Summer online course

Pre-College Issues Summer Programs
1

Hi everyone,

One of my classes this past year (junior year) was taught by a recent college graduate with no teaching experience, and the course ended up very lame and unpleasant, despite my efforts to let the administration know it wasn’t up to par. After talking to my principal about it, he offered for the school to pay for an online course or some other source of supplemental academic thing. My parents thought that sounded good, so that’s the plan, but neither he or I have serious ideas about what to spend my “credit” on.

He mentioned test prep and the self-paced courses through Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth located here http://cty.jhu.edu/ctyonline/courses/index.html, and the prices are about $750 per three months of a course. I’m not sure if he was offering an entire school year’s worth of a course (about $2200) or less, but anyways I have a substantial “credit” to spend. I am satisfied with my current SAT score (1480), but I guess the school could pay for a tutor or some other test prep service for me.

For the next six weeks, I am working full time at an internship, and I’m receiving a generous stipend through the organization to cover any costs associated. After the internship, I have one month of time without substantial plans, when I would hope to work on the course.

The Johns Hopkins site offers Linear Algebra which I am interested in, but no high school level science classes. For reference, I took Calculus online during the school last year, teaching myself through Khan Academy. Since I wouldn’t have an actual instructor for Linear Algebra, I’m hesitant to decide on it. I covered the entire Calculus BC curriculum, but I am not positive that I have mastered the content yet. I’ve taken ecology, chemistry and physics. On my own time, I’ve covered the high school biology curriculum as well. This next year, I will take either environmental science or environmental studies. I would really enjoy taking an additional science class.

I am looking for great quality pay-to-play online course providers that offer other science courses, or advice as to how to spend this credit. I’m open to any ideas!

Does it make sense for the school to pay for test prep for me, even though I’ve already achieved a score high enough for the schools I’m interested in? I am interested in small LACs, but they are all so expensive, and my family doesn’t qualify for financial aid. My parents participated in the Virginia 529 plan where they locked in college rates when I was born, and saved money since then. The cost of attending a Virginia school (W&M, UVA, VT, CNU) will be $32k for the entire four years, and the money is already there.

Thanks so much!

Also, I wasn’t sure where to post this, so admins, please feel free to move this if it is in the wrong place.

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I’d really appreciate some help with this!! Thanks

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Will you get high school credit for the class? If you are hoping to get school credit, you may be limited in where or how you can spend the money and take the course. If that’s your situation, you could talk to administration at your school, though it sounds like they may not have many suggestion, but at least you can make sure the class you end up signing up for follows any possible restrictions your school may set.

If you aren’t taking the class for high school credit, you have a lot more leeway in the types and locations of classes you can take. John’s Hopkins in a good option if you are looking for guided online classes, however you usually have to take a test to qualify for the program, and a qualifying score for the specific class you are interested in. Additionally, it sounds like they don’t have the science classes you are looking for.

What science classes have you already taken in high school? If you have already taken AP science classes in an area of interest, you might be prepared to take a college science class at a local community college. At my school, they offer dual enrollment to allow me to enroll in a couple classes, but you would have to work out the specifics with your school. In that same vein, online sites like Coursera or edX allow people to sign up for classes sponsored by college professors at all sorts of schools in a huge variety of topics, including many on science subjects.

Finally, if you aren’t hoping to get any credit but just looking for enrichment, you could buy a textbook for a subject that is really appealing to you and use the rest of the money to get a tutor to help you through it (or don’t get a tutor, that’s up to you).

I think if you could let us know how you’ve done in the classes you’ve taken and a little more insight into your interests, we might be able to help more.