iQ Academy is set to open an online high school this fall. Already available in Wisconsin and Arizona, the article asserts that:

Those who have benefitted elsewhere, however, are previously home-schooled students, athletes and students busy with other school commitments, students with special needs and ones seeking advanced placement courses or courses not available in their local school district.

The school has planned open houses for this weekend for those interested in seeking further information. iQ Academy is a division of KC Distance Learning.

See the article in the Hays Daily News.

People have many reasons for choosing an online high school. For teens, one of the more common reasons is that you do something better than a lot of other people. Take, for example, Erin Vierra, who is a student at University of Miami Online High School. As it happens, she excells in tennis. She is ranked #1 for the under-16s in the New England region (and, let me assure you, they play serious tennis in New England!).

However, getting to be ranked #1 means that traditional public school attendance will, at best, be difficult. This is why Erin and other student-athletes elect to go online for high school. It frees up the days for your sport, but you can still get a quality education.

For the entire article in the Norwell (MA) Mariner, see Local Tennis Star Thrives.

Today we begin a new column for Online High blog. It’s called Ask BOHS and you can ask us anything that you might like about online high schools and such. In return, we will answer the questions here (while helping you retain your privacy). The first question is below.
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I am a 27-year-old Canadian living in Korea. I have wanted to go back to school for some time now. Unfortunately, since I never finished high school and I live overseas, it’s proving not to be the easiest thing to do. Can you tell me what my best options would be? Would it be best to do the dual credit schools you mention? Would that give me a better stepping stone. I would like to continue my education overseas.

Sincerely,

AR

People are often surprised when I recommend certain programs and not others. What is the right choice for one person is not necessarily the right choice for another. In your case, let’s look at some of the facts:

1. You are 27 years old.
2. You live abroad.
3. You plan on completing a college degree.
4. You want to do the college degree overseas as well.

Given those parameters, I think you are exactly right that, given your age and your situation, a dual credit program like MU High School (at University of Missouri, Columbia) would be a good choice for you. Even if you elected to go elsewhere after getting the high school diploma, the college credit should easily transfer.

I should tell you that in the second edition of Complete Guide to Online High Schools: Distance learning options for teens & adults we will be including we are going to add a chapter on dual credit programs. This seems to be a growth area and for people in your particular situation it often is a good choice.

If you a student looking for an online high school, you missed finding out about the University of Miami Online High School in today’s Online High School Digest.

If you are an online high school, you missed the opportunity to see your competition (again that University of Miami Online High School) get a coveted place in the Online High School Digest.

And it didn’t need to happen. All you need to do is sign up for the newsletter on this website. It’s off to the left.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

I would like to point out that we have a brand-new interview with Liberty High School. It is located in Vermont (and elsewhere) and is approved by the Vermont State Board of Education. School interviews are a new feature of BestOnlineHighSchools.com.

Liberty High School interview

While I know this blog is primarily about online high schools, I read this short article in Parade Magazine last weekend and the title was, wait for it, Why It’s Tougher to Get into College.

Because of those darn baby boomers, there are 800,000 more high school graduates this year than there was just ten years ago. Oh yeah, and that 4.0 may not cut it. There was a time that should have enabled you admittance to almost anywhere.

Princeton University this spring rejected 4,200 students. Actually, truth be known, they rejected significantly more than that. The 4,200 are just those who had a 4.0 GPA. This is not uncommon for big name schools. Regardless of GPA, UCLA turned down 38,000 applicants.

So, this tells me that you need more than a good GPA. What does it tell you?

Allied National High School has a blog. In these days of bloggyness, it seems everyone has one, but actually many online high schools do not. Online high schools, here’s a clue: Having a blog and posting to it regularly pushes you up the Google ranking foodchain. If you have ever wondered how Allied gets a higher Google ranking than you, that’s a good place to start.

So is there a connection between having a blog and providing a quality education? I don’t know. However, given that blogs tend to be on that Internet thing and online high schools tend to be on that Internet thing, it’s a fairly safe bet.

Also and importantly for you students out there, Allied has an article up on its blog on why you should choose an online high school. Worth a read.