Is IB worth it?

For many seniors, the stresses of senior year can be challenging. This is especially true for senior Laura Flandermeyer, who is a part of the International Baccalaureate (IB) program. In the program, students face a heavy workload with extra work outside of their AP classes and more exams to study for.

“It’s definitely overwhelming because there’s not a lot of instructions, like in our normal classes. Like this is how you do it, this is exactly what you’re writing about, go but, in IB it’s like pick a topic and how ever you want to write and write whatever you want to write. So the lack of instruction is overwhelming and the amount of deadlines and things. But I think overall beneficial cause now I feel like I can just go without instructions and be more creative in my academic endeavor or whatever you want to call it,” Senior Laura Flandermeyer said.

IB is a two year educational program that’s taught in schools all over the world. The goal of the program is to develop young knowledgeable and caring students to create a better and more peaceful world. The program was first brought to the high schools after other schools in the area got the program. Unlike some schools where elementary schools through high schools are considered IB schools, Lawrence Township only does this program at the high school level. According to Assistant Principal Jason Floyd, the township decided to do this because of the variety of other programs already offered at the township through the elementary level.

Some of the surrounding districts started offering it and our students’ families were like ‘we want it’. Instead of having those families go to other districts or us shipping those kids over to another district we were just like we’ll just offer it here in Lawrence Township,” Floyd said. “Right now in our district we offer so many other programs that are beneficial we are just look at high schools.”

Due to the rigor of the program, many colleges view the program highly. Since the students will not know if they receive the IB diploma until June, they apply to colleges before officially graduating from the program. Colleges still see them as a part of the program on their application and view this as a distinctive feature of a hardworking student.

“I think a lot of colleges see the IB program as like the most rigorous academic plan that high schools offer and so they usually see IB students as willing to challenge themselves and so these colleges that are admitting students they want to see that these students are motivated to learn more and that their not just being in school to just just be in school,” Senior Matt Doemland said.

Even after high school, the program continues to help students according to Carly Mendenhall. Mendenhall graduated from LN last year as valedictorian and received the IB diploma. Mendenhall believed the IB program greatly prepared her for her workload in college where she attends Purdue University studying engineering.

“It’s definitely a heavy workload. It was something I wanted to do. I would caution on becoming so obsessed with getting a good score and making sure everything is perfect, making sure that it really is a learning process. I got a lot out of doing IB not because I got the diploma or whatever. I think it really prepared me for college. The workload is heavy but that’s just like the workload is going to be in college depending on your major,” Mendenhall.

Although helpful in college, the program can be overwhelming, especially in the beginning according to Flandermeyer. On top of taking AP classes, IB students have to do extra work in some of these courses to fulfill their IB diploma requirements. In order to receive the diploma to students must earn a total of 24 points which are earned through taking courses in a science, a social studies, a math, a english and something else. The goal of this is to make the students well rounded. The students are also taught to think differently at the beginning of the course rather than just finding one answer.

“It was scary, like it was really scary at first because they’re like, for example, ‘how do you know that those lockers are green?’ It’s like all kinds of intuition and ways of knowing and how people know things and is really hard to initially think that abstractly. But now I feel really confident and being able to describe how I know something, like how this could be useful,” Flandermeyer said.

The program itself requires students to complete assessments in six subjects such as language and literature, language acquisition, individual and society, experimental sciences, mathematics and the arts.  It also requires three major core requirements which are the extended essay, theory of knowledge and creativity or activity or service.

“The extended essay is mostly done outside of class and you get a credit for doing it so it’s considered a semester long course. There is also a TOK essay and a TOK presentation so you get a big score out of all of it,” Mendenhall said.

For senior Sarrah Davis, the IB program could be very overwhelming at times. Davis joined the program last year when her mom suggested that she try it out. With a part time job, keeping up with school work and studying, Davis felt overwhelmed in the program. She decided to drop out of the program for her senior year so that her schedule was open for classes that she wanted to take.

““It was a lot of work and with me, I had a job. The way my schedule was fit for this year I wouldn’t have the time to take the classes and still work and all that extra stuff,” Davis said.

Although few might consider the program to be rather stressful, many also consider it a life changing experience. The classes, unlike other classes, are aimed at teaching students to think in a different way rather than just teaching the material.

“I think it’s definitely shaped the way I viewed things. It’s helped me become more worldly,” senior Anna Morgan said.

Although no longer in the program, Davis believes it was still beneficial to her and would have been beneficial to stick with it. Due to the requirements of the program, Davis would not have been able to take all of the classes she wanted to and still have her IB classes fulfilled. In order to meet the requirements, students are often restricted to only choose one elective besides the ones to fulfill their IB requirements, which can make the scheduling for these classes very hard at times.

“It was hard. It was a lot of work but I feel like if I would have stuck with it, it would have been worth it,” Davis said.

One aspect of IB Flandermeyer found appealing when joining the program was the international aspect. Although students can still study abroad without being a part of the IB program, one of the goals of the program is to teach students skills to live and work in a globalizing world.

“I mainly decided to join the IB because of the international aspect of it and really learning how to think about why things happen and not necessarily what the correct answer is. To kinda like examine holistically ideas,” Flandermeyer said.

Another requirement for the program is the class Theory of Knowledge (TOK). This class is aimed at teaching students how to think differently. The goal is for students to not analyze every situation in search of one answer but looking at all the different possible answers.

“I think I have definitely learned about the value of seeing things through multiple perspectives and I think it’s especially seen through the TOK class. I remember one day we took a little trip to the roof of the building and we saw what the whole school looked like from a different perspective. We also went to the basement actually so it like we were kinda just like looking at different parts of the school that most students don’t get to see. It just shows that there’s value in all of these different perspectives,” Doemland said.

Students apply these ways of thinking to their school work as well as their outside life. By analyzing different views, students are able to come up with multiple solutions to a problem and look at things with a different perspective. According to Morgan, TOK has been a very positive experience for her.

“I think it’s really challenged the way I look at some things. Having tunnel vision most people see one thing and that’s it. But being in the class theory of knowledge has really brought in the way of looking at things and has helped me see like other sides,” Morgan said.

For Flandermeyer, the IB program has been a positive experience. Although there were overwhelming times, she has been proud of all that she has accomplished. Outside of her academic accomplishments, Flandermeyer has also been able to have a close group of friends with the other students in the program. Since the program is usually a small group of students, they are often placed in most of the same classes and can relate to each other about everything they have to do for program.

“I made a good group of friends. It’s hard to like really connect with people until we’re in like our theory of knowledge class and we’re talking about stuff that’s just totally random that you wouldn’t talk about anywhere else. And then you like me these connections with other people and also like again the thinking I wouldn’t have gained that in normal AP where it’s like he’s the answer. So that’s cool just to see how everything comes together and how like the ways we know things all come together,” Flandermeyer said.