The title of this post is slanted. I have never sat on an academic admissions board. Everything said is speculation. My student sampling is extremely low - one child.
My daughter is brilliant. She was in Calculus AB in the eighth grade. One of the reasons for switching to an online school was I couldn't continue to teach her at home, and the local public school didn't want to even try. (true story. They told me that she should graduate at the age of 14 and go off to college... yah, that's gonna happen) Online seemed like a perfect fit. Individually tailored classes, flexible scheduling, accredited. What more could I ask?
Fast forward four years, my daughter is graduating valedictorian of Insight Schools. She has taken 12 AP level courses. She took math classes from Stanford Universities EPGY program for gifted youth. She scored in the top 1% on her standardized tests. She has worked 20 hours per week and volunteered 5 hours per week for the last two years. Her weighted GPA is 4.3. Her recommendation letters were from Princeton alumni, Rose Hulman professors and other professionals. She was turned down by a dozen colleges. She will be going to UW Milwaukee, but it was truly her last choice.
Why was she turned down? Well, it is true the competition is stiff. There are tons of applicants for colleges. The average high school senior who wants to go to college applies to 10 or 12 schools. It is not uncommon for a student to apply to 20 different schools. This means there is a lot of paperwork for an admissions board to review. Her paperwork was all in on time, but her financial information was pretty close to the deadline. That might have made a difference. Finally, on those 12 AP tests, her average score is only a 3.8 (that's out of 5 possible) None of these possibilities seem likely to explain why this child isn't going to be attending a more prestigious school.
I think there is still a slight negative associated with the name of online schooling. I think the fact that the US Armed Services still views online schooling at the same level as correspondence school is a huge issue. I think that admissions counselors use that fact to justify their suspicions. After all, if the US Army doesn't approve, what do they know that we don't? I think there is confusion on the part of admissions boards. They don't understand that online education in Wisconsin is controlled by the same educational standards that regulates any public school. There is a move to try to change the opinion of the US Armed Services. This is a change we need to all support.
