<p>I will be a senior next year and I cannot see how I can survive another year of high school–another year of busy work, slow-paced classes, and no free time. I considered homeschooling, but pushed the idea aside for I do want to graduate with a high school diploma, attend senior events, etc. I’m wondering if it would be a good idea to take some classes at my high school next year (gym, orchestra, economics, ap french – just the things I need to graduate and maybe another that I’m interested in), and take the rest (eng, compusci, calc, + whatever else) through an online course. I know Keystone offers AP courses, and there are a few classes that sound amazing from EPGY, CTY, and Indiana. 
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<li><p>Would doing this be advisible? And since I will be applying to colleges next year, will universities of the top tier put it against me for doing this and not taking a full courseload at my high school?</p></li>
<li><p>I know that I am in the top 1% of my class right now, and am potentially in a vale/salu position. AP classes are weighted at my school. Personally, I don’t care about rankings, but would it be a poor choice to give it up? Online courses will not be in my HS GPA right?</p></li>
<li><p>Any experience with the online schools above please.
THANKS!</p></li>
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<p>I really wish people had replied to this… I have the exact same situation. XD</p>
<p>Whether online classes would contribute to your GPA at your school depends on their policies. Some schools will transcribe approved online courses to a student’s transcript, in which case they will contribute to your GPA. You’d have to ask about this at your school, and if you want them to do so, make certain you only take courses from programs that the high school approves and from which the high school has a policy of accepting course work.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I don’t think if matters much to colleges whether your high school accepts those courses or not. Colleges will be interested to see that you took them, and interested in how well you do in them, but probably not concerned in the least as to what your high school does with such credits.</p>
<p>My son applied to college as a homeschooler, but he “homeschooled” throughout in that while he took several classes at the high school, he was never a full-time student and did not seek to graduate from it.</p>
<p>In your case it would not so much be a case of you homeschooling, as you graduating like a traditional student, but also taking additional courses outside high school to challenge yourself. I don’t really see what concerns you about that. How can it not be a good thing? If it’s missing the chance to be val/sal, or crank your GPA up a smidge… well, you’re the only person who can answer as to the relative value of those things.</p>
<p>It would be pretty impossible to accurately predict what effect it might have on any individual reader of college apps. My guess would be that at very elite colleges they see vals/sals with a gazillion APs all the time, and your application would be a more interesting one. But that’s all speculative. You just need to do what suits you best after considering all your options.</p>
<p>My son partially home-schooled for the last 3 years of HS. It made his application more complex and bulky – we had to fill out the normal application with normal recommendations and also the homeschool transcript and philosophy of home-schooling and homeschool recommendations. That may have made him less interesting to some schools and more interesting to others.</p>
<p>He was the first person in our district to do partial homeschooling and so I negotiated it with the Assistant Superintendent of Schools, the guidance counselors, the principal, etc. The Assistant Superintendent became the Superintendent and she actually wrote one of his recommendations (she said it was the first one she’d written). You would probably have to negotiate with the school what they will give credit for.</p>
<p>Although the school originally told us that they would not grant credit for most of his activities outside of school, they eventually did grant enough so that he graduated from the school. However, some of this was pushed by the Assistant Superintendent – the English department ended up giving credit for things that they had explicitly said they wouldn’t. He also worked with one or two English teachers to modify the curriculum of an existing course so that he did what we wanted and the school gave the course a name that made them happy.</p>
<p>I don’t know how colleges look at rankings – my son’s HS didn’t publish rankings. I do recall that he did work in one honors math class on his own and took their final and they gave him an A, but didn’t give him the extra point for it being honors. So be it. He learned more than he would have, was less bored, and got in to good colleges anyway.</p>