IB college -Benefits of IB Diploma Programme for University admission
IB college suggests the understanding of the benefits of IB Diploma Programme for university admission. The appropriateness of IB Diploma Programme for career readiness and university admission makes me first highlight on the fact that why the IB Diploma Programme serves as a great preparatory course for higher education. Working on the university admissions front for several years compels me to comment on a couple of observations based on the skills for student success.
Skills for student success
Skills of student success require students to have a set of holistic aspects of development which encompasses academic acumen, intellectual, social, emotional, and ethical skills. Excelling in university or college needs a student to inculcate certain skills- to name a few like independent research, time management, awareness in resource allocation, financial literacy, cultural competence, stress management, assertiveness, passion, perseverance, and teamwork. The IB Diploma Programme has IB courses which teaches you all. In this context I would mention that the International Baccalaureate is not just a combination of four IB programmes, it is way beyond a curriculum with a set of pedagogical instructions. The pedagogical transformation happens through a dynamic sustained cycle of inquiry, action, and reflection. The cycle inbuilt in the approaches to learning the local and global contexts, makes the International Baccalaureate a unique experience. With a combination of final exams and internal assessment, the IB Diploma Programme assessment assesses a student’s realistic performance based on standard goals. The diversity of meaningful skill inculcation in the process of learning and assessment in the IB Diploma Programme makes you as a DP student, prepared for higher education and internship programmes.
College board
IB Diploma Programme students develop a sharp critical thinking, analytical, and reflective skill set which helps them to ace the college board exams as an access to higher education.
STEAM and STEM
The IB Diploma Programme prepares students to take up STEAM courses. Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics nurtures the critical and creative bent of mind for the 21st century learners. The combination of creative and critical thinking helps learners to apply critical problem solving skills and come up with creative solutions to real-life problems. The most interesting observation in the IB Diploma Programme is that the IB classes of IB Math, IB Physics, IB Chemistry, IB Biology, IB Computer Science, IB Information technology in a global society, IB Business Management, IB Economics, IB Psychology, IB Design technology, and the Arts with their course work prepare the students to take up the STEAM courses and STEM courses like engineering, artificial intelligence, data science, business analytics, medicine, and machine learning, graphics and animation.
Why is the IB Diploma Programme favoured by the best universities?
Researches have shown that the IB Diploma Programme students can smartly complete their undergraduate coursework faster than the peers. The foremost reason being that the DP students already have the required skill set to take up higher education as self-regulated learners. The holistic development which the International Baccalaureate has already infused in them make them stress free, though highly competent to take up the academic rigour. At the same time, they get to be involved in co-curricular, teaching assistantship, and community service what the IB Diploma Programme CAS has taught them. True that the kind of precise score prediction you get to go through in the IB assessment as a DP student, makes you a perfectionist in analysing your strengths and areas of improvement. The crux of the discussion here is that the key skills like critical thinking and problem solving, time management and organizational, goal-setting and responsibility, as well as the international mindedness and ethical responsibility makes every IB learner a responsible global citizen.
IB student acceptance rates at the top 25 US colleges
A survey of 2018 on more than 4,000 students conducted by the International Insight Research Group in partnership with the International Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO), showed a prominent rise in acceptance rate of the IB students into Ivy League and for top-ranked universities. For the Ivy Leagues 18% more IB students were accepted compared to the total acceptance rate, while for the top-ranked universities the acceptance rate for IB students was 22% higher.
College readiness summary
College readiness summary aims to summarize the edge enjoyed by the DP student sample over the non-DP ones for taking up the IB Diploma Programme as college preparatory or readiness programme. Based on a research report prepared for the IB by David Conley, Charis McGaughy, Whitney Davis-Molin, Rachel Farkas and Erin Fukuda of The Education Policy Improvement Center in July 2014, we get a comprehensive analysis that the DP students are more academically seasoned to take up the toil and consistency required in college course work (https://www.ibo.org/globalassets/publications/ib-research/collegereadinesssummaryeng.pdf) Â The research shows four key areas where IB Diploma Programme students could ace the college course works. The four key areas range from key cognitive strategies which include research design of hypothesis, communication, and interpretation; key content knowledge encompassing round academic attribution, diligence, and grit; key learning skills and techniques based on affective skills, collaborative learning, and the art of problem solving to key transition knowledge and skills in selecting the right career choice and college. IB Diploma Programme happens to be one of the very few programmes having courses on components and variables aligned with career readiness.
