IB diploma? Bright Futures scholarships?

[TCRAIG]

IB is the more rigorous program compared to AP or dual programs. My daughter graduated with a full IB degree and started college as a junior - she ended up with 30 credits based on her IB scores and she was able to use them to either fulfill her pre-req courses or mandatory freshman type entry level courses for math, science, English, etc...they didn’t count towards her Jr/Sr classes in her majors but that’s ok. She ended up graduating in 3 years with a 4.0 with a double major in finance and international business and a minor in French - including a semester aboard...there’s no way any other program would have prepared her for college like IB.

 

[JimMIA]

As for the Bright Futures program, I have no experience.

Bright Futures is strictly a Florida program. Most states have some sort of college scholarship program -- this is Florida's.

But, my state has a program called 21st Century Scholars. Unfortunately, my kids don't qualify to take advantage of this program because it has income limits. We make too much. Shame.

Well, having too much income is not a bad thing.

But in Florida's case, our legislature decided to create a purely merit-based program -- with no regard to income, socio-economic status or anything else. All of our state universities (like most states) have plenty of need-based scholarship programs, as well as programs for specific demographic groups. This particular program is based almost exclusively on SAT/ACT scores.

 

[Theta]

Be VERY careful and investigate what level (SL or HL) each class is being taught at at your high school. At my kid's school, they did not even offer IB Physics or IB Chemistry, just IB Biology. It was at the HL level, BUT the IB Math was at the SL (lower level).

Full IB kids at our school took these core classes:

IB Biology HL
IB English HL
IB History SL
IB Math SL
IB TOK
IB Music/Drama/ etc. and maybe one more course

Both of my kids are STEM kids and this program just didn't give enough rigor to prepare them for college, so they took a full slate of AP courses. They both took AP Calculus, AP Physics, AP Biology and AP Chemistry. I just couldn't imagine my kids not have Chem or Physics in their last two years of high school.

Getting back to the levels of IB courses, IB Math SL is very watered down, the AP Calculus AB/BC courses were much more intensive.

There were a number of full IB diploma kids from our high school who went on to college on the "pre-med track" and didn't get past the first year college Chemistry classes. Others took the credit for first year Biology and struggled with their second year Biology course and Labs.

My daughter's class rank fell because the IB courses were weighted more than the AP courses. That was tough for her at the time, but she now will graduate from college in May with a double major Biology/Chemistry degree.

So just be very careful because not all IB programs offer the same breadth of courses. Also check out the HL or SL levels for each course.

 

[QueenIsabella]

IB is not a thing in my area. But, our high school pushes kids to take AP classes. My daughter took a few and did fine, not top of the class, but she did well enough for them to count. However, once she got to college, she discovered that they didn't count for much. She stressed and stressed over those courses, having been told how wonderful it would be to carry them over into college. What a waste of energy! Sure, she has some extra electives, but what does AP history, etc do for a music major? She took a total of 7 AP classes. Only one mattered at all, and that is debatable. That class was AP music theory. Taking music theory as an AP class got her placed in a higher level music theory class in college...so basically, she had harder work there, while other freshmen took the easier music theory class.

Now, my son is in his junior year of high school. He has faced the same pressure from the school system to take AP classes (he is very smart, could be in the top 10%). However, he has zero interest in the AP courses that are available. I have been his advocate with the guidance counselor and refuse to let them enroll him in those courses. It would be a miserable existence for him...and for no advantage.

I don't believe all the hype that the high school throws at kids. Unless the child is targeting an elite institution or an elite program, a good GPA is enough. The AP stuff is mentally stressful and is not for everyone.

As for the Bright Futures program, I have no experience. But, my state has a program called 21st Century Scholars. Unfortunately, my kids don't qualify to take advantage of this program because it has income limits. We make too much. Shame.

