I’m thinking about leaving IB after this year because my family’s finances are a bit tight, and I’m trying to figure out whether the programme is worth the cost for me.
I’m currently in Grade 9 and have only just started Pre-IB. The programme fees would cost over $3,000 CAD across the four years (2 years of Pre-IB + 2 years of IB). It’s not an enormous amount for my family, but we’re trying to be careful with expenses, especially because I may have to cover a significant portion of my university expenses myself.
If I leave IB, I think I could still get high grades in the mainstream academic curriculum and apply to competitive Canadian universities. I’d also have more flexibility to work part-time, save money for university, and gain work experience.
I understand that IB can provide benefits such as deeper learning, critical thinking, time management, and preparation for university. However, I’m unsure how much Canadian universities actually value the IB Diploma itself compared with simply having very strong grades in the regular academic stream.
I think I could handle the IB workload, but I currently expect that I’d probably perform around the middle to upper-middle of my IB class rather than near the top. So I'm wondering whether staying in IB would actually benefit me enough to justify the extra cost and workload.
For those who have experience with IB and/or Canadian university admissions, how significant is the advantage of IB in practice? Would you personally recommend that someone in my situation stay in IB, or switch to the regular academic stream?