I’m currently a junior at a rather competitive high school. I haven’t pushed myself hard in any of my subjects that I am interested in (math and sciences), and am getting rather bored of the school curriculum, as it is extremely slow. I am currently taking Calculus BC and Physics C, both of which are rather easy, and was thinking of what to do over the summer. Stanford sent me the “Come to summer school!” email a while back, and although I can’t afford that, I noticed OHSx offering Multivariable Calc and Light & Heat as courses to take over the summer. These are priced low enough that I can pay it off using my money I earned, and seemed interesting (currently deciding between math and physics as possible majors).
If any of you took these courses or are taking these courses, what do you think? Is it worth it? Did you learn a lot?
Thanks!
Disclaimer: I don’t know much about OHSx
Ummm I’m kind of against taking these classes and paying a lot of money for them. There are lots of free online classes you can take and still know the information (I’d strongly recommend MIT OpenCourseWare). Some people need to pay for classes in order to motivate them to do the work, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Personally, I don’t think you should do it since you’re not looking to transfer the credits from this class (I think). Instead, I’d look into free online classes (Stanford does offer some, I think they’re in edX). I’m “taking” (watching the lectures for and doing problem sets from a different course) an intro to ChemE class now through Stanford’s videotaped lectures (this one is on iTunesU). I’m also “taking” a couple classes at a nearby university where I sit in on the classes and do all of the work (and get an unofficial grade). This is something I’d strongly recommend if at all possible.
However, if you want the classes to show up on your transcript, you’re going to have to shell out some cash. But in my opinion, the most valuable part of the class is the knowledge, which you can get for free.
My highschool is willing to give me credit and let me take very few courses at the high school, which would help me since I am doing independent research outside of school, and could also focus on something else. There are no good colleges near me (closest one is about 1.5 hrs away), so that is why I couldn’t just go sit in on lectures. Those were my reasons for considering OHSx. I also have a feeling that, although I am generally a motivated student when I’m interested in the subject matter, I might be prone to procrastination or just doing something else, and that an actual course would help me to stay on top of things and really learn. Also, my school might pitch in some money (because they don’t offer it at the school, they can cover up to half the costs).
That’s a pretty sweet deal you’ve got. I believe that MIT OpenCourseware posts assignments as well (also free), and maybe some of the other websites as well. I think edX or something like that has the full course available for free, but you can pay (like $50) to get an official certificate that some employers take as credit.
EDIT: Oh, I forgot one thing. For something like multivariable calc (don’t know about the other one), get the Stewart book and make sure you do the problems out of the book. You know this by now, but you can’t learn math just by watching lectures. In that case, you might want an actual course with homework assignments, quizzes, and deadlines.
@Stanccepted Thanks for the help! Will make sure to do practice problems