Is your life really over if you don't get the IB diploma?

If you are in the program and do not recieve the diploma, that is a bad thing. Entering that course, you are expected to try as hard as possible and do everything to get the grades.

If I were you, I’d talk wtih my teachers and guidance councilers about working together to get my grades up and maybe get some extra help.

When colleges see you enroll in a program like that, they expect you to succede.

It may not be the end of the world, but it will certainly not look good.

This is coming from somone who took all Higher Level IB with 4 APs, too. It was an insane amount of work, and I struggled at first. After making plans with my teachers, everything worked out fine. Communication is key.

Yes. High school will have been a waste. All of the work for what really amounts to nothing, as the colleges I’m applying to really only award course credit for diploma + good exam scores.

I think everyone can appreciate the feeling of remorse when you realize that you spent 2 years of your life working your ass off for absolutely no return, forsaking friendships, professional development in subjects one cares about (academic or otherwise), and just making your life hell.

It isn’t the end of the world but may make a big difference in which colleges accept you. One of the things colleges like to see is that a student finishes what they start. Not getting the IB diploma would mean you would probably have to look at less competitive schools and you wouldn’t get credit for those hard courses you took.

My niece was enrolled in a special arts high school but slacked off and did not get the Arts diploma, just a regular “Yup, ya graduated” diploma. She had been counting on scholarships so she could go to Pratt Institute – they had met with her and liked her portfolio – but her failure meant no scholarship. Hence, she is working in her mom’s office and periodically attempting to force herself into attending junior college with little success.

High school won’t have been a waste – you will still have learned a huge amount about Life, the Universe, and Everything, but your future will be different than what you had envisioned.

Nope, not the end of the world. That would involve frogs falling from the sky.

But you should finish what you started and at least go down swinging. Meet with your teachers for a frank discussion and make a plan to get back on track.

Remember this: You may not appreciate this now, but this opportunity is a gift. Do not squander it. Ultimately you are making the effort for your future self (no one else) so you won’t have to end a sentence with “would you like fries with that?” when you are forty.

Colleges admit (in entirety) before final Ib grades, and subsequently diploma status, is determined. The only thing it determines is whether you will receive course credit for what you did…

But that’s the whole reason for taking the IB courses: a “better” as advertised curriculum, and the chance to get to skip college grunt classes (english 101).

I graduated with the IB diploma and it never made one whit of difference in my life. Definitely keep working at it: finish your extended essay, excel at ToK and take your exams. If you don’t pass, oh well. In five years, you’ll have to explain the initials IB every time you talk about high school. More importantly, you will have already received your college admissions decisions by the time you get your IB scores.

So don’t sweat it, keep it up and try to get something out of it besides just a cumulative score.

I didn’t get an IB diploma. I’m still alive (I think).

The kids we knew that went IB ended up at Northwestern and Smith, or got great scholarships to state schools.

Life over? Uh, no. I went went to community college for two years before being being admitted to U.C. Berkeley. I saved money, got a fine education, and it’s not going to make any difference to the law schools I just applied to.

That being said, I would do everything you can to finish this program but don’t beat yourself up if it’s just not going to happen.

Hahaha, god no.
There is life beyond high school.

Dude.
FUCK the IB program.
Just FUCK it. IB isn’t good for diddly shit. The only thing I came out of it with was a feeling of complete inferiority, defeated expectations, and a deadened soul. thank god I only stayed in it for four months. A diploma is the least they could give you in exchange for your ability to embrace life.

Pft…no.

I went to a private school that didn’t offer the IB program. Work was still hard, I took APs and got good grades, versus some of my friends who did IB in a public school, were miserable…and even though they got the diploma, their grades overall weren’t that great because they were miserable.

A lot of them didn’t get into the colleges they wanted.

i feel small around all of you. i got 20 stars.

@invic

hey, we all had 20 stars at one point, right?

I will add that once I got out of that mindfuck I went to a different highschool where the teachers didn’t treat me like a waste of their precious fucking time whenever I couldn’t understand something. I ended up taking and passing 7 AP tests and I got into a fairly selective school. If somebody’s been telling you that an IB diploma will make the years of suffering in silence worthwhile, he’s lying.

Join the army, circus, railways, carnival, work on the docks, work on an oil rig, work on a fishing trawler, be the next milk man, ice cream man, work at KFC or Mac Donald’s.

YOU GOT POTENTIAL, DO SOMETHING THAT’S WORTH IT!

@invic, I’m sensing that perhaps you’re a junior and you’re locked in mortal combat with your parents because this year is harder than normal, and you want to drop out of IB so you can screw around with your non-IB friends?

@peyton_farquhar

That’s awesome for you. :) I think AP tests are better than IB…they look great for colleges and I like it because you can take APs based on what you like/are good at.

From my experience, actually having the diploma itself wasn’t nearly as important as the individual test scores. Colleges are impressed that you’re in the IB program in the first place, whether you went for the full diploma or not, and they give you course credit based on what you scored on each test.

I believe that I did get a lot out of writing the extended essay and taking ToK, but if you feel like it’s too much for you, consider just going for the IB certificates in the courses you’re interested in/doing well in.

Also, even if you’re going for the full diploma and don’t receive it (because of test scores, essay, whatever), you still get credit for the tests you did well on, and it’ll still help you out in college – it’s not an all-or-nothing deal, so don’t fret too much!

I am an IB senior in a private highschool and I don’t want to brag, but I have all A’s and maybe two B’s and it has been that way for as long as I can remember. However, I just met with my mentors on the Extended Essay and my paper is pretty much worth an E…which, in IB language, is an F unless I fix it on time. An F in the Extended Essay alone automatically means NO DIPLOMA. Although I just finished crying over the stupid paper,I think its not a big deal if I get the diploma or not because I have already been accepted to colleges WITH scholarships. You’ll STILL go to college, and you’ll STILL get credit for the courses if your transcripts report good news. The diploma plays a small role in your college acceptances. So if I’m not sweating it, trust me, neither should you.

no your life is not over, i also take IB and i had recently visited a college Princeton University to be exact. I had spoke to the associate admissions dean about the IB program and if you don’t pass the exam do you still have a chance of being accepted. He told me that just the fact that you took these classes and showed that you have made the effort to take such a rigorous class, you can sill have a chance of being accepted, even if your SAT or ACT scores aren’t so hot. I hope this relaxes your nerves, i know what it is like to be in IB and worry if your going to get that diploma at the end, I haven’t taken the test yet since this is my first year, but the fact that you took it even though you didn’t do good on your test your life is not over it is really just beginning.

I hop this helped