If I went to an online high school and had good grades, challenging coursework, excellent SAT/ACT scores, and very good extracurriculars could I have gotten into a selective college (Emory, USC, UCLA, NYU, etc.)? Or would a good GPA at an online high school not be as highly regarded as a good GPA at a public high school?
I don’t know the real answer to this (will be curious to see others responses), but IF I were an admissions officer…
- I would wonder why you are in an online school. I wouldn't think twice about a handful of online classes taken to make up for poor grades or to supplement classes not offered at your day-to-day high school. However, if ALL your classes were in an online school - and it wasn't for a really, really good reason - I would wonder whether you just don't play well with others.
- I would question the quality of your lab science classes. Some parents on these boards have been pleased with the materials their kids have received, but it is a safe bet that there is going to be a lot of differences among the schools.
- Do your online teachers get to know you enough to make a really thorough letter of recommendation? Maybe. But there is something about that face-to-face interaction. A teacher in a regular school might see a student both in class and for an extracurricular activity, and thus sees a multi-faceted dimension that an online teacher won't be able to deliver quite as well.
- Colleges want to know you can make meaningful contributions to a classroom discussion. If your online high school was set up to be highly interactive, I would look upon that more favorably than a mildly supervised, study-at-your-own-pace type of situation.
It isn’t my intent to put down online schools. I’m quite favorable towards them for supplementary or remedial purposes, and for those whose education was interrupted by medical necessity. My point is simply you would have to anticipate and address all possible concerns AOs might have up front (they have a thousand more files behind yours, and will be too busy to chase you down for answers) in order to get a favorable decision.
Make sure you have taken SAT/ ACT, SAT 2 tests, AP tests to “validate” your grades.
Many selective schools will consider online high school students as homeschoolers, and require additional hoops of them, such as extra essays, interviews, or subject tests.
Yes, someone who does very well at an online high school can be accepted into a selective college. Take a look at the colleges to which the graduates of your specific online school have been accepted, and when they were accepted (makes a difference if it was last year vs ten years ago). That should give you an idea. Your online school should have that info available on their main website. And yes, take those SAT2s and APs and SAT tests.
Groundwork2022 brings up things that are reasonable for adcoms to consider. To me, the answer to those things are probably obvious for your family, but they won’t be to folks who don’t know you or your situation, so you will have to find a way to address everything within your app (and your ECs). For example, playing well with others comes through in academic summer camps and extracurriculars and volunteering and jobs and some in-person dual credit (which I’d recommend for everyone regardless of method of high school) etc. Online lab courses can be excellent excellent excellent (I’m a huge fan of ChemAdvantage) or they can be not-so-great. Make sure you know which kind your online school of choice offers. Make sure the language courses offer a lot of live personal interaction (my kids have Spanish and Mandarin classes that meet live four times a week and there is a TON of live speaking and listening). Etc. Then, make sure the adcoms at the colleges to which you eventually apply know how your courses are structured, so THEY know how interactive etc. everything is. Your online school should have a school profile etc, but it will be good for YOU to also address everything as well.