Is it possible to transfer from one school to another after finishing one year of the IB Diploma Programme?

[VanCanucks]

Hello,

I am 16 years old and just moved to Dubai this summer. I started the first year of the IB Diploma Programme in September, over here.

I am struggling at school because of the new environment. The class sizes are huge, and I'm having problems settling in, even though it's been two months since school started. I spoke to my parents about changing schools, and they were extremely understanding, even though I was the one who chose to go to this school. However, we looked for every possible IB school in Dubai, and were unsuccessful. Either the schools didn't offer the subjects I wanted to take, The class sizes were too big there as well, or they weren't taking anymore students. I wanted to change schools from next term. However, since we can not do that anymore, I am considering changing schools next year. Since I have lived in Canada in the past, I have been looking for schools over there to go to. However, moving there next term would be a bit difficult, and so I am thinking of changing schools next year instead.

However, the question is: Would this be possible? Would it be okay to transfer to another school after completing one year of the IB DP?

I would really appreciate your help in this matter. Thank you!

PS. My subjects are as follows:

Economics HL

History HL

English A1 HL

French B SL

Biology SL

Math SL

[Sandwich]

It's difficult (as you might imagine), and the big thing is making sure that your coursework follows over -- you know, that if they've done their WL essays, so have you kinda thing! Also they'll be studying different books etc. so that can also be awkward.

Really it depends on what your new school offers and how accommodating they'll be. They might agree to teach you the texts you've already started, or hire somebody to teach you a subject they don't offer. Equally you might end up self-teaching something.

You should look at this on a school-by-school basis and see what they'll offer you, in my opinion.

Switching isn't impossible though, we had somebody move to my school mid-way through IB and still do excellently, even with some self-teaching

[faith]

Switching is possible- one of my friends did that. Your set of subject isn't very unique either, so I think many schools will offer them.

One of the problems you might want to look into is the school calender. I don't know when school starts and finishes in Dubai, but my friend moved from Australia to Hong Kong and because the school calender works differently in Hong Kong she had to leave half way through IB1 to start IB1 again.

[JustAnotherAsian]

yes just check with the school

for example some schools

complete language a2 and or math in year 1 already so you might not be able to

[VanCanucks]

Thanks for the help, it relieved me. Haha.

I'm going to keep searching for schools all over the world, and hopefully, if I can find a good one with boarding facilities, and all my subjects, I may just start there next year!

Really appreciate the help!

[Xelar]

I switched It wasn't easy though. I completed my first year in Switzerland and then my family moved to Australia. The school year is different here, it's from January to December which meant I had to complete 6 months of the first year again. I think this was probably beneficial because it wasn't demanding as I was already halfway through EE, had done one WL, and did the IOP so the 6 months was just a time to settle in and get used to everything. I had a lot of trouble though with the whole move because I did not want to come here and I was extremely unmotivated during those 6 months and was pretty unhappy. So in the end, I was really lucky to have that transition time because my grades would have slipped otherwise.

We do exactly the same subjects, except I do math studies. The classes I had the most with during the move was history and english. The school here does a completely different history route then I did so I had to do so much work to get caught up, and a lot of that stuff I had to teach myself. History exam was today!! English was also difficult because they were studying different books, but they luckily did Part 4 first and then the WL section and because I had already written my WL I was okay. However, I had trouble getting the school to accept my WL, they wanted me to do it again with their books but I refused because that was a ridiculous demand. It took the intervention of parents but it was solved eventually.

There were no problems with the other subjects and I was ahead of everyone when I moved here so that was pretty good.

The thing that I hate though is that all my friends in Switzerland graduated 6 months before me and are all off at university now, and that would have been me had I stayed for just one more year.

Good luck with everything, and feel free to ask me anything. It's possible to do, you just need to be determined to see it through.

[VanCanucks]

Thanks Xelar. That gives me A LOT of motivation. I see what you mean. History and English A1 can definitely cause issues, which is why I'm kind of worried. But its assuring to know that there's someone else who's been through the same thing. I'm struggling a lot at school here. The environment is really different, I haven't managed to make any friends, and the teachers are pretty bad too. And it's just been two months. :|

I guess that means that I'll have to figure something out for the next academic year for sure! I don't think I can survive at this school during DP 2 as well. *Sigh*

Thanks a lot! Means a lot to me.

[CristinaV]

Heyyy,

I also had to switch schools in the middle of the IB programme. It was really quite annoying in the beginning, when my parents told me we had to move again. But I've already been to this new school for about 3 months and I'm doing just fine. It is incredibly tough in the beginning. You have to do double or triple the usual effort (and that's a lot coming from an IB student) to revise what they have already done at that school. That's the hardest part. It requires a lot of self-motivation and hard work. I mean it. I didn't have a problem for the History course, because they take the same path. I am actually ahead of them.

I was forced to change two of my subjects, actually. For some stupid reason they didn't let me study Spanish A1 in the American School of Madrid. Utterly ridiculous, I know, and I complained a lot. But they didn't let me do self-taught like I had done in Stockholm. I had to go from Spanish Self-taught A1 and English A2 HL to English A1 SL and Spanish A2 HL. But in the end it was fine, because in Spanish A2 they had literally (literally literally) done nothing; they're doing the two years in one. It's so weird.

And honestly, if you're doing the same A1 subject there should be no problem. You'll just have a different book list; no big problem. Even if you were switching language courses, you could still use the same World Literature books (granted they're not in the same language). That's what I did, and included some of the English A2 books to the current English A1 list.

