Online High School/ Graduating Early?

[mxihockey 0]

After two years of hockey at a New england prep school, I transfered back to my public high school and am playing Midget AAA Hockey. A lot of the kids on my team billet and take their classes online, and some of them have graduated early. I'm looking into taking a few extra courses online this year, and then applying those credits to my public school so I can graduate this year. I'm hoping to play in the USHL next season, if not the NA, and would like to be done with high school when I get out there. I won't really be missing out on anything because I don't play any sports at my school, don't have time for clubs etc. Anyone have any suggestions/past experiences with going to school online?

[start_today 770]

You'd be missing out on the education that goes along with actually being in school. High School sucks in a lot of ways, and college certainly isn't the answer for everyone, but your diploma looks a little better if you do regular in school classes. Yes, there are lots of exceptions to this.

I taught for four years, and worked with a lot of students who ended up taking cyber classes for a variety of reasons. Some kids were pretty successful with it, some completely bombed. If you have the work ethic to dedicate yourself to making sure you get the work done every day, you'll probably be ok. If you can never bring yourself to do homework and can't focus outside of a school setting, you might be better off just finishing off the next nine months.

When you're in school from 7:00 to 3:00, you're more or less forced to do the work. You don't have the option of sleeping in, playing xbox, going to the hockey rink. If you're taking homeschool or cyber classes, you have to really train yourself to give up that other stuff for a couple hours, even if it's right at your fingertips. That's hard for a lot of people, particularly high school age kids.

[mxihockey 0]

I should also add that I'm not just looking for a way to get out of school, I'm an A/B student in all Honors classes. I would just like to finish high school before I move away to play Juniors. I would take 2 college courses while I was playing there, and then after one or two years hopefully play College Hockey. I'm currently in grade 11. Also, the kids on my team that take their classes online are all from your area, I guess it's really common in Pittsburgh.

[sitzlejd 0]

My sister did online school (she's works for a trainer at the horse track and decided to go online so she could do the morning workouts). I don't know if the education was any better or worse. The public school she went to was terrible to begin with so it was probably a wash.

Unfortunately, she went the route that start_today described and ended up taking much longer to graduate. It sounds like you've identified some pretty specific goals for yourself, which hopefully will keep you focused. If you can handle the freedom I think it sounds like a viable option.

[kovyperron5727 0]

I just started doing US Government online to get ahead. It definetly requires some dedication on the users part

[mack 44]

I didn't do it online but I graduated early. I went straight to college and in hindsight, a year off may have done me well as I came close to burning out as I went ahead and finished early with that as well. I think a challenge with getting done early is getting back in the mindset to go to college if that's what you want to do.

[87vert 0]

I should also add that I'm not just looking for a way to get out of school, I'm an A/B student in all Honors classes. I would just like to finish high school before I move away to play Juniors. I would take 2 college courses while I was playing there, and then after one or two years hopefully play College Hockey. I'm currently in grade 11. Also, the kids on my team that take their classes online are all from your area, I guess it's really common in Pittsburgh.

They offer a complete online high school here. http://www.pacyber.org/

Congrats on trying to get ahead and finish early.

[RecLeagueHero 0]

There seems to be a fairly strong stigma attached to diplomas earned outside of a public/private traditional high school. I know in this area it's fairly common for kids that just aren't cutting it in regular high schools to be shuffled off to an "alternative" high school or online programs. Obviously that's not your situation, but you might want to consider how such a diploma is going to be looked viewed.

[mxihockey 0]

It looks like I'm going to be enrolling in the diploma program at the University of Nebraska High School. It's fully accredited and will allow me to graduate early. It will also help out with my schedule right now because I've been missing about 2 days a week at my public school due to playing in the NAHPL.