How competitive is it to get into the Stanford online HS? Any advice about applying? Any suggestions about alternatives? My child is in a rigorous private school with lots of discussion and intellectual interaction. He is looking to pursue a sport at a higher level and would like to take a year or more off of traditional school to train. I’m worried that he will not be satisfied with the standard online school resources such as Connections Academy.

My 2nd son applied to Stanford and Davidson for this current school year. He was at an 1100 SAT (7th grader age 12) and that doesn't meet their requirements so denied at Davidson. He is gifted certified and in the 125 range for IQ. Technically was a 6th grader as most his age/birthdate are in 6th grade. Stanford he also didn't get accepted into.

He is at a rigorous private school as an 8th grader now taking all 9th-11th grade classes, straight A's and is an All American ranked baseball player nationally. Super outgoing and is a leader in his daily life. Clearly this isn't what either school were looking for. Not sure what they do look for to be honest. We would not move him from brick and mortar unless it was a top online program and only 2 fit the bill, of which he was rejected from both. We wanted it mostly to give him more time to train for baseball and not waste time during the day as school is very inefficient. I asked why he didn't get in at Stanford and got a vague useless answer. At Davidson they told me he needed to be at 1300 or so and he was short.

We won't apply again and will stay the track with private school for him. His schedule is very stuffed but we make it work. Next 2 years of HS he will stay in private school and his last 2 years he will do full time dual enrollment at a college in GA and that will get us our balanced schedule. So 2 more years after this one.

One other idea is Laurel Springs Academy. Two of my other kids have done summer school classes there and the curriculum matched well with enhanced content over their private school. Was impressed. They also have a gifted academy inside it. The downside and reason we haven't considered it is the classes are not synchronous (eg. led by teachers life) and it is more self study. Both Davidson and Stanford are synchronous and we felt that was key to academic development.

Good luck

We did not get into Stanford online... my DD meets davidson criteria (145+ FS IQ) and had 1480 on her SSAT - very academically motivated. Lots of (in my opinion) interesting extra-curricula rs and solid recs. Not sure what they are looking for.... in the end she ended up doing courses through CTY online and we have been happy with them.