Our district tries very hard to channel all gifted kids into IB. None of mine have been the least bit interested (two went to other magnets, and numbers three and four are at the local high school because there's more scope for creating our own "program" to meet their very individual needs). That having been said, all four have friends who've either graduated from IB or are currently enrolled.
A couple of observations, with the caveat that it's possible this is specific to our area: IB grads tend to go to the same colleges with the same amount of scholarship money as equally capable kids from other schools: the two state universities get most of them, a few outliers end up at Ivies or Southern Ivies, and a bunch more go to the junior college for two years to save money. Meantime, they've spent a lot of time on homework and projects that are, if you're of the "hard work is its own reward" mindset, useful, but in a practical sense, just get in the way of doing non-school-related things.
Oddly, my kids are in the position now where they've had a disproportionate number of teachers who are IB grads. They're okay teachers, but generally indistinguishable from the non-IB grads of the same vintage. So I'm not quite sure what to make of that.
The advantage I see, I guess, is that most of the kids who were all in the gifted middle school program all tend to migrate to the same high school, so socially there's some benefit (assuming your child liked his middle school peers).
Overall, I guess my opinion is "if Johnny wants to be there, that's great, but I think the advantages of it are overstated."
