today we're talking about my experience
with the International Baccalaureate program. I'd like to share a little
advice on what I wish I had known going into the program and maybe would have
helped me stay a little bit less stressed, calmer, or saner throughout the
entire process. Just in case you want to know, I took HL history, HL English literature, HL Spanish B, SL psychology, SL physics, and SL math. Number one: don't do it just because of college credit. I think
there's a lot of misinformation surrounding just how much college credit
you get from doing IB. I can only get credit at Cornell if I
get 7 s and only in HL. Oh but not in HL history and not an HL language B, so I
can only get credit for one class and I have to get a 7 in HL English which
is crazy. Just focusing on the payoff in terms of college credits led to a
breakdown when I realized I wasn't getting college credit. It was really
upsetting that like it didn't seem like Cornell appreciated the hard work I had
put in for my education already, but if I had focused going into the IB on what I
was learning, the skills I was gaining, how much more I could analyze and
process, I think I would have had a much more fruitful experience. What really
matters is I feel very prepared for college even if my credits don't reflect
that. Number two: take the extended essay seriously, but do not be intimidated by
it. My school really stressed having a rough draft of the extended essay done
the summer before your senior year, so I spent the entire night before I left for
Tajikistan writing my extens essay. The draft was 7,000 words long, but it was so garbage. Because I had this absolute
monster of an essay, I felt so overwhelmed when I came back from
Tajikistan, that I didn't work on my extended essay for a while and then I
had like four months of just like trying to understand what it meant, but I feel
like if I had waited and not gone with the advice of finishing it before the
beginning of senior year, and really went through my research again and then wrote it when I got back, it would have been much more manageable and coherent. Don't
block out an absurd amount of time to do your extended essay because you're just
prolonging the experience and making it harder than it needs to be. Also, don't
hate on the extended essay it's long, but it's a really good learning experience
and it'll make literally anything else you write feel so short. Number three:
keep it interesting for yourself. If you know you want to major in math it's
gonna be really hard to focus and do well on your history IA just because you
don't care. That's kind of what I felt about a lot of the assignments and IAs
because I didn't really care about anything, I just wanted to think about
hotels writing an IA that you don't care about is going to be hellish, but the
good thing about the IA is you can make it really interesting for yourself by
picking a interesting topic. I love all things revenue management so for my math
IA, I analyzed the mathematical equations used by airlines in overbooking. Because
I was genuinely interested in these topics, it was so much easier to do a
really good job on these IAs and give really high marks. So pick something
you're interested in but be really careful that you don't make it harder
for yourself then you need to. Number four: don't believe horror stories from
past IB kids. One of my older friends said that IB physics was impossible if
you weren't great at math. Not being great at math is one of my strong suits,
so I was really worried, but I found that I really liked physics and it wasn't
that much math. So, trust your intuition and allow your own experiences to guide
you towards other experiences. Don't rely on other people's opinions. Number five: senior year is tough. And
it's easy to think like IB doesn't matter, like, why am I working this hard.
But I think if you focus on what you're learning don't think about I'm working
hard to get seven marks on this exam think about how hard you're working
towards bettering yourself and making your brain super strong. Then I think
it's a lot easier to deal with the difficulty of IB. Number six: prioritize
college applications before your IB work it's super easy to get dragged down by
your IAs, your history homework, everything on the day to day basis that you don't
devote a lot of time to college applications.
I kept thinking I'm gonna care a lot more when I'm an adult about what
college I went to versus my high school GPA. Number eight:
don't let the IB run your life if you're in the IB then you're probably a pretty
high achieving student and you want to go to a good college. Great! But be
cautious of being so overrun with IB work that you're not taking other
opportunities. What schools really want to see is that you can deal with a
rigorous curriculum and a life, but if you're just focusing on one of those
aspects, then you're not really helping yourself. For example, I quit my job at a
hotel the summer before my first year of IB because I thought I wouldn't be able
to handle a job and the IB curriculum. Which may have been true, but I really
could do it. It wasn't until later when I realized I need to work at that hotel to
get into Cornell that I went back right before IB exam season. You know it was
fine, the day before my IB physics exam I
worked an eight-hour shift and I got a six in physics. Don't let IB limit your
opportunities. Number.... no I said math wasn't my strong suit so. Be proud of the
work you're doing and how hard you're working. It's easy not to feel proud of
the IB work you're doing when it's so go-go-go, the next thing, the next
deadline, like it's always happening but you should feel proud a lot of teens
aren't devoting that effort and dedication to their education, but you are
and that's pretty cool. Number ten: overall for whatever reason it is to you,
learn to love IB because it's really easy to get into the kind of like I hate
IB, I hate how hard I work, I hate all the difficulties, that's not gonna help you
make it easier and that's not gonna help you succeed. There are always gonna be
things that you don't want to do or that you don't like, but you just need to
learn how to cope with it. Instead focus on what you really like about IB
whatever it is embrace it. Then when you're done you can make in IB
pinata and really go ham on it. That's what I did. If you liked this video then you might like some of my others so please check
them out. Don't forget to subscribe. See you later
