22B, it's just me, probably...

but with a child who is just now, what-- six? seven?

I wouldn't be too concerned with choosing a college just yet. Two reasons for that.


1. You really don't know-- yet-- what that track of mathematics to calculus will look like. My DD seemed to be on that same track when she was 5-7yo. We figured that she might well be finished with calculus by 12yo. This was based on what I know now to be a pair of false assumptions on our part-- a) that pre-algebra on would involve the SAME level of cognitive demand and reviewing of material (it doesn't), and b) that she would continue to sail once she encountered genuine challenge in mathematics (she hasn't-- and the perfectionism set up in K-5 mathematics is partly WHY she hasn't, because she tends to regard being challenged as a sign that there is a problem, and that it is probably with HER). All of that to say that the child you have before you is VERY different from the one that you'll have at 14. We try to keep OPTIONS open, that's all. DD is reasonably well positioned to apply to Harvard or another Ivy, but doesn't want to.

2. You can't even BEGIN to predict what higher ed will be in ten years, what it will cost (not really, because things are probably reaching some tipping point), or for that matter what a "typical" or even "elite" path is going to look like. You also may not be able to predict what your own state will be demanding for a high school diploma, if it's anything like ours. The one thing to be cautious about is that you have enough math for FOUR YEARS of it to appear on a high school transcript somehow.
But-- as noted, I would not be concerned with this until your child is through with pre-algebra and maybe algebra I.


The other thing that I'm going to offer (both as another v-school parent and also as a STEM educator) is that this model is VERY poor in some respects, and high-school level STEM is at the very top of my list. The actual didactic instruction at the high school level is very much less than in a college setting, even-- and this is flatly not appropriate for most learners of any LOG. Basically, this means that your child may be in a position of learning calculus exclusively from whatever textbook is supplied (if there is one-- truly not kidding about that, btw), and from YouTube videos.

The biggest hurdle you may face in gaining admission to an elite (or any particular) college is in convincing the institution that the lab coursework taken in a "virtual" school is authentic enough to "count" as a prerequisite. Mostly, it's not, in my personal opinion.

But at any rate, all of that is a long way off. It's good to be thinking about things in a general way, but I've learned over the years not to plan more than a year or so into the future. I could not have really predicted my DD's current situation with math when she was 7yo.


Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.