In case it may be helpful to others, I thought I would write a quick (?) note on our D21’s first week studying at ASU online. My daughter graduated from an online high school (Laurel Springs) last June and then took a gap semester to consider next steps. Her brother, S19, is attending a classic LAC and having a great experience, but she clearly didn’t want that. She initially began studying online in her sophomore year in high school, when she was dealing with some health issues, but by the time those issues resolved, she realized that the online format was a good fit for her. She has a mild form of epilepsy and a relatively weak short-term memory that is probably related. This combination made in-person school very challenging, both because she found it difficult to retain information that was presented only one time and only orally and because her classmates (and some teachers) were not always as kind or perceptive as they might have been. Attending Laurel Springs was transformative - it is a terrific school academically and the format enabled her to study at her own pace - lectures were always backed up with written materials and her teachers were always available when she needed them. She did extremely well, and by the time she graduated, we were sure she would do well anywhere, but having visited a bunch of schools with her brother, she was sure that she did not want a traditional residential college experience. She began looking at online colleges and we found a program at ASU that seemed a good fit with her interests in fitness and health science. She enrolled and started in a B.Sc program earlier this month. It is still early days, of course, but I have been very impressed and D21 is also pleased. ASU Online is very well-established, so the online platform is very well-developed. The courses are taught by regular ASU professors, and the degree awarded is a regular ASU degree - no “online” tag. Financial aid is available.
What has struck me is the degree to which D21 already feels like she is part of a community - we, and her brother, have tried to explain to her that college is very different from middle school and high school in terms of the social environment, but ASU Online makes that real. One of her classes this semester is a kind of orientation to online learning seminar and, as part of that class, the students must interact in an online forum. It’s a very lively place, and the first thing we noticed is that a surprisingly large percentage of her fellow students were Starbucks baristas. Maybe you all know about this already, but I didn’t - ASU and Starbucks have a program where Starbucks employees can enroll in any bachelor’s degree program at ASU Online and have their full tuition covered. Unfortunately, the program doesn’t apply to employees in Japan, where we live, but her classmates include baristas from all across America, from kids like her who are just out of high school to military spouses dealing with frequent relocations to working mothers with a couple of kids. It’s a wonderful group. D21’s other class is a substantive introduction to fitness science class, and I have also been very impressed with the academic quality. There is a lot of support available - tutors, TAs, office hours, etc.
Online college is not for everyone, but for the right student, it can be a great fit. It’s my sense that the pandemic may have “surfaced” other students like my daughter who do especially well in this environment. On CC, we tend to focus mostly on regular 4-year colleges and community colleges, but ASU Online and other high-quality online programs may also be a good choice for the right student. Among other benefits, we are planning to move to Europe later this year and D21 can just keep on keeping on with her studies from there.