IB Diploma Programme vs Career Programme: Let’s chat

Sophomore year comes with many challenges as you are still learning the ins and outs of high school and learning to break free of that new freshman feeling. You also are expected to make decisions that will determine the course of the rest of your high school experiences. For me, that decision was choosing between doing the International Baccalaureate’s Career Programme or Diploma Programme. Both pathways have high rigor, your success in either is solely dependent on your work ethic when it comes to school work.

I chose to take on the diploma programme because I felt as though it best fit with my schedule and the path I was already on as a sophomore. Many students unknowingly decide to be an IB student from middle school when the desire to take enhanced, advanced, accelerated level classes ultimately leaves not as many options for classes to continue that rigor at MHS. Since our school offers more IB courses compared to AP courses, it makes students who are unsure want to do IB. In the IBDP program, there are extra requirements than only taking the courses; you must take all of the exams required for the course while also doing an additional internal assessment for each course. These assessments can be in the form of 1500-word papers or an oral spoken assessment to test your knowledge. In addition to this IBDP students are required to take three higher-level IB courses and write a 4000-word paper on a topic of their choice called the extended essay. Students meet with their selected adviser to discuss their topic and receive guidence on the essay. These requirements are what make IBDP so challenging therefore increasing the weight it had on our GPA, and colleges love to see it.

But still after knowing all these requirements, why choose IBDP over IBCP? Well, to me IBDP is better preparation for what college will be like as all of these tasks are required. In IBCP there are similar requirements; however, you do not need to take the exam for every IB class you are taking. The amount of classwork prepares you for college as it allows you to build your independent writing skills while also learning how to balance essay alignment with other content assignments. It gets you used to the amount of academic writing required in college classes. IBDP also broadened your global perspective as done through the required Theory of Knowledge course. This class is taken in the second semester of junior year and the first semester of senior year. It allows you to explore why we know what we know and how to find the truth. It prepares you for life after high school and exemplifies how to get knowledge through different subjects like math, science, history, and art. It provides a globalized outlook on how to decipher knowledge and engagement globally.

Lastly, IBDP allows you to become more engaged with your community. Other requirements needed to get the IBDP diploma are Creativity, Activity, and Service hours. Also known as CAS, this allows students to explore ways to engage with their community and how to give back to those around them. IBDP not only prepares students to be academically successful but also prepares them to contribute effectively to society.

Ultimately, the decision between IBDP and IBCP is up to personal preference and looking at how you want to continue your high school education, but if you are looking for academic depth, university preparation, and focus on community involvement, the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme is the stronger choice.

One of the biggest decisions I had to make my sophomore year was whether or not I wanted to go IB CP or DP. I knew I wanted to go IB, but I had a lot of different thoughts about whether CP or DP was the right choice for me. One major drawback of DP was the fact that I had to take an IB language. Foreign languages had never been a strength of mine, but I found a passion for ASL. ASL did not have an IB option, so I decided that giving up a class that I love was not worth becoming an IB DP student. I felt nervous that the decision to become a CP student was wrong because many of my friends had gone DP, but throughout my junior year, I slowly realized that CP was the right choice for me. I was able to focus on my career pathway of graphic design and obtain my Adobe certification, which I felt was extremely beneficial to my professional career. My pathway helped me decide what I wanted to do in the future and by gaining my certification I was able to boost my resume for college and future job opportunities.

Speaking of resumes, I also had time to create one of my own and get feedback from teachers and staff at the school. This truly helped me gain confidence for college applications and job interviews. Within the CP program, we are required to take a course called Personal and Professional Skills. You take the class second semester of junior year and the first semester of senior year. This class was exactly what you would expect. We learned skills that were going to help us in our professional futures. Skills such as interview prep, ethical decision-making, and professional communication as we prepare to become adults learning to make a living in the world. It is able to prepare us for what like is going to look like going into and after college. Within this class, we write only one essay compared to the two that the IBDP stu- dents have to write. You have to write a “Reflective Project” which is a 3000-word essay about an ethical dilemma within your career pathway. The teachers make it incredibly easy as we start it junior and have a rough draft done just to tweak during our senior year. The process seemed almost effortless which fueled my love for the CP program.

Just like the DP program, we also had to record community service. However, ours was called “Service Learning” in which we had to complete a minimum of 50 hours. We had to span across four categories of service: direct, indirect, advocacy, and research, without being allowed to count sports as service, CP students had to gout into the world and find a way to make a difference that would truly make an impact.

I felt like through the CP program there was less stress because we were able to focus on our career pathways and weren’t under as strict guidelines as DP students. CP students are only required to take two IB classes compared to the six classes, one of which is a language and the other an art or “individual and societies” course, allowing freedom in the decision of what classes students want to take. While I was only required to take two, I opted to take four classes that I felt would benefit me and give me the academic challenge that DP provides but still have personal preference in the classes that will benefit me the most. This also allowed me to focus on my career for college and post-college. While colleges do care about the rigor of the classes you are taking and DP does allow that, CP provides professional experiences that colleges love to see. I am extremely grateful that I chose to be a CP student and for all the benefits that I have received from the program.