<p>With a parent's and guidance counselor's permission, a friend of mine is able to only go to school for the first four periods of the day, then goes home and takes the rest of his classes online through FLVS.</p>
<p>He says it's nice to get home early, but the tough part is that it's hard to stay motivated in FLVS. Very few people can stay so motivated, so it's easy to fall behind.</p>
<p>I'm not one of those. I am very motivated, and I already take classes online through FLVS. I enjoy the classes/setup, and I love working at my own pace.
On the contrary: In school, I get bored very easily. The teacher can only go so fast, and students around me sometimes slow the learning process down.
I feel that if I could have the schedule like my friend, where I take four classes at school, and however-many-more at home, I can work at my own pace and actually go faster than the in-school learning process and perhaps squeeze more classes into my schedule over the next two years of my high school career (I'm currently a sophomore).</p>
<p>My questions are: Would you recommend this type of schedule, for any particular reason? (Why or why not?). And secondly, can this be an issue when it comes time to apply for colleges? Will they look at this and discredit me in any way? Or will it even be beneficial in that it signifies my motivation and eagerness to learn?</p>
<p>Last year I had a full course load in school (7 classes) and an online course. It was really simple, I just tended to have a procrastinated busy time period on Fridays when I got home from school while everyone else was already in weekend mode. </p>
<p>I know in that case the colleges look at it and see that I took more than the expected work load at my school and therefore it’s good. So, if you can fit an extra course in, I don’t see why you shouldn’t.</p>
<p>However, when you take classes online that are available at your school, that can possibly send the message to the colleges that you’re not okay with what you’re provided and will try to get more when you’ve got sufficient resources. (Just thinking out loud here; I wrote an essay about my search for courses that fit me and, mostly in the way I wrote it, my gifted counselor who has worked on admissions said I seemed like an “irate” - someone the schools would have to consider carefully because they don’t want me to come in and disrupt their whole system.) So, if you go this route, be sure to tackle in your college essays why and how it benefited you - how you grew from it, etc., not how you wanted out of the normal system. (That looks good to businesses/employers, not necessarily to colleges.)</p>
<p>However, it can get hectic. Regardless of motivation, sometimes you just will not want to work. DO NOT overschedule yourself. Especially senior year - college applications are hell, worth an extra course in and of themseleves.</p>
<p>If I were you, I’d probably try out the schedule junior year and just see how it goes. But after careful planning - what, ultimately, will you gain by doing this? What will you lose? Think it through.</p>