Photo By Sarah Melchert
No sleep, no social life, and hours of homework. Some may think that becoming an IB Diploma Candidate means giving up the social aspect of life, but some Junior IB Diploma Candidates are ready to pursue it.
Junior Alex Geoghegan is an IB Diploma Candidate. Geoghegan’s first impressions of IB classes were fairly positive.
“Some seemed like not that different than advanced studies last year, but some of them I could tell…there’s was going to be a lot more work involved,” said Geoghegan.
However, Geoghegan heard IB was going to be harder than previous classes. “Basically I heard it would just kind of take over your life, and that you would have zero free time for anything,” he said.
Junior Ben Hume is also an IB Diploma Candidate. His impression of IB is not what he expected either.
“It’s been much better than I thought it was based on what everyone was telling me so far,” said Hume.
IB classes may have the reputation of being the hardest classes ever, but some think differently.
“Some people may think negatively of it just because of all the extra work involved, but some people might think negatively of it just because colleges don’t always look at it,” said Geoghegan.
IB classes do have some hard aspects. “There’s a lot more homework and just work involved in class. The most sleep I’ve gotten since the first day of school is about 6 hours,” said Geoghegan.
Hume said the hardest thing about IB is the college level curriculum and the due dates.
Junior Caleb McKinney, who is also an IB Diploma Candidate, said that the due dates are a hard part of IB classes as well,“Teachers say that something is due at the beginning of the week and then not remind you.”
Although the due dates may be harder, there are some benefits to IB. For Geoghegan, he said IB may help him get into Ivy League colleges.
“I want to get the highest learning level possible while I’m here, and partly because a lot of the schools I’m looking at there the type of schools that would look at a college application and see the diploma. It would really help my chances of getting into an already hard to get in school,” said Geoghegan.
Geoghegan is also looking forward to the benefits of IB later in college. “I think it’ll prepare for both workload and time management. People who go through this whole IB process will be a lot better about getting their work done because they know how much it can pile up if you don’t,” said Geoghegan.
