Dreamer94

I just look at this thread, and I realise how time passes us all by so quickly, I feel kind of sad.  I remember my childhood as clear as anything, those times of pure joy, without a care in the world (..and who could believe me- doing the IB now, a few years back I wouldn't have even imagined doing this course, and I hadn't even heard of it!!)  My favourite childhood memory has to be the countless times, my parents would take me to our local park, a beautiful park, in the summer with fresh flowers and the scent of freshly mown grass (mmmmm..) wafting in the air, in order to sit and have a nice, old fashioned picnic.  Those were good days...times when you had no sense of responsibility, when youur parents were responsible for you.   I just hope that in the end all this IB procrastination is worth it....

doing extended essay in literature wuld be the best job as inliterature you can find many valuable resources online as well as you can work on your favourite novel which will get u good grade in EE..!!

Hello.
Of course, for economics or business management, HL Math is better, but it is not always the case. You need to look into specific universities that you would like to apply. Some accept Math SL and you might not even have to take a specif coulse in college/uni. Math Studies is too imple for youe future, if I were you I would go to SL Math.

Well, look at it in the employer's point of view.
Who's he going to hire?
The person with the great work ethic who may not be the brightest or the person who's a smart-ass, but doesn't do anything??

What's more important? This is something that has badgered me for a long time. Especially for the sciences and math, I feel like I am exerting myself much more than many of my classmates and yet some of their results are much better than mine. I know someone who is extremely talented at math. He never makes a deliberate attempt to study but is able to score high because his brain is literally a sponge for math; he assimilates everything in class with ease and is able to apply that knowledge almost effortlessly when it comes to the IB questions where most would have some problems with thinking critically.

To me, a lot of people say that hard work is all it takes. I still believe that hard work will generally lead to success, of course. At the same time, though, do you really think that someone of average intelligence will be able to achieve the same results as someone who is naturally gifted at something if that person of average intelligence truly exerts themself?

Is there a limit to which someone can exert themselves? I mean, the brain is an organ just like any other. There are many people who train hard and long for a sport but will never make it to the Olympics because their physical limit is not at that level. Do you guys think that intelligence work in the same way?

If you're a freshman now, but you're taking junior and senior classes (and some freshman classes) and plan to take at least one of your courses(math) at the university in sophomore year, and three in junior and four or five in senior, and you have a bunch of extracurriculars, do you stand a chance of getting into MIT or Harvard (MIT is my dream school---all MATH)...I sound like such a nerd....

READ THIS

This college counselor talks about "many Ivy League schools, and others who value the amount of students they reject. Some less known unis actually have "better qualified" professors. This article proves you don't have to go to a famous school to work hard and get a great career.

American universities will not look at your predicted scores on IB exams; they look at your course load freshmen through senior year, your GPA (weighted and unweighted), all of your grades from freshmen through junior year, extra curricular activities, community service, and SAT and ACT scores.  The more well rounded you are the better.  Actually, there are many schools that may not necessarily take IB into such great consideration, IB isn't quite as widely known in the United States, and therefore AP (Advanced Placement) is more widely recognized than IB.

Here's the thing - US unis won't even see your final grades until after you're accepted (unless you graduate in November).

Predicted grades don't mean ALL that much, either.

GPA counts, but only if you're well rounded.

Truth is, all Ivy League schools (Harvard, Yale, Stanford, etc.) could fill their campuses with valedictorians only. But they don't. They want to see that there's more to the student than grades.

IB gives you great advantage over others because they know we need to complete CAS, EE, TOK, and other things besides the higher course load.

Hello

I first want to introduce myself since this is my first post on this forum. I am a IB student in Italy and next year I going to be a senior and i am going to take all of my IB exams (ouch), I have HL- English A1, Italian B, History and SL- Biology, Math SL, and Spanish.

Ok now that that's done I just want to share my thoughts about the competition to enter the world's best universities.

Well first we need to see the admission policy of these schools and here is where the problems begin.
Lets say you are a average white American in a IB school and you want to get into Harvard. This is what happens:

(Just for the sake of simplicity lets say they Harvard only gets 100 students a year)

Now the first thing Harvard needs is all the minorities they can possibly get, so they need 2 native Americans, 10 African Americans, 3 Latin Americans, and 15 Europeans. So if my math is correct that is 30 students and you dd not enter in that category so lets see the second thing Harvard looks at.

Connections, yea unfortunately. So all the people who have a friend of a friend and have ok grades get in, that is another 20 students.

So here is where the real competition starts, the last 50 places.
First off they get the most nerds of nerds, which are like 25.
But wait, there are way more nerds with score of 45 in the IB, why don't they get in? Because Harvard does not want a desolate campus with all of its students in there dorms studying.

So the remaining 25 students are students that the guy at admissions likes. They all have like a 39, 40, 41 or 42 and they got in because during their interview Harvard liked their way of talking or their way of thinking or just something in their character.

(remember that the numbers i put here a probably not right its just to give the idea)

Now what do i mean by all this? That the high end collages just want smart people that also have something else other than there scores. So if you don't get in don't worry, no one has a secure entrance, not even that guy in your school that looks like the prefect student, its probable that he wont get in. All you have to do is study and do the things you love, if Harvard likes the things you love than good for you your in but if not then it does not matter, there are many other universities out there.

Its basically a luck game in which some people win and some don't, I know some "perfect" students that did not get in yet others that where good but not excellent did get in. I am going to try to apply for Oxford, it's very improbable that i will get in but its worth a try.

So...... if you have the minimal requirements to get in one of the great universities, give it a try even though its a long shot.

Post your thoughts and ideas if like and I hope I did not bore you to death.

QueenSara, on Sep 28 2008, 03:15 PM, said:

Hmmm... I suppose some of the CAS activities could indirectly involve some of the character-building-type-stuff that CAS was supposed to be about.  For example, playing on a sports team can help build teamwork... but at the same time, so could working as part of a lab group in a biology or chemistry class!  And hats off to you for getting so many hours done... I'd probably go insane if I tried to do that...

Personally, I despise CAS   .  First and foremost, it's insane to require 150 (or, I've heard, even more than that for some schools!) hours of CAS activities on top of all the more serious/important aspects of IB, such as the extended essay, exams, or internal assessments.  Also, I oppose CAS to some extent on a matter of principle... I got involved in IB because I wanted a good academic challenge, and these CAS activities have nothing to do with that.  The one and only kind thing I have to say about CAS is the fact that it provided some good material to write college application essays.