You Can't Get into College with an Online High School Diploma (and Other Myths about Online High School)

Parents who decide on online school often stress about making a four-year commitment. Where do extracurricular activities fit in? Will the high school curriculum be rigorous enough to prepare my kids for college or employment? There’s no law that binds parents to online high school for any set amount of time. You may decide to try online learning for two years, try out traditional schooling for one year, and resume online learning the next year. Your state may even allow you to go online during one semester and enroll your kids in traditional school the next. Speak to an academic counselor or research the laws in your state to learn about your options.

Read more: Online High School vs. In-Person High School: What Should Parents Know?

There’s a world of advanced courses, volunteer work, internships, and other experiences open to teens. If anything, online high school can give kids more freedom to seize these opportunities. While their peers are bound by a daily 7-to-3 routine, teens in online high school can gain job experience, study abroad, take private lessons, and have more control over their future. Many online students enter college with multiple credit hours already completed! They also might be eligible to participate in traditional high school band, choir, sports, and other activities by simply calling local high schools and submitting the proper paperwork.

Read more: How to Stay Motivated and Graduate High School Online

One big myth about online high school is that it’s easy – too easy. However, legitimate online high schools have to follow the same standard curriculum as a traditional public high school. That means students still are expected to learn English, history, math, and science. And, because accredited online schools need to meet certain standards to remain accredited, the curriculum is regularly evaluated to make sure that students get what they should from high school classes.

Andy Shean, chief learning officer at Penn Foster Group, says of our curriculum, “At Penn Foster, we're really moving quickly to adapt, and we really already are there in a lot of ways but we're moving quickly toward a skills-based curriculum and pragmatic offering.”

Read more: Talking to Your Parents about Transferring to Online School

Just because you’re enrolled in online classes doesn’t mean you won’t have opportunities to make friends or connect with other students. While there aren’t in-person clubs or activities, you can take advantage of social media as an online student. That means joining your school’s Facebook groups and following their social media pages.

Read more: How to Choose an Online High School

One of the biggest things people worry about with online schools is whether or not a diploma from one is legitimate. The easiest way to make sure the diploma program is legitimate is to check out their accreditation.

Accreditation ensures that the curriculum meets certain standards so that students are learning what they should be. High schools should have regional accreditation to be considered legit, and additional accreditations and recognitions are a bonus! This includes your local public high school.

Penn Foster’s High School Diploma is regionally accredited through the Commission on Secondary Schools of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools and Cognia and nationally accredited by the Distance Education Accrediting Commission.

Read more: Are Online High School Diplomas Legitimate?

Nope! Online high school can be a really flexible option to earn your diploma on your schedule. Programs like Penn Foster’s High School Diploma are self-paced, with no set start times or due dates. That means you can get started whenever you’re ready, log in to study and take tests day or night, and earn your diploma around your other responsibilities and commitments.

Penn Foster High School graduate Sydney Zaremba Woodward shares her experience: "I took all the time. I had doctors’ appointments and stuff. I would just be like, you know, today's not a school day. I'll do it tomorrow. And I just put it away and it was such an ease that I didn't have to do it at a certain time."

Read more: How Wyatt Used Penn Foster High School Online to Graduate Early

One big worry with online high schools is that they won’t help you reach your goals and that your diploma won’t get you into college. With a legitimate program, that shouldn’t be something you worry about. While every school has its own admissions requirements and considers different things when reviewing applications, in general, as long as you graduated from a licensed, accredited high school, where you got your diploma shouldn’t hold you back.

Jailey Hall, a Penn Foster graduate, enrolled in our high school with the intent to start college early. "I wanted to start college this fall in August,” she said. “So I had to make sure that I finished before the deadline started to enroll and I figured I would be at school all day anyway if I was in person. So I didn't have any issues with just spending all day on Penn Foster."

Check out some of the colleges that Penn Foster graduates have been accepted to for a better idea of how many schools do, in fact, admit students with online high school diplomas.

Read more: 6 Advantages of Having A High School Diploma

Just like with colleges, potential employers may have different things they look for when hiring. However, in general, where you got your diploma from isn’t one of them as long as you went to a legitimate school. Most jobs just want to see that you do have a diploma, so finishing high school online can only help you when you’re searching for a new career.

Read more: Overcoming Adversity: 5 Inspiring Stories from Penn Foster’s Graduate of the Year Finalists

You may have heard that a good online school is still probably too expensive, but that’s not necessarily true! For example, Penn Foster High School is meant to be affordable and offers low-cost monthly payment options so you can fit earning your diploma into your budget. Alex Thome, Vice President of Penn Foster High School, shares, “By and large, our learners are resource constrained with money and time...so we work to keep our program as affordable as possible and worth their time."

There are some free high school diploma options online, too, but it’s important to remember that most of the legitimate free high schools are charter schools or virtual programs offered by your state and intended for traditional students who are 14-18 years old. When searching for online schools, make sure you watch out for any programs that claim you can get a free diploma as an adult, or ones that say you just have to take a test to get your high school diploma. Most of those aren’t legit and you can get burned by trying to earn your diploma quickly.

Just like a “regular” high school, you don’t have to necessarily start all over again when you start an online high school program. If you have completed classes and earned credits at an accredited school in the past, those credits could transfer into your Penn Foster program. That means you can pick up where you left off and finish the classes you need to graduate.

Read more: Your Guide to Credit Recovery for High School

While online high schools usually do involve a lot of reading, there are usually other forms of media also utilized. At Penn Foster, we recognize that every student learns differently. In addition to reading material, we also supply videos, webinars, and office hours with instructors to ensure students have every opportunity to learn what they need to.

Online high school is meant to be independent, allowing students to learn at their own pace. That doesn’t mean, however, that you’re all alone if you run into a problem or aren’t sure about something you’re learning. With Penn Foster High School, you’ll have access to instructors, student services, and other online resources to help you!

Brian Brown, academic manager of Penn Foster High School, emphasizes, "We want to help you, call us... you're not going to have [bad experiences] here."

Read more: 15 Tips for Online Learning (Your Guide to Taking Online Classes)

Want to learn more about Penn Foster High School or take the next steps toward earning your diploma online? Reach out to our expert Admissions Specialists today at 1-888-427-6500 or request info to learn more about transfer credits, tuition, and getting started.