To me, personally, the most problematic part was catching up with what what they had already done and dealing with their deadlines. That's extremely important. Deadlines deadlines deadlines!

Make sure you know what the EE deadline is and such before moving, because you might find that it is 6 months before your previous school. That happened to me too lol

My current school's final EE deadline was 2 months ago, and the previous school's was... actually they haven't handed it in yet haha

So you know, it's perfectly possible to change schools! It's a lot of effort, but I wouldn't have changed a thing. After the adaptation and all It really pays off. Especially because you will have the experience from 2 different schools. That's pure gold! I can see so many faults in the school here and in the one from before now, and I got the best of both worlds

So don't feel like it's all bad, if you're that unhappy just change schools. Really, no biggie. Just do what you'd like better, it will be worth it!

Good luck!

[PRsmile]

I switched It wasn't easy though. I completed my first year in Switzerland and then my family moved to Australia. The school year is different here, it's from January to December which meant I had to complete 6 months of the first year again. I think this was probably beneficial because it wasn't demanding as I was already halfway through EE, had done one WL, and did the IOP so the 6 months was just a time to settle in and get used to everything. I had a lot of trouble though with the whole move because I did not want to come here and I was extremely unmotivated during those 6 months and was pretty unhappy. So in the end, I was really lucky to have that transition time because my grades would have slipped otherwise.

We do exactly the same subjects, except I do math studies. The classes I had the most with during the move was history and english. The school here does a completely different history route then I did so I had to do so much work to get caught up, and a lot of that stuff I had to teach myself. History exam was today!! English was also difficult because they were studying different books, but they luckily did Part 4 first and then the WL section and because I had already written my WL I was okay. However, I had trouble getting the school to accept my WL, they wanted me to do it again with their books but I refused because that was a ridiculous demand. It took the intervention of parents but it was solved eventually.

There were no problems with the other subjects and I was ahead of everyone when I moved here so that was pretty good.

The thing that I hate though is that all my friends in Switzerland graduated 6 months before me and are all off at university now, and that would have been me had I stayed for just one more year.

Good luck with everything, and feel free to ask me anything. It's possible to do, you just need to be determined to see it through.

hello ! So..its possible? i love my HL subjects,but my SLs are pulling my final grades so much so ivedecided to move schools . (for environmental studies instead of bio and math studies instead of math) how did you get the school to admit you mid year? thanks for your time!

[PRsmile]

Heyyy,

I also had to switch schools in the middle of the IB programme. It was really quite annoying in the beginning, when my parents told me we had to move again. But I've already been to this new school for about 3 months and I'm doing just fine. It is incredibly tough in the beginning. You have to do double or triple the usual effort (and that's a lot coming from an IB student) to revise what they have already done at that school. That's the hardest part. It requires a lot of self-motivation and hard work. I mean it. I didn't have a problem for the History course, because they take the same path. I am actually ahead of them.

I was forced to change two of my subjects, actually. For some stupid reason they didn't let me study Spanish A1 in the American School of Madrid. Utterly ridiculous, I know, and I complained a lot. But they didn't let me do self-taught like I had done in Stockholm. I had to go from Spanish Self-taught A1 and English A2 HL to English A1 SL and Spanish A2 HL. But in the end it was fine, because in Spanish A2 they had literally (literally literally) done nothing; they're doing the two years in one. It's so weird.

And honestly, if you're doing the same A1 subject there should be no problem. You'll just have a different book list; no big problem. Even if you were switching language courses, you could still use the same World Literature books (granted they're not in the same language). That's what I did, and included some of the English A2 books to the current English A1 list.

To me, personally, the most problematic part was catching up with what what they had already done and dealing with their deadlines. That's extremely important. Deadlines deadlines deadlines!

Make sure you know what the EE deadline is and such before moving, because you might find that it is 6 months before your previous school. That happened to me too lol

My current school's final EE deadline was 2 months ago, and the previous school's was... actually they haven't handed it in yet haha

So you know, it's perfectly possible to change schools! It's a lot of effort, but I wouldn't have changed a thing. After the adaptation and all It really pays off. Especially because you will have the experience from 2 different schools. That's pure gold! I can see so many faults in the school here and in the one from before now, and I got the best of both worlds

So don't feel like it's all bad, if you're that unhappy just change schools. Really, no biggie. Just do what you'd like better, it will be worth it!

Good luck!

you just made my day! I've just had my progress report back-with 6s in my HLs...and NOT 6s in my SLs haha. so I've decided to move to a boarding school that has the best subject choices ever. please share more about the admission process if you feel like,thanks!

[ssalem]

I am in the exact same situation. I also finished my first year of IB in Dubai and now I have to move and all the IB schools are not accepting me. I would really appreciate if anybody who's gone through the same experience can share their experience so I could learn from it. 

[fjooiks]

Really it depends on what your new school offers and how accommodating they'll be. They might agree to teach you the texts you've already started, or hire somebody to teach you a subject they don't offer. Equally you might end up self-teaching something.

[vintae_rose]

On 4/23/2018 at 8:38 AM, ssalem said:

I am in the exact same situation. I also finished my first year of IB in Dubai and now I have to move and all the IB schools are not accepting me. I would really appreciate if anybody who's gone through the same experience can share their experience so I could learn from it. 

hello , ik it's been a while to your issue but did you find any solution ? i am also changing in a middle of IB and i need to find a school in Mexico city