoming Juniors

Now don’t let this article push away anyone reading this from taking IB. The IB program opens so many doors and is outright required for most countries for college applications. Cherry and Alma both stress the importance of being ready for taking IB classes. Along with them is another Senior, Liam Nelson. He says “Get your work done on time or else your work starts to add up and it becomes a mountain of work.” Alma went on to add “If you’re ready to do it[IB] then do it. If you’re unsure then don’t because you get far enough with a normal highschool diploma.” Mr.Cohens advice for incoming Juniors is “Think about which countries you want to apply to for university.” IB is an amazing program, it just happens to be very stressful and time consuming according to teachers and students. If a reader is thinking about doing IB, they should start preparations now for the workload incoming so they aren’t unprepared like the 3 seniors mentioned before.