High School

[Guest Vivers]

I'm in grade 9, and I want to get into a medical profession. I live in Calgary, and grade 10 is the start of high school.

 

I have a choice between many high school programs: IB, AP, regular, and GATE (Gifted and Talented). I was wondering which one would be best to get into a good Canadian university, or if it's just grades and diplomas they're looking at.

 

If I enter the IB program, I will definately not be doing full IB because I want to keep my life. Also, the IB school near me only offers English and Chemistry higher level. If I enter GATE, I can't do the regular program, but I can take some AP courses. GATE allows for compressed courses, so I can do physics and math in a semester but get 10 credits for it. I can do that for social and English too. That could let me graduate half a year early and allow time for work experience or more electives.

 

Since you guys have been through it all, I thought I might ask you because it really is a choice that can't be undone...

 

Which program should I do? Is IB well recognised, or is it looked at just like any other program by universities? I do very well in the junior high GATE program, and get averages in the mid-90s. If I enter senior high GATE, I would be able to easily keep those grades, but would they be enough in this competitive world?

[Guest moo]

You are so YOUNG. Enjoy life, don't worry about getting into medicine. You have all of college to worry about that.

 

But if you must know my advice, i'd take AP. I didn't do IB or GATE (haven't even heard of that). Just take the exams and don't take the credits in college, because you can take the actual courses and get a good grade to boost up your GPA. But then again, you're in the ninth grade. There's no need to concern yourself with all this stuff yet!

 

moo, M1

Northwestern University Medical School, Class of 2006

[Guest phantom8]

Well, I am a fellow Calgarian now in medical school, and I remember when I had to make this decision when going to high school!

 

I took the full IB program. For me, the best part of the program was not so much the curriculum, but rather the fact that you were with other students who pushed you to do better rather than slack around (whether or not you like this type of thing is something you'll have to decide). Full IB also has a CAS component to it (Community, Action, Service, if I recall correctly) so it really encourages you to join extracurricular activities -- sports, yearbook, volunteering, other clubs, etc. Once again, you might say that you 'want to relax' during high school, but I would say that I learned just as much from my extracurricular activities in high school compared to what I learned in the classroom. You WILL be busy during full IB, no doubt about it though.

 

Universities here will (usually) give you some intro credits as long as you did well on your IB exams.

 

The only other thing I will say about IB is that it's something you'll have to CHOOSE to do. You might start to take the program, and then find out it's not for you (usually b/c people feel it's too difficult or too much work). I did find that a lot of students decided not to take the program (or go partial) for these reasons.

 

Good luck! Grade 9 is pretty early to be thinking about this stuff, but it's always good to plan ahead.

[Guest monkey]

hi Vivers,

 

Which highschool are you thinking of attending? i am from Calgary and used to study in Churchill high. anyways, i did partial IB (history, english and math) and even though u're wondering:why didnt she do the sciences? i didnt really want to be pressured and be studying all night long when i could be studying same stuff (well okay a bit less) at a slower pace. phantom is right in saying that some universities will give you credit for the courses you do. for example, UC gives credit for english Higher Level (HL), math HL (not lower level (LL)whcih Churchill provided in 1999) and history HL. of course it depends how you do on them. they only give you credit if you have greater than 5 (on a scale of 7) for english, history and math. not sure about the others. I know that some of my friends got the chance to get credit for chemistry HL, but they didnt take the credit since you still had the pay for the course and so you might as well take an easy A from it. so yea, i guess make sure you dont do LL since you cannot get credit for that (ALEX L: is that right?)

 

okay i guess that'd be the great thing of doing sciences with IB. you'd know half if not most of the stuff since u already did it in highschool. but for someone who didnt do it before, i wasnt disadvantaged either. if u studied enough u'd get good grades.

 

i didnt do AP or GATE, but i'm thinking they would provide you with the same mixed benefits. the main reason i'd endorse IB is that you get to know your classmates really well (since u're taking all the same courses), make lifelong friends and these sort of programs teach you early on how to handle a bigger load. it will come in handy in university when you REALLY have to study to get the grades. the thing also is that i learnt some of these skills with partial IB. so i'm sure Full IB would be more beneficial. but u'd have to ask someone who did full ib.

 

but i hope you also know that highschool marks dont matter. IB marks WILL matter b/c UA for example considers them in their application process. and you get credits for them so you have to make sure you do really well. so its an added pressure in some wasy too..

 

anyways i hope this helps you out a bit. its great that you are thinking right now about how to make your chances brighter for getting in, but dont forget to also have fun and enjoy the highschool years, coz they're only gonna come around once.

[Guest summervirus]

Hiya,

 

I'm from the same highschool and year as Monkey. (I'm Alex).

