IB Not a Good Fit
Why IB (INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE) doesn’t fit into the INDIAN scheme of things?
“As an Indian student, you may still go by IB claim and accept it as equivalent. However, now comes the issue of acceptability by the various Universities in India. Most Schools that actively took up the IB program are coming to grasp with some cold realities.
Only a handful of Indian Colleges (not even all Colleges under an University) accept the IB. Where it is accepted too, there is no clear idea on the equivalence of IB score to the Indian board percentage. These colleges are primarily in Mumbai and some in Delhi. One of the Schools based in NCR provides a list of colleges that accepted the IB students in recent past and that list doesnot include even St Stephens which has possibly the more flexible of the entry requirements and which is aspired to by school leavers from elite schools.
In some cases even if the IB score is accepted, a student is looking at entry only a year later. The reason is that most Indian Colleges close their applications well before the IB results are declared. IB does indicate that there are predited scores provided to the students but does not indicate that most of the colleges in India do not accept the predicted scores.
The schools that offer the IB indicate that students should be able to take the IIT entrance as IB is acceptable. This is also mentioned on the FAQ on their websites. I wonder at this half information. Most IITs will want the final results to be in by June, I understand and this is not possible under IB system. Secondly, IB does not prepare the student in the way IIT or most Indian Engineering institutions admit the students and hence the chances of entry is poor and I am yet to come across a student who has joined an IIT after an IB board. It may be difficult after an ISC too but it is not impossible. With IB it seems closer to impossible.
The entrance exams to various options from Engineering to others happen in the month of May and IB exams clash with these dates. This is another reason for unsuitability of the IB for an Indian student.”