Stanford's New Online High School

Stanford University opens the virtual doors this fall to the first online gifted high school. They will offer courses to 30 sophomores, juniors, and seniors admitted through their spring 2006 application process.

The Education Program for Gifted Youth Online High School (EPGY-OHS) is a "three-year, fully-accredited, diploma-granting, online, independent high school," and when it's at full capacity, it will enroll a total of 300 students from across the United States and around the world.

Students can also opt for a "joint-enrollment program," and still be able to take half of their courses through their hometown high schools, and the other half through OHS. EPGY-OHS is designed for gifted students.

A sample schedule for an eleventh-grade student who "majors" in natural sciences might look like this:

  • AP Calculus
  • AP Physics
  • AP U.S. History
  • Core: Grammar, Rhetoric, Argument
  • Chinese II
  • Another junior focusing on the humanities might take   Pre-calculus
  • AP Chemistry
  • AP U.S. History
  • Core: Grammar, Rhetoric, Argument
  • Latin II
  • AP Music Theory

Who is their prospective student? According to their website it will be "Gifted students who would otherwise enter college without high school diplomas, in rural areas or overseas, who are home schooled, in Title I schools, who are satisfied with some aspects of their local schools, but who want a more intensive academic program in certain subjects, or students interested in serious academic pursuits divergent from the standard high school curriculum."

There is an eight-page application (that looks like a college application) requiring transcripts, test scores, a $50.00 application fee, plus information regarding former online classes, summer programs taken, academic competitions, extra-curricular activities, community service hours, and essay responses to biographical inquiries. Financial aid is available.

Most of the regular EPGY courses have weekly sessions in the "EPGY Virtual Classroom" (I really wish NJIT would push their trademark on "Virtual Classroom®"). They use voice and shared whiteboard conferencing software to create a real-time interactive environment.

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