I’m thinking of sending my daughter to an international school for her two last years of secondary schooling. In the UK the IB is widely accepted as an entrance requirement for universities. How accepting are Japanese universities of the IB? Is there anyway to find out? Any experiences much appreciated.
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I think private schools such as Sophia and Waseda do take it but it might be different depending on the program you are applying to. I looked into it when I graduated highschool as I was an IB kid as well.
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It’s accepted at most of the bigger unis. They only care about the IB score though, no requirements about specific subject choices unlike most western universities.
Source; my colleague (international school) in charge of domestic university pathways for students
Generally in Japanese universities there is a minimum requirement out of the 45 in the IBDP score but then you also have to do entrance exams which are notoriously hard. Also Japanese school are known to be hard to get into but easy to pass so you have to think about if you want your daughter to even go to a Japanese university…
Scored 29 on my final IB results, got into Ritsumeikan APU with a full scholarship, although it could be also dependant on me comining from the poorer parts of EU
I would send her for all of high school if you can (as in at least from grade 9). Developing the level of academic English needed for the IB isn’t an easy thing to do. Being conversationally fluent at home is different from having to write analytical pieces.
IB diplomas are accepted at most major universities in Japan.
I’ll try to provide more insight, but it’s still developing as more schools engage. Presently, one of the biggest issues is within the DP programs two math programs ([discussion of Approaches and Analyses (AA) versus Applications and Interpretations (AI)](https://nailib.com/blog/ib-math-aa-vs-math-ai). You might have a baller IB score, but then you’ll have a National school like Hokkaido Dai ask you to take additional tests to supplement your score because you took whichever math they weren’t looking for.
I can say, “it’s getting better,” but I can’t say “here is a one-stop shop for every public, private, S1 rank to MARCH and A/B rank schools ever.” Waseda and Keio are taking bigger steps, but I want to see real movement across the board.