Due to some mental health problems, I transferred to an online private school called Keystone National High School for my senior year of high school. Before my senior year, I was in a local public school all my life. I’m American, btw.
I am looking at the admissions guide for several of the colleges that I’m most interested in and it says that diplomas obtained through cyber learning systems or homeschooling, or GEDs, are not accepted. I don’t know what to do, now. These colleges are outside of the USA, which is why it’s different.
The online school is self paced, so I technically have one class left before I’m eligible to graduate from Keystone. Technically, I haven’t graduated then, and thus have no diploma yet.
Do you think it’s feasible that I transfer all of my senior year credits over to my previous public school, and then get my diploma from the public school straight away? I have all the required credits to graduate from this public school.
But normally classes graduate in May and they’re already registering for the 2019 school year. But I can’t wait until next May to get my diploma. Basically, do you see the issue? Idk if I’m explaining well. Seriously need help, I can’t find anything about this situation online.
First I suggest you call the schools you are interesting in to specifically ask your question and then go from there. If those are the only schools you want to go to, and they truly don’t accept your online diploma, then certainly transferring back to public school would be an option. Good luck
What colleges are you looking to apply to? Many international universities are more interested in test scores (AP / subject test) than your HS diploma.
(not your question, but if going to a school locally is too problematic, I would be worried about your being able to handle going to school in a new country where you don’t know how things work, have no support system and don’t know the culture).
HI, thanks for the reply. I’m applying to Seoul National University, Yonsei University, Korea University, among others. All located in South Korea (I’m fluent in the language and have an understanding of society and history there.)
@collegemom3717 As per your worry: My health is far better than it was last year, as I have medication now and so on. The issue was brought on by some severe bullying in my old school, hence my transfer.
I don’t think it is accurate to say that you are technically one class short. If so, you are in fact still in high school and therefore not eligible for college. Why not do the class and finish high school. If the Korean schools won’t accept your online school’s diploma, go to community college (or other) for a semester/year and then transfer if you are still interested.
Keystone’s course requirements don’t matter for a diploma from your local high school. Your state’s requirements do, so unless you meet all your state’s requirements you won’t be eligible for a public school diploma. Some states don’t accept online courses so the classes you took at Keystone might not be accepted at any of your public high schools.
I don’t think a local public school is going to let you transfer credits back to them from anywhere and just hand you a local diploma. I believe you have to physically attend the school for x number of days your senior year to be eligible to get a diploma there.
I think your choices are to enroll in the public school for your senior year or pay for a private high school whose diploma the Korean colleges will accept. If that’s not possible, you can see if they’ll take a degree from a community college. If they won’t accept a cc degree either, you may have to consider schools in the US.
Find out if your community offers a real HS Diploma through an Adult Ed program. Our local Adult Ed system offers this, along with the GED. They have the same state-mandated graduation requirements as regular high schools. In our case, students are required to complete 4 credits through Adult Ed. This program is designed specifically for students like you - those who are prepared to complete high school, but do not thrive in the regular high school setting.
Just because graduation ceremonies are in May, that doesn’t mean your local school doesn’t award diplomas at other times. For those students who didn’t qualify in May, the diploma can be issued in January, at the end of the Fall semester. They have their own small ceremony, but can participate in the regular graduation ceremony in May as well.
The colleges you want to attend won’t take a degree from an online program, a GED, or a homeschool diploma, and a public high school is highly unlikely to be able to award you a diploma unless you were enrolled there for your senior year. If you can’t go back to a public or private high school and community college isn’t an option, then you don’t meet the requirements to enroll in the Korean colleges.
If US schools overseas aren’t an option what are your plans going forward? Are you just going to get a high school diploma from the online school and try to get a job?
@RavenDoe- If the schools you are interested in will not take your high school credits once you finish, then you may have no other choice than to attend a community college for a year or to re-enroll in your high school and obtain your high school degree there. If the high school will accept the credits you earned in the on-line school, and then you take some classes there this coming semester, you might be able to graduate in December with a degree from your high school. That would put you on the same timeline you are on now as you could apply to S. Korea schools for the 2019/20 school year. Since you haven’t finished your last class at the on-line school yet, you could not apply at this time anyway and would most likely have to wait until the 2019/20 school year anyway.
Why do you say that you “can’t wait until next May” for your high school diploma?
You need to contact your old high school, and find out whether any of your Keystone credits can be applied toward graduation there. If they can, then find out how quickly you could finish your high school education. Could you graduate at the end of the first semester?
Yes, contact your old high school asap. High schools can be much worse than colleges about accepting credits from even accredited online high school programs. Our local high school doesn’t accept any, so a student would have to start over wherever they left off if they are seeking a diploma.
For our local kids in this position, they tend to be better off going straight to our community college which issues state high school diplomas and associates degrees which can be earned concurrently.