I am a rising junior at a high school and will be having a full schedule next year. Graduation requirements dictate that I must take US History, but since I already have a full schedule consisting of Biology AP, Chemistry AP, Pre-Cac Honors, AP English Literature, AP Chinese, and Engineering, I am thinking of taking US History Honors/AP online at a Online High School (such as Apex Learning Virtual School, Virtual High School, etc). However, I heard that taking an online course when a student is studying full time at another physical high school is bad for college admissions. I also heard that many online high schools, such as the one mentioned, have bad reputation with colleges on grading (such as easy A’s). Can I have someone’s opinion on this? I’m not really sure what other options I have since I have a full schedule.
Thank you!!!
That’s exactly what my counselor said when I wanted to take an AP class online in order to fit another engineering class in my schedule. I chose not to take the online class. Can you take it through dual enrollment at local community college or university instead? Maybe over summer?
I can’t imagine taking an online class as extra cause your schedule is filled wouldn’t be looked at by colleges as going the extra mile. It would be different if you have loads of free time in your day and decided to take an on line class in stead of having a full day in school.
Online classes are becoming more mainstream as more students turn to alternative options. APEX, for example, has been approved for the University of California for A-G requirements, so I don’t know why it would be considered an easy A.
A student who is taking a full load in high school, and who adds an online course will not be seen in a negitive light.
Why are you taking 2 sciences when you need a history to graduate?
DO NOT TAKE online courses like APEX while taking classes in school! trust me I have tried it due to a prolong illness.
The school will set you up with APEX and expect you to do more work than you would do in school. School breaks down the work, but APEX is a huge responsibility. I couldn’t handle it. I would drop a course you don’t need and replace it with another one. It’s much easier to fail APEX courses because you have to self learn the material without instruction or guidance from teachers. When I had taken the APEX course first semester of junior year, the content of the course didn’t match up to what we were doing in school.
My son used APEX for geometry. He didn’t have any problems with it except he said it was dry. There are other online programs other than APEX if you want to shop around. I don’t think they even put APEX on his transcript. It just says geometry.