Hi,
I’ve been lurking this site for a while and this question has been nagging at me. I am an online student due to home related reasons (babysitting, house care, etc.) which has made me unable to attend a very respectful highschool literally 10 minutes away. This school regularly sends students to MIT, Case Western, Miami University, etc. and has a renowned stem program (related to my Intended major!). I don’t mean to complain about my situation but I have the fear that attending my online school will hurt my chances of getting into top colleges because I’m going to be competing with that school. I’m looking to make more opportunities for myself (self studying, programs for the summer, etc.) but I’m starting to think that won’t be enough. Anything I can do now to make my situation a bit better aside from transferring?
For those schools you’re competing with the whole city/state/country. That school down the block is the least of your problems since there’s no rule that says any of those schools owes your neighborhood an admittance. Stop fretting about the competition you can see and focus on the parts you can actually control: grades, clubs, volunteer work, science competitions, whatever. If CWRU finds two kids it likes from your end of town it won’t matter if they go to the same school or not: good candidates are good candidates and they’ve doubled up before. Be your best Cakemed and make them say no.
As far as transferring goes, if the reasons you’re not in a traditional school are still valid then how do you expect things to suddenly work now? You might be a little more attractive as a candidate if you have the shiny Fine School pedigree, but if you have to blow up your family life or start cutting major life corners to get everything to fit it’s going to show up in the work you’re doing at Fine School. And honestly, the amount and quality of work required to make it at Fine might be quite different from your online school. Your specifics may vary, but leaping from homeschool to a high performing high school might be harder than you think and you may end up trading increased prestige for a lower class rank.
Without knowing more details I’d hesitate to make a transfer like that. The grass is not greener, etc, etc, etc. There are ways to stand out that take advantage of your non-traditional arrangement, so find some larger venues to display your skills: regional or national science competitions if STEM is your thing, or Scouts or CAP (Civil Air Patrol) or Boys/Girls State if you want to exhibit leadership, club sports if you’re an athlete or maybe an internship at a larger company in your area. Keep your head up and your feet moving, and don’t waste effort on everyone else’s application that you can’t do anything about. Good luck.
Admissions officers do have relationships with high school guidance departments. High schools invite the AOs to come speak and recruit students, and HS guidance counselors may plant a bug in the ear of an AO regarding a particularly talented or deserving student. So while your position won’t hurt your chances in the sense that it is not a strike against you, it could be easier for you to “slip through the cracks” and get overlooked.
You aren’t just competing with the students from that excellent high school ten minutes away: you are competing against all the unhooked applicant who apply. The solution is to stand out by being interesting. You need excellent test scores and grades, of course. On top of that you need the things that will show that you are an interesting person: ECs, the letters of recommendation, the great essay, etc.
Barring a health or mental health issue, I’d give the high school ten minutes away a try. Babysitting and house care is your parents’ problem, not yours. I am sure there is more to it than that, so I don’t mean to be cruel or flippant. You’re clearly planning to move away for college, as evidenced by the vast distances between those colleges you named. Thus your family is going to have to survive on their own sooner rather than later. There are opportunities and experiences abound right now, just ten minutes away. Take advantage, if you can.
Whats the difference betweena magenet school and a charter school ?
Magnet schools are public schools which focus on providing education to high achieving and gifted students. They’re part of the local school district, and are funded in the same manner. They are open to all students of a school district, regardless of where they live within the district, so long as the students fulfill the entry requirements.
Charter schools are private schools which are provided funding by the state government, but are not part of the public school system. They are generally funded by the state, local government, or school district from which they received the charter, and are funded based on the number of students who go to the school.
Magnet schools must follow all the rules, regulations, and requirements of the public school district to which they belong, while charter schools need to follow the rules, regulations, and requirements that were agreed upon in the charter they received from the state, local government, or school district.
- at least where I live magnet schools are traditional public schools with the same superintendent of schools and school board as the rest of the district traditional public schools. However it may have a theme. Here they are not limited to high achieving/gifted students. In fact at one point all of our elementary schools had magnet themes. There can be more than one theme school in the district - sometimes you might have choices or other times it is simply the assigned school. I'm more familiar with magnet theme schools before high school in which some extra fun activities are based on a theme.
@MWolf a charter school is not a private school it just functions like one.
A charter school is a public school and free to attend but it is not a traditional public school. It has its own school board /board of directors unless it happens to be part of a chain. There are state requirements to meet but it can follow the curriculum it chooses since it is not part of the district school system. Where I live a city is its own school district. A charter school often involves students from different cities with each city paying the charter school based on how many charter school students attend from each city. There is nothing stopping a charter school from also having a theme. If too many people apply it can be a lottery to see who gets in and there can be a limit on the number per sending district. Basically as long as the school meets state standards it can exceed it in terms of hours, number of school days per year, requirements for a diploma etc.
There are good and bad traditional public, magnet, and charter schools.
@momtogirls2 My error - it should have been “independent”, not “private”.