<p>Hi. Money magazine is preparing an article about whether the boom in online college and high school courses is actually helping students. If you or your child have taken any online courses and don't mind sharing your experiences and advice, we'd love to hear it. For example:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Are there particular kinds of online courses that are especially helpful or especially useless? </p></li>
<li><p>Are there any particular online colleges or high schools that you can recommend, or that you would like to suggest students avoid? </p></li>
<li><p>Do you have any evidence that online courses helped (or hurt?) a student's preparation for college, admissions odds at selective colleges, or success in college?</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Thanks very much!</p>
<p>The folks at College Confidential said it was OK to post this here.</p>
<p>Online courses were really helpful for me since I completed certain required credits for graduation without needing to take the actual classes. The problem with taking the actual class was that 1) It would lower my GPA/rank (Most of the in-class options were regs rather than AP) and 2) It took up room in my schedule that I wanted to use for other classes/electives that I was more interested in.</p>
<p>In total, I took 6 semesters, or 3 credits, of online courses (1.5 cred PE, 1.0 cred tech, 0.5 cred health). Taking it online did not effect my GPA, which was mostly a side benefit for me - I imagine there are schools that may count the GPA from online courses regardless. The main advantage was being able to take 6 semesters of other classes that I felt would be more enjoyable during the school year - such as extra AP science courses (I plan to major in the sciences). </p>
<p>I guess that doesn’t really answer your questions, but that was basically my experience with online courses. I think they’re very helpful in that respect - particularly in accumulating course credits to graduate without overwhelming my schedule with the standard required classes.</p>
<p>EDIT: Oh and it was really convenient to be able to sign up for the online classes at any time in the year. I took all of mine in the summer though, which gave me a lot of time to take these courses without stressing out. It’s a good way to avoid ‘wasting’ a summer if you’re the kind of person that sits around for 3 months too</p>