<p>There is good news for parents looking for a challenging academic program to get their children ready for college. The Education Program for Gifted Youth (EPGY) at Stanford University has announced that it has received foundation support to expand its distance-learning program into a full-time, accredited high school program for gifted students. See the online high school Web page </p>
<p>about the program. This could be a great way for parents who want their children to be college-ready and who don't have a suitable high school locally to help their children get ready. It can also serve as a part-time supplement to a local high school that fits other needs of the student. </p>
<p>As a happy parent of two EPGY distance learning students, I thought I should let people know about this.</p>
<p>EPGY tends to have GREAT financial aid for its distance learning courses (does it for its summer programs too?) so whatever list price is posted in a while will probably NOT be what all participants pay out-of-pocket. This would definitely be a program for which the prudent principle would be, apply and find out what aid is on offer before deciding whether or not it is feasible.</p>
<p>Wow, tuition does sound pretty steep--it's almost the same as my kids' private HS--nice that this another resource out there tho. Our neighbor's son was able to get Financial Aid to attend a summer program at Stanford after his sophomore year in HS.</p>
<p>Some people might be able to get their school districts to pay for courses. Our high school is hoping to start working with EPGY next year, using their courses to supplement what they offer. They've budgeted funds for a pilot project and, if the budget is approved, this will start next year. </p>
<p>EPGY has been offering it's distance-learning courses through schools, as well as directly to individuals, for years. I looked into this a while ago and learned that the cost to schools was about half of the regular cost. </p>
<p>My sons have done the math courses (elementary and MS level) and they are excellent. They would have done more if the cost weren't so high. For one year I was able to get a license through a group on the west coast who had worked out a deal with Stanford to provide their own technical support. The cost for a one-year license was only $100! They did not give credit for the courses under this arrangements (but I didn't care), and we could not use their tutors (but I've never once used a tutor, anyway). Unfortunately, this possibility went away for some reason.</p>
<p>Our son has received an offer of admision to EPGY Online High School, and now it will be an interesting process to see how the financial aid application turns out. Yes, EPGY Online High School is less expensive, list price, than the brick-and-mortar elite independent high schools in our town, but we never asked those for financial aid, so I don't know what their discounted price might be. EPGY does look like better value, to us, than some other possibilities we were looking at for next year.</p>