<p>Hi everyone. I am currently a sophomore at a public high school but am interested in taking Keystone online school courses for my next two grades, which I would finish by 2012, allowing me to graduate a year early.</p>
<p>With Keystone I would take AP classes, and I would be able to work/volunteer more, besides just liking my schedule and freedom better.</p>
<p>The public school I attend is rated in the top 50 in the country and top 5 in my state. It offers IB classes and AP classes.</p>
<p>What should I do? I want to become a pediatric nurse if that info helps, and I don't have my eyes on any particular colleges yet. I just want some opinions on whether I should spend 4000 dollars on the Keystone education or if the colleges would prefer the public school.</p>
<p>I think public/private/homeschool/online are all about the same with colleges, depending on what you <em>do</em> with your opportunities. If you really did take advantage of the opportunities Keystone provides, that would be good, but you’d have take advantage of some pretty good work/volunteer opportunities to be able to show it as better than a top 50 school. As for “which would unspecified colleges prefer in two years with as-yet-unachieved goals”, that’s hard to answer. :)</p>
<p>I feel like I would be more prepared for life by being able to get out and work. There are no jobs available on Fridays, Saturdays, due to an overwhelming amount of older teenagers taking them since it fits in with their school schedule. With Keystone I could work four-five hours during the day and do my school work at night. I am one of four children born in five years, so money isn’t really abundant in my family and I would like atleast some money of my own to go towards my education so that my parents aren’t totally suffering.
Besides that point, I am not fond of the people in my school, The administration pushes IB onto every student just so our district looks better and the kids here aren’t the nicest. Ido have friends, as I have been in the district since kindergarten, but I am bored with life here and would really like to move on with my life. With Keystone I would aim to graduate in 2012 rather than 2013.</p>
<p>I have a similar issue, I just moved to a new school but the staff won’t allow me to take IB classes, and thats the whole reason that I’ve moved to the new school. :(</p>
<p>P.S. My school is Guajome Park Academy Charter, Vista California</p>
<p>^^It’s actually possible to pay for Keystone by working part time. Applicannot (another poster) was able to do that. Keystone offers monthly payment options, and the tuition is only a little under $3,000 per year (if you’re taking several AP classes).</p>
<p>I suggest conversing with your parents regarding the idea though.</p>
<p>Thank you for all of the posts! I really appreciate all of the opinions/information.</p>
<p>I estimate that Keystone would cost me 5000 dollars to finish highschool. If I began this winter, while finishing my sophomore year in public high school, I believe that I would be able to start working by the time that public school let out. Minimum wage here is 7.25, so if I worked for five hours a day at that rate for five days, I would be making a little bit over $180 per week. Multiply that by the 9 weeks of summer, and I would have a litte bit over 1600 dollars. So, half of my first year of classes would be paid off. I would continue with my classes throughout the summer and into the school year, although I would no longer attend public school, giving me the ability to continue to work for 5 hours a day for five days a week. Over the course of working for 32 weeks at this schedule, including the 9 weeks of summer, I would have more than enough to pay back my Keystone tuition, so I would say by the end of January I would be finished paying off Keystone, and then from January-August I could continue to work at this pace, giving me $5000 approximately to put towards my college education, plus that extreme amount of work experience under my belt. </p>
<p>I don’t even think that being able to work is the main point for me really. I’m not too fond of my highschool, and the ability to have the freedom to take classes whenever and wherever you want really draws me in. I get by in school with all 95+ averages, but that’s with having to deal with annoying peers, hot and crowded classrooms and just the average distractions of a classroom. Being able to work online seems like it would be able to help me focus more, and would prep me for the motivation needed to complete college classes when the time comes.</p>
<p>I think your reasons for HSing are sound, and you seem to have worked out how to make it doable. I think you will be a success! The only possible problem might be actually finding a job. </p>
<p>You haven’t told us what your parents think about this, and how they might be willing to help and support you. </p>
<p>Thank you, and I apologize; I forgot to include that!</p>
<p>My parents haven’t shown preference towards either side. They don’t really want to hear about the Keystone program until I have all of my facts straight, which is why I came here to get more opinions to show them. I have researched the Keystone program through multiple review sites, talked with current students and parents via Facebook and have emailed with Keystone staff. I know that if I can show my parents that it isn’t a bad choice, they will be supportive of me and would probably pay for half of my tuition to the school, or as much as possible before I start making money from my own job.</p>
