<p>Why do colleges look down on "self study" online courses from home?
No, I am not referring to homeschooling, I know they do not look down on that.</p>
<p>I'm talking about when you receive your assignments and projects through online courses, and "self study" with a flexible schedule. Not exactly the same as online school, because I'd still have a tutor and be doing AP coursework, so it wouldn't be as if I was slacking by and getting easy A's.</p>
<p>I'm just confused why this would be looked at negatively by colleges, since I know I'd be getting much more out of that, than being in public school classrooms of 45 people, wasting time. Personally, I feel like the public school system is run similar to a socialist society. I'd also likely have an internship during the school year, so I would not be sitting at home the entire day in my bed.</p>
<p>Please only answer if you have accurate insight on this subject, thank you.</p>
<p>If you are fortunate enough to have online AP classes as an option, I don’t think it will be perceived negatively. What does get perceived negatively - the suggestion of antisocial behavior, lack of leadership positions, and lack of rigor. You have to make sure that your record shows a well-rounded, social leader who is freeing up time for their passions and taking the most rigorous classes available.
Online courses have high failure rates compared to regular classes and there is a very real perception that they are less rigorous. This is more true of non-AP classes. In an AP class, you have to back up your grade with a test score anyway.</p>
<p>Well, I think it’s one thing to supplement school with an online AP class and another to move to online schooling all together… even with a teacher/tutor supervising.</p>
<p>We know a lot of kids that do full-time online schooling through various charters and they do end up with beautiful high GPA transcripts. However, online schooling allows for a lot of “open-book” and short-term memory learning/testing. The kids we know that moved into traditional programs or college are struggling with long-term retention and often are lacking the skills to commit materials to long term. One parent complained to me that that her child seemed to have no idea how to weed through lectures and pick out the important parts to study. My youngest son had some issues with and online class. He was allowed to do online math in middle school because he was advanced of the regular curriculum. He’d fly through the materials easily because he has speedy comprehension. He could do a chapter and test on it the very same day. Test him on the material in a month and he’d forget large chunks of it. Because he was ahead, it wasn’t such a big deal but he will be repeating geometry in 9th grade simply because he seems not to remember hardly any of it (despite getting through it in 5 months with an “A.”)</p>
<p>I’m not saying this is the case for all certainly. I think a passionate learner could make it work because they often do a lot of self-supplementing. More often than not, in our area… online programs are filled with kids who don’t like school and just want to be done.</p>
<p>Online AP? Well, I know they have a high failure rate but again, the right student could probably make it work. You might be that student. I don’t know you.</p>
<p>I can’t say if my reasoning for questioning online schooling are the same as colleges. I just know that our state schools won’t even accept online classes from the community college.</p>