Should I Do IB?

Should you do IB? Ultimate question :P

Well to answer it, I think it's pertinent to go over how IB helps you, and how it doesn't.

Pros:
-huge lesson in time management. Xinfinity. You don't know how much you learn, and how much it will help you in university
-teaches students to truly be independent and independent learners
-pushes you
-competition is stronger -some people thrive on that (such as myself. I used to be an ~85% student in grade 10, I now have over 95% average (end of grade 12).
-certain amount of prestige/bragging rights :P
-transfer credits to university
-international university applications are much easier to do (and get accepted) with an IB diploma
-if a university has an IB student with an 85% average on one hand and an 86% average regular -I think 10/10 times they will pick the IB-er. Because these students have roughed it, have not quit, and so are also a safer bet for the university (less likely to drop out)
-often find university easier. If going into medicine or engineering, find it the same or slightly harder (depending on the program. the same/slightly harder refers to the competitive programs)


Cons:
-lots of emphasis on essay style projects
-lots of memorization
-labs for the sciences are intense. they are long (20+ pages) and apparently in university you do nothing like them. I have seen and heard however that they prep you very well if you go into the sciences
-EE
-less time to be a teenager. You can still be one, (those who say you have no life are wrong -If you had to forget all your hobbies in order to do IB, I don't think IB was for you.) however you have less free time to do so.
-homework: depends on the person/how much you study/how efficiently you study. On average about 2 hours a night (but I was one of those who studied a lot less)
-some people become really stuck up
-if it's not a completely IB-ified school, the regular stream kids may start to marginalize/resent IB kids (if IB kids are stuck up)(and if you start from grade 9 to be separated from regulars in classes this is much more prominent and true). However, I for example have friends in both regular and IB. Best friends in both, and we have a group of about 30 kids all mixed, and we all get along extremely well -so it just depends on the group.
-if you don't leave your country for studies, some say it is useless, because you do a lot of extra work, in return for nothing, since both the regular kids and IB kids end up going to the same universities/programs.

THEREFORE

IB is not a tangible results program (in my opinion), but a developmental one. It develops you as an individual and as a student. You learn to prioritize, become more efficient, write the tedious and memorize the complex, and time manage.
If you think you can learn all this in university -then don't do IB because there is no point. If you would like a headstart -go for it :p