<p>Finding a job will be a problem, so before I do sign up I will make sure that I have found a secure job, most likely at a local deli or bakery. I’m not looking for more than minimum wage, although I would obviously take it, but I feel like it may not be as hard (atleast in my community) to find a day job rather than a night/weekend job, as other highschool/college students have most of those.</p>
<p>There are other online courses/programs that you can take and integrate with your high school, so as to have more freedom and flexibility, but you would still graduate with a diploma from a top high school.</p>
<p>Virtual High School and Aventa Learning are two we have used: look up educere.net, which is an umbrella organization.</p>
<p>Keystone is more do-it-yourself, more for homeschoolers. The other two I mentioned grade you and most schools accept the grades and credit. The teacher interactions were better, we thought, with VHS and Aventa, and there were weekly grades as well as exam grades that could be printed out online and given to guidance at school. With Keystone, the weekly tests were not graded, so only the exam grades could actually be counted.</p>
<p>One of my kids danced during high school and did 2 online courses, 2 courses at school. It worked out great.</p>
<p>One difference: Virtual High School wants students to finish work each week, and Aventa wants students to finish on time for the end of a semester. Keystone is even more flexible, since you have a year (or more) to finish.</p>
<p>You may be in a sophomore slump. My older daughter almost left in the same way, and is so glad she stuck it out. Alternatively, we are really wishing our dancer daughter had also kept her connection with school: she ended up leaving in the way you are contemplating, in senior year, and I would not say it has worked out.</p>
<p>You have plenty of time ahead in your life. I would say try to make high school work for you, don’t be in too much of a hurry, and maybe volunteer in health care on a limited basis and in the summers.</p>
<p>Many colleges seem to think that home-schoolers add to the diversity of their campus, which is a plus. Just make sure you are doing something very interesting with the time you will find you now have.</p>
<p>You could stay in school and earn enough outside additional credits, online or via community college, to graduate a year early and still get a traditional diploma.</p>
<p>The University of Missouri also offers a wide variety of accredited high school classes for $175 per semester course:
[Distance</a> Learning | Independent Study | MU - CDIS](<a href=“http://cdis.missouri.edu/]Distance”>http://cdis.missouri.edu/)</p>
<p>The thing about using Keystone is that you have to be an independent learner and you have to be able to pace yourself. I took a AP Computer Science A course w/ Keystone and the only real deadline was that everything had to be submitted 365 days after the course was given to u… something like that? Anyway, you need to be able to pace yourself and not procrastinate just because there are no set due dates. However, Keystone is remarkably flexible that way, so I tend to prefer it… But be sure you can handle learning the material independently because sometimes teachers take several days to respond to a quick question.</p>
<p>You could also homeschool on your own–it’s free! Do the research to see what’s involved. Look for books by these authors: Cafi Cohen, Linda Dobson, and Grace Llewellyn. Most colleges have a place on their admissions info sites where they explain their requirements for homeschoolers. A diploma from an accredited high school or program is not essential.</p>
<p>Also rethink your job earnings. You’re quoting gross pay. Deduct federal, state, local, social security, medicare, and any other taxes you need to pay. Will a minimum-wage job still make sense?</p>
<p>I made almost $20,000 from 15 to 18.5. This is more than possible. Minors are exempt from state and federal taxes (unless they make more than $5500ish per year), and FICA/SSA usually take less than a dollar per hour.</p>
<p>I made $7.25 per hour (actually less for most of the time) and worked between 15 and 35 hours a week. I made enough to pay for Keystone on the payment plan with plenty to spare, including money for family bills, all of my entertainment/outings (admittedly there were few), a small savings, and a laptop. Just be reasonable.</p>
<p>I used Keystone, paid for it myself, and am now a freshman at Stanford. Feel free to PM me.</p>
<p>Does your state have a charter online high school? If so, it won’t cost you anything more than public school to go to school online. I know Pennsylvania has [The</a> Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School - PA Cyber](<a href=“http://www.pacyber.org/]The”>http://www.pacyber.org/), where there is no cost to the student and the school provides your laptop and other supplies.</p>
<p>schooling system is such a great system,but as we all see that now the school means fashion,and etc activities like the new generation go school for extra activities not for study?and most of the students bunk there lectures in a school level!if these type of activities didn’t finished so the level of studies fall down…</p>