Cyber School?

Pre-College Issues Home Schooling and College
1

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>I'm currently a rising senior in Washington state and considering cyberschooling next year. A new online high school has just been established here and will "open" officially this Fall. I'd really love to switch to this program but am afraid that it will look bad to do this for just one year. </p>

<p>Public high school has not really been a very good experience for me. It didn't really start off well because I decided to take a summer math class and the counselors became mad because "I was just making more work for them." The next year, I missed the last week of school for NASA SHARP (A pretty prestigous high school science program) and almost ended up recieving all F's for my grades, because I missed the last 5 days of school (mostly yearbook signing). This year, has been a little better as I've been in a dual-enrollment program full-time and I have been working to satisfy the rest of my high school graduation requirements with college courses. However, this has also been quite a hassle because the specified classes are constantly being changed and as it is now, a few of the classes I took specifically to fill these requirements would no longer fulfill some of them.</p>

<p>So, I guess right now, I'd really just appreciate opinions on whether I should switch to this new online school for senior year or stick it out in my public high school. I took an online class this year (AP US History) and really liked the format. This program sounds even better than the program I went through last year because: its completely free, offers over 140 courses (including AP and Honors), and would allow me a little more flexibility. Right now, I think the only drawback is that I don't want to really jeopardize my application to colleges (I'm applying to a couple very competitive colleges). </p>

<p>Thanks in advance for the advice :)</p>

2

<p>If you are not happy with your current school, and the new school is fully accredited, then you SHOULD switch. </p>

<p>I go to an online school, and people from my school have gone to some of the best schools. This year we had three to UPenn, two to Yale, two to Stanford, one to Princeton, one to Harvard, four to NYU, two to Reed, two to Boston College, two to Tufts, two to Williams, one to Swathmore, and one to CMC to name a few. </p>

<p>At the end of the day its what you do with your time, and how you present yourself to schools. My friends going off to the Ivies were not all super athletes, or mensa members, but they all showed great passion in something or another. </p>

<p>Cyber school is a great way to go if you are motivated enough to stay on track, and find your own resources. If you were going to do school online I would advise you to prepare your reasons well (why you did it questions are common for top schools during the interview process), and make it less about how "regular" school did not work for you, and more about how online school allowed you to do so much more with your time. Find something really amazing to do with your time, and then tell them, in detail, about how it made a difference in your life. </p>

<p>Just a suggestion...</p>

<p>Edit: Also, which schools are you looking into? Some schools are not as receptive to homeschooling/online schools. That may also be something you want to look into when making your choice.</p>