 

She did a really good job at explaining the advantages and disadvantages of taking IB. So, I don't have much to add. But, I'll just elaborate a bit more.

 

But, just to confirm -- yes, credit will not be awarded for subsidiary level (SL) courses. To my knowledge, both Western Canada and Sir Winston Churchill offer Math, Biology, Physics, French, and Chinese as SL courses. I can't remember for Art. HL courses include Chemistry, English, and History. (Theory of Knowledge is in a separate category).

 

As an aside, you may ask, why are there only three courses offered as HL? It's because the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) enforces a requirement that all diploma students (i.e. "full IB") cannot take more than three HL courses.

 

However, unlike Monkey, I was a "full IB" student. Whether you decide to pursue a "partial IB" certificate or a "full IB" diploma is a matter of personal preference. Yes, you will be busier as a "full IB" student, but it's not going to be insanely busy. You'll still have time to be involved with the community, school, and athletics. (It's the CAS component that phantom8 explained).

 

Personally, I really liked "full IB." I suppose it's because I really enjoyed English, History, and Theory of Knowledge. But, the science background that I received really helped me during my first year of university.

 

Oh, by the way, I agree with Monkey. Don't use your IB credits. Just do the courses again (Chem & English) in university. You'll be getting "easy A's."

 

Also, each school has to declare two areas of focused study for English to fulfill the IB component. For SWC, it was "drama" and "poetry." (I think it was "drama" and "short stories" for Western). Anyway, when you choose English courses for university, it will be to your advantage to choose a course that is relevant to your IB studies. For me, I chose (surprise, surprise) one dramatic literature course and one poetry course. With the exception of two essays, I was able to refer to my old highschool assignments and notes to help me. It was fantastic.

[Guest iamanurse]

Hey Summervirus and Monkey...

I also went to the same high school - however I think it was SEVERAL years before your time! lol

[Guest strider2004]

I'm also from Calgary and also took partial IB(Chem HL, math SL, Physics SL, Bio SL) at Western Canada High School. I then went on to the University of Western Ontario(western to western, I know) and BREEZED through first year courses. The thing I learned in IB was how to slack off and still do pretty well. This is important when you get to university because you lean how to study in the most time-efficient manner. You'll have plenty of time to do all that extracurricular stuff adcoms enjoy reading about.

[Guest Da Birdie]

Count me in~!

I'm another SWC grad (1999), classmate with summervirus : )

 

I did IB chem HL, phys SL, and math SL and was seriously considering going into physics/engineering...

 

later on I changed my mind and studied molecular genetics in toronto...and now finding myself in Queen's...

 

(to VIVERS)if i were u...i'd try and take a wide variety of courses that interest me and enjoy my time in high school (besides getting good grades...)

 

now thinking back...i should've played a lot harder when i was in high school (when we still have to time to)

for me, playing time was probably reduced by half in university and further reduced by half or more in medical school : (

 

Q meds 1 --- emotional state: kinda stressed

[Guest strider2004]

Birdie,

 

You're in Phase 1. Enjoy it. It doesn't count for much.

[Guest Da Birdie]

Thanx strider2004 for your golden advice : )

 

this past week i've been sick (with flu), tired, and stressed trying to catch up on lots of stuff i slacked off in : (

(eg. ethics reading, histology stuff, clinical skills reading, etc)

 

it's almost impossible to study all the materials thrown at us and be fully caught up (esp. when i've been a well-known slacker in undergrad...)

 

I'll try to follow your advice and enjoy my time till christmas... (although with the huge fear that i'll fail/low-pass the scary christmas exam, however likely/unlikely that will happen )

 

sometimes i kinda wish i deferred to enjoy my 4th year undergrad...now seeing all my friends having 8-12 hrs of school per week, while i am having 30+ hrs (but of course the material taught in meds is more interesting than say a 4th year course in signal transduction or molecular immunology)...

 

anyways...tyme to go back to research hemochromatosis for "small group learning".... thanx Strider for the advice once again : )

[Guest monkey]

hey Da Birdie,

 

i'm a SWC 1999 grad too. totally dont recognise your handle. u wont recognize mine at all. so dont fret over that. i did partial IB as well. math SL (not with summervirus tho, a yr behind), english HL and history HL (same yr as summerV). i doubt we met if you only did sciences. this is too freaky tho. 3 ppl from the same highschool and yr in three diff medschools.

 

craaaazy!

[Guest Da Birdie]

hi monkey~

 

JS (in your med class) mentioned to me 2 dayz ago saying if i know this person who was also from SWC..

i said "i can faintly remember her face, but she's not in most of my classes in hi school" : )

 

congrats for getting in tho ! : )

according to summervirus at least 8 people from our graduating class got into med already : ) spread across canada tho

 

laterz~ enjoy life in med!!

KC

Qmeds2006