This is very true. My older DD wanted to be a bilingual education teacher. Rather than taking AP Spanish (or filling her schedule with another AP class or two), she took Early Childhood Education--a 2-year course through the vo-tech portion of her HS. When she interviewed at colleges, she didn't just say, "I want to be a teacher, I love kids", but had a portfolio of lesson plans and experience working in the HS's on-site day care. AP Spanish would have let her skip the first 2 college Spanish courses--instead, she tested, and got out of the first three! She's now 25 and teaching 4th-grade English language learners. The point is, you need the right path for the student in front of you--it really varies.

Be VERY careful and investigate what level (SL or HL) each class is being taught at at your high school. At my kid's school, they did not even offer IB Physics or IB Chemistry, just IB Biology. It was at the HL level, BUT the IB Math was at the SL (lower level).

Full IB kids at our school took these core classes:

IB Biology HL
IB English HL
IB History SL
IB Math SL
IB TOK
IB Music/Drama/ etc. and maybe one more course

Both of my kids are STEM kids and this program just didn't give enough rigor to prepare them for college, so they took a full slate of AP courses. They both took AP Calculus, AP Physics, AP Biology and AP Chemistry. I just couldn't imagine my kids not have Chem or Physics in their last two years of high school.

Getting back to the levels of IB courses, IB Math SL is very watered down, the AP Calculus AB/BC courses were much more intensive.

There were a number of full IB diploma kids from our high school who went on to college on the "pre-med track" and didn't get past the first year college Chemistry classes. Others took the credit for first year Biology and struggled with their second year Biology course and Labs.

My daughter's class rank fell because the IB courses were weighted more than the AP courses. That was tough for her at the time, but she now will graduate from college in May with a double major Biology/Chemistry degree.

So just be very careful because not all IB programs offer the same breadth of courses. Also check out the HL or SL levels for each course.

This is also very true. Although our youngest despised English, he's finding he likes it much more now--being in Honors English and having a good teacher both really help. But, the IB program that his sister is thriving in, still isn't a good choice for him. He wants to be a chemical engineer, and AP classes and dual enrollment are his choice. We're lucky to have a State U campus, literally 2 miles away. I don't know that it offers much for engineers directly, but certainly, he can get higher level math and his core college science under his belt.

The good news for us is, we're spoiled for choice. We have two Early College High Schools (neither of my younger two were interested), and every HS has a magnet component--our home district is the IB program, but another school has Marine Biology, another one has an internship-based program, and so forth.

 

[floridafam]

DS graduated in 2015. He did both. Received his IB diploma and took a bunch of AP exams.

Different colleges credited IB courses and AP courses in different ways. He benefited more from his AP credits.

He ended up starting U of Miami as a sophomore (at least on paper.)

He did utilize the Bright Futures Scholarship. I do it remember what the requirements were at the time and I think they may be changing starting next year.

DD also used Bright Futures and graduates from Florida Tech on Saturday. She did not go to an IB school but did get some college credit for her AP exams.

 

[floridafam]

Make sure your kids take the PSAT test in their junior year. They could qualify for the Benecquisto Scholarship. It’s pretty much the reason my oldest child stayed in Florida for college.

As long as nothing has changed, you can take any AP exam you wish to. You don’t necessarily have to take the corresponding class first. This is what my oldest did for a few of the exams.

 

[tvguy]

Just don't count on Colleges accepting AP or IB credit. My son ran into that when he graduated from high school in 2005. The admissions counselors saying taking the tougher is a plus, but the colleges want you to take their version of the class.
Of course acceptance of credit from outside a College can be tough. My daughter went to Cal State University Monterey Bay for her Freshman year. She transferred to Cal Sate University Sacramento. NONE of her CSUMB classes transferred. CSUS had no idea what some of the classes were. But while she was at CSUS she went to college in England for a year, and all those credits transferred.

 

[JimMIA]

I do it remember what the requirements were at the time and I think they may be changing starting next year.

The requirements have been radically upgraded in recent years. I posted the current criteria in Post #6 on page 1.