Intended Majors

[electropenguin]

My choices are really varied, and the application dates seem to be just around the corner. :[

- Music (Piano) Performance Major, probably leading to a Master's degree in performance

- English Lit, French Lit, or a double major of those two

- Something that might lead to a career studying sub-atomic physics or quantum chemistry

Heh.

[sweetnsimple786]

Haha wow! Talk about well rounded!

I'm thinking materials or aerospace engineering.

First generation college student

[godofib]

I am also thinking about aerospace engineering but some of the requirements for that program are pretty hard to fulfill. Also, I have a few friends who have been through aerospace engineering and they it is extremely difficult.

[electropenguin]

With this diploma there seems to be a lot of pressure to specialize, really early. I don't see a lot of people gunning for a simple undergraduate mixed-salad of courses... Sure, you could take a hard one, maybe a loaded BaSci, or something, but people seem to be really concentrated on a pin-pointed course-mix.

[godofib]

But isn't it a good thing to pinpoint the courses you want to take in order to appropriately prepare for graduate school and ultimately a suitable career.

[electropenguin]

Well, yes. But I'm not convinced that everyone knows, at 17 or 18, exactly where they want to end up. My friend's sister, for example, did IB (at our school, too) and got in to McGill University for Chemical Engineering. By second year she had switched to pure chem, then second semester pure maths, then third year she had basically no idea what she was doing.

She was your average IB student. It might be a generalization, but ya know?

[buccaneer247]

Medicine. nuff said.

[Tiara Angel]

I would probably do Chemical Engineering or Economics. Depends on where my strengths play.

[Sandwich]

With this diploma there seems to be a lot of pressure to specialize, really early. I don't see a lot of people gunning for a simple undergraduate mixed-salad of courses... Sure, you could take a hard one, maybe a loaded BaSci, or something, but people seem to be really concentrated on a pin-pointed course-mix.

Unfortunately, outside of North America (the USA and Canada), you have to do a specific course anyway. You can't major and minor in things, you just do whatever course you signed up to do. So in a sense, the IB isn't actually any different from the normal streaming in many countries.

I absolutely agree with you, though, it's impossible to really expect everybody to know what they want to do by 17, 18. In all my experience it has been only a tiny minority who have any real concrete, certain idea by then. In my opinion it's one of the failings of the way education is set up in this country (Britain) that flexibility is gone. Actually, being honest, flexibility is gone by the age of 16 when you have to pick your A Levels and narrow yourself down to just 3 or 4 subjects If anything the IB is helpful in allowing you to keep options open-- or would be if it didn't stipulate you had to pick english and maths as compulsory subjects, so in a sense it doesn't actually help at all unless you wanted to take those subjects in any case. It does give the illusion of help, though

[The Economist]

Computer Science and/or Economics

Edited October 29, 2009 by Watermelon

[Taigan]

I'm aiming for pre-med. I do have some interests in Business, though, so I'll see how I feel after IB. I'm hoping IB will keep my options open.

[doesntmatterwhy]

My main reason in applying to North America is that I have no idea what I want to do.

I think the American programs are great because of this. I do have some idea though:

- Biology related. This could start from genetic engineering to molecular biology to pre-med. It's a large and expansive area.

- Psychology related. I do know that if I do Psych, I want to be a psychiatrist as opposed to a therapist.

Good luck, everyone

[kiiyyt]

Aerospace/ Aeronautical Engineering

Perhaps with a minor in Robotics.

[biochem]

Pre-Med

[life_is_beautiful]

I'm planning on either:

Accounting / International Business

Nursing

Pre-pharmacy

I haven't decided yet... tough choice. I'm still a junior so I still have a little time.

What is the difference between "International Business" and "Business"? I am thinking of it too but I am trying to figure out the differences

Architectural Engineering or

International Business and languages

International Business and languages? Is that a joint course or separated majors or major+minor?

[Adoran]

International Business is worth considering simply because you'd still be doing IB. Heh heh....

Lame humor aside, I have settled on Economics. Haven't decided where yet, though.

[Spockette]

I'm in my second year of university and a music composition major. I'm also getting minors in history and gender studies.

I'm planning on studying composition & musicology in grad school and eventually getting a doctorate in one of the two (right now, it's looking like musicology, but that depends).

Ftr, I took HL music, European history and English A1 and SL French B, bio and math studies, though I think that's kind of irrelevant since IB doesn't do a lot of good when it comes to music school.

Edited October 30, 2009 by Spockette

[Dreamer94]

With this diploma there seems to be a lot of pressure to specialize, really early. I don't see a lot of people gunning for a simple undergraduate mixed-salad of courses... Sure, you could take a hard one, maybe a loaded BaSci, or something, but people seem to be really concentrated on a pin-pointed course-mix.

Unfortunately, outside of North America (the USA and Canada), you have to do a specific course anyway. You can't major and minor in things, you just do whatever course you signed up to do. So in a sense, the IB isn't actually any different from the normal streaming in many countries.

I absolutely agree with you, though, it's impossible to really expect everybody to know what they want to do by 17, 18. In all my experience it has been only a tiny minority who have any real concrete, certain idea by then. In my opinion it's one of the failings of the way education is set up in this country (Britain) that flexibility is gone. Actually, being honest, flexibility is gone by the age of 16 when you have to pick your A Levels and narrow yourself down to just 3 or 4 subjects If anything the IB is helpful in allowing you to keep options open-- or would be if it didn't stipulate you had to pick english and maths as compulsory subjects, so in a sense it doesn't actually help at all unless you wanted to take those subjects in any case. It does give the illusion of help, though

It's true. I randomly chose History as my group 3 subject, and somehow it became my favorite subject this year. I took Chemistry, which was BLAH in every sense, and replaced it with ITGS. So now I'm set on the social sciences - Psychology and Middle Eastern Studies in general.

Edited November 3, 2009 by Dreamer94

[MIBO]

International Relations and Politics

[TidusBlade]

I'm probably gonna change my mind soon but I've been liking the idea of Astro/Physics or Cosmology for some time now, most interesting field in Physics these days and plus, I get to visit those ultra cool observatories and play with their telescopes *Note: Please don't ruin it, I know it's hard to find an Astrophysics job but yeah *

Edited November 3, 2009 by TidusBlade