Colleges’ views of online high schools

[sinenomine]

A friend of mine is concerned about her daughter returning to face-to-face classes at her high school while the pandemic is ongoing in the US, and is considering online high schools. Her daughter has a strong academic record and is responsible and self-motivated. Does anyone here have a sense of how colleges view applicants who come from an online high school?

[polly_mer]

What kind of college?

Super Dinky would take anyone whose check cleared in a timely manner.

At the other end of the prestige scale, my nephew from a nationally known-for-strong academics high school with all the goodies one would expect on his record was rejected from his first choices and had to "settle" for the excellent state flagship.

I would expect online during the next couple years to be the same wide disparity.  The elites will make their choices based on eliteness and the struggling for enrollment institutions sill take any high school graduate who can pay tuition by anything resembling money.

[spork]

Why bother with high school? Take edX courses instead:

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/15/magazine/the-boy-genius-of-ulan-bator.html?pagewanted=all.

[Aster]

What Polly said.

Unless a high school student is wanting into an institution that is super-competitive and super-picky, (e.g. an Ivy, elite SLAC, or some of the R1's), I doubt that most admissions officers will even notice if someone's diploma is from an online high school.

Well... on second thought maybe it will matter for student athletes. Ha ha.

[bio-nonymous]

I would suggest if she is eligible for such a program to take community college courses online instead. Some high schools allow you to take a class at community college to fulfill your high school requirements, while you are simultaneously getting college credits to hopefully transfer. Just a thought! :)

[Hibush]

Why bother with high school? Take edX courses instead:

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/15/magazine/the-boy-genius-of-ulan-bator.html?pagewanted=all.

Autodidacts do well with MOOCs.  Appropriately, Battushig Myanganbayar went on to study at MITs Center for Brains.

[dismalist]

As so many high schools will go on-line, the mode of instruction will not matter for college admissions' notion of quality, on average.

If possible, send child into a good High School, public or private, and ignore the mode.

[kaysixteen]

Online or ftf, hs quality varies enormously in this country, like it or not, which is why the SAT ain't gonna go away.  Grade and increasingly also course title inflation often make transcripts worthless.  But, yes, a good to elite school will doubtless, at least for the first few years, look with some real suspicion on an ol school, so best the student therein get great college board scores and other evidence of his competence.

[jimbogumbo]

As so many high schools will go on-line, the mode of instruction will not matter for college admissions' notion of quality, on average.

If possible, send child into a good High School, public or private, and ignore the mode.

+1

I absolutely agree with this. Good schools do their best to do a quality job in all modes of instruction.

I and several colleagues DO have a negative view of the online high schools which advertise on the TV, and online charters. Their reputation (based on our review of curriculum, and discussions with students and teachers) is justifiably not good.

[Vkw10]

Nephew and I took admissions director at my R2 to lunch a few years ago, when Nephew was starting high school. Nephew was interested in the state-sponsored virtual high school. He told Nephew that good grades in the most challenging courses school offers, good SAT/ACT scores, and consistent participation in at least one extracurricular activity would get him admission offers at most colleges, including ours. Attending a virtual high school wouldn't be a problem, but most virtual schools have fewer extracurricular activity options, so he might need activities outside school, like volunteering at public library on a regular basis, or would need to balance weak activity record with outstanding grades and test scores.

Your friend might compare course options (AP, IB, dual credit, lab sciences) and extracurricular options before deciding. Friend's daughter should also be consulted, since the best of teens can be difficult if they really dislike adult decisions.

[sinenomine]

Thanks, everyone, for your responses. I've relayed them to my friend, who is weighing her options.