Does anyone have any experience (personal or anecdotal) about the Stanford Online High School? How rigorous is the curriculum? Does it actually feel like a school? How selective are admissions?How do their exmissions compare to traditional boarding schools?
My son was there for 10-12 (he graduated 5 years ago).
The kids are placed by ability, and most classes are extremely rigorous, although I supposed one could always asked to be placed in grade-level class if the student needed extra bandwidth for outside activities such as sports or the arts (some international athletes and artists did just that). It did feel like a school while he was there. The kids met up frequently via Skype (i think the platform has changed since he was there) and Fridays are devoted to school clubs. There are several all-school meetups each year (two on Stanford campus and one at MIT) and if you live near other OHS students and there is an active parent group, there are frequently multiple activties a month that the students can go to (organized by parents and/or students).
The school is a 7-12 school, even though it is called a High School. What grade level is your student looking at?
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Adding on, admissions are quite selective. There is at least one Facebook page for OHS where you might be able to get additional perspectives. It’s not super active, because once a student is accepted, there is a restricted group and that’s where most people migrate too, but it might be helpful regardless.
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And one more post – here is their course catalog, if you haven’t already seen it.
Thanks so much. I had a chance to flip through the catalog, and it looks pretty thorough. That said, it’s a little hard to get a sense of what a typical path looks like. For example, do most students finish with single-variable calculus, or do they usually get into multi-variable?
The language class descriptions also feel a bit vague. Is Spanish 4 closer to something like AP Literature, or more like a college-level Spanish 101? How many students graduate at that level?
And what usually drives students to enroll? I couldn’t find much on college admissions, but any info you have there would be really helpful.
I don’t know how the whole student body breaks down, but I have known elite athletes who found this to be a good option as it gave them more time flexibility for training and competing.
I would guess that in some cases, this is a good option for a home-schooler as well.
Here is a link to recent college acceptances and matriculations.
Not sure about the fourth year of a language — probably more AP level but best to check with OHS admissions.
As for math, I think it’s likely that some kids take calculus as a senior and many go well beyond that and probably some finish at pre-calc. If you look at the link below you will see a graphic of the math courses by level (middle school, high school, university level). A lot of kids start at ohs for the advanced math, and the upper level classes probably have about 12-plus students and the graduating class is around 70 so I think a lot graduate with one or more years of university-level math—but there are also a lot of single -course and part time students who aren’t counted amongst the 70 so it’s hard to extrapolate. My son took three years of university level math at OHS . He wasn’t at all atypical.
One thing to note is that almost all the kids universally love the required core (ie, philosophy) courses, even the avowed STEM kids. These courses are only at grade level and are required for full time students and available for part time / single course students as space allows. There are also university-level courses in all the academic subjects.
As to why the kids choose OHS. It’s an international school and many (including US kids) choose it because they want the rigorous, advanced academics and a like-minded academically-advanced peer group. Others choose it because the flexible schedule allows them to travel for — and concentrate on — a significant extra curricular like athletics or the arts. These kids will also benefit from the rigorous academics but may choose not to take advanced courses due to their time commitments elsewhere.
Please note that the math schematic linked below has a similar schematic for each academic area of focus . If you click on a course and scroll down, you will then see the relevant schematic.
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Here is the link to graduation requirements for full time students. This is not required for part time or single course students of course.
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