IB students to US colleges

nintendo

I did not say MYP is the end of secondary. I only said MYP should be equal to Form 5 by the duration of the programme. And if DP = Form 5, then the duration of using IB DP to complete secondary is 13 years, 11 years under the past curriculum in HK. That's all I have said.

There are a few points I want to share.

(1) Form 5 in Hong Kong is not exactly completing of high school FOR THE PURPOSE OF ENTRANCE TO UNIVERSITY. I do not believe any universities would consider Form 5 as sufficient. So in Hong Kong, it is still Form 7 that is considered (roughly) the equivalent of completing high school (now it will be Form 6 in a couple of years because of the new 3-3-4). You may ask, why we had this Form 5 "leaving point" for HKCEE. Probably historical reasons because we used to follow what the british did. In a way, you may say that it is like junior high or middle school. Do not forget that 20 years ago not many people were able to afford to go to universities. In those days, many people even chose to leave school at Form 3. So, Form 3 was also one of the "leaving point" for students. Students that could no longer stay in school, left at either Form 3 or Form 5. However, we can never say they have already completed high school. By discussing about "high school", we mean the time that students has completed the required number of years to enter universities. So in Hong Kong, it has always been Form 7.

(2) IBDP is, if you really want to ask for the equivalent, roughly Form 7, or Grade 12 in the US and Canada. I said roughly, because there would never be exactly an equivalent. For instance, the US and Canadian curriculum is very different from the HK curriculum. As another example, the HK curriculum is so much harder than the UK curriculum, yet would never say students in Hong Kong does not have to complete Form 7 to get into British universities.

(3) I do not know how other schools are doing it. But at ESF, students starts P1 at the age of 5. Well, may be they spend more time in primary + secondary, but they spend less time in kindergarten (only 2 years). The total number of years at ESF school was actually less when compared to the old local curriculum. Now they have the new local curriculum, all students finishes school with the same number of years spent.

(4) Well, may be it is a bit confusing for parents just starting to get to know IB. But that is the usual problem have with non local curriculum. Fortunately, most western universities have very clear policies of how they rate students from other curriculum. A lot of admission information can be obtained on websites. Even if individual university have not put that up on the websites, information can be seen in their published admittance brochures or by simply emailing them and asking.

(5) Are you at a point of considering IB? Or is your child already with and IB school? I think almost all accredited IB schools are at the moment international schools and these schools usually have a good team of specialists taking care of university applications. You might want to speak with the specialist at your child's school for more accurate details.

nintendo

I appreciate your concerns. However, I have already said that, even if we consider finishing IBDP as graduating from high school, the students are NOT doing any extra time at school. No time has been lost.

Local system: 3 + 6 + 6
ESF system: 2 + 6 + 7

Both add up to 15 years at school.

You may want to consider MYP similar to middle school or junior high school. If you are talking about leaving school after MYP, the students has only done 13 years of schooling, which is probably only equal to finishing only Form 3 to Form 4. How can we expect employers to treat junior high students the same as high school students?

I am curious which school are your children in. At my children's school, I have not heard any of the same misunderstanding from parents. Everyone understands that MYP is middle school (as you see from the name) or junior high; and IBDP is high school. And with the family background (including financial background) I guess most students would not stop schooling after MYP anyway.

It appears to me that the school have not provided enough information for you to consider BEFORE your children joined the school.

In any case, it is good that you posted your questions here. Now I see that misunderstanding of IB is so huge amongst most parents in Hong Kong.

nintendo

原帖由 acdad 於 10-10-26 02:01 發表
Sorry but I still could not persuade myself  why I need to add 1 or 2 years in  each IB programme to compensate the 1  year in kinder.  

First, no one is adding any extra years to a program. Different programs are different.

Second, you do not need to persuade yourself to believe in anything. Take action and find another school.

BTW, which school is your children in? Are you having any issues with the school?