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I'm a rising senior OHSer--the following are my thoughts after my first year. I came in intending to focus, and I got a lot more focused. At this point, I'm not sure if OHS helps people to focus more or if focused people are attracted to OHS or if OHSers could generally be much more focused--probably a mix of all three.
The flexibility of taking courses through OHS also probably means your mileage will vary--but if you're smart, able to work hard and work with/connect with your brilliant peers, then I think you can get just as much out of it as I am--and more. I really love and have focused on math and a couple sciences--so this answer will necessarily be incomplete.
When you're in class or later on the Internet then it becomes easy to forget the strangeness of having so much of your life online. It rapidly became enjoyable for me--even with the added costs of tech issues and the hassle of scheduling proctors. My impression is that not enough OHSers (me included, last year) get outside or exercise or interact socially--by and large everyone is super busy. However, I also know people who have figured out these problems and many others sufficiently. Working out these issues early on also seems like a really good idea to me, since self-direction is essential for a lot of lines of work.
Class is sort of like Skype with a bunch of extra features. Professors can go through PowerPoints, there's a textchat for use throughout class, and a general-purpose whiteboard that everyone can access during brainstorming. The professor usually has their camera on, and the speaker at any given moment is given audio and video--although this might change when we switch to Adobe Connect this year (I expect it will mostly feel the same). You can raise your hand, laugh, applaud, and signal approval or disapproval with icons--these really add to the feedback system in class, but still seem a poor substitute for facial expressions.
<anecdote> When our conferencing software, Saba/Centra, totally and crazily broke down last year--many could not access their classes for a while and we got all kinds of spontaneous funny video effects "for free"--it was known as the Sabapocalypse. </anecdote>
One perk of the online classroom is that you have all the time you need to compose your thoughts or even just to double-check some facts you wanted to mention. This doesn't mean people never make mistakes or say silly things on the mic--everyone can fact-check everyone else too--but I would say that some people are held back by their shyness. Although your audience sometimes seems intimidating, in practice they're quite forgiving.
The professors I had last year were amazing--especially in math and biology. Most of the instructors have PhDs, and/or equivalently awesome qualifications
(e.g. the calculus professor I had last year runs the Stanford Math Circle). That the instructors have actually done high-level work in their own fields seems to show up a lot in their teaching--and they are very willing to share their domain rationality and knowledge. I was also impressed by how willing professors were to answer questions and admit when they didn't know something (right before directing you to a couple books or sites!).
Last year, several OHS professors actually attended a seminar on learning and the brain--the highlights of recent scientific research--and came back to share what they had learned with students and (especially) the faculty. Around 20 people came to hear them, ask a lot of questions (including about problems with the research) and figure out ways to incorporate the findings. Taking advantage of neuroscience to optimize education--imagine that!
All the professors (AFAIK) hold office hours and are willing to meet privately if they can work it into their schedules. These are a lot of fun if you have time (especially with those professors who can't help proving things if you ask), and useful if you need help (maybe also an easier place to ask dumb questions).
One side effect of having such overly qualified and available professors is that most of the limits you encounter seem like your own fault--which is probably useful for later work, but sometimes quite stressful.
By far one of the most important aspects of OHS is--other OHSers! If you're the smartest one in the room, you need to find another room. OHS is an awesome answer to that call--gifted kids all around the world (though clustered somewhat in California) many of whom will be more advanced than you in any given discipline--or more than one!--and probably pulling it off more gracefully (and maybe a few years younger than you too). That said, the atmosphere is decidedly non-competitive--my guess is that battling against yourself to be better is enough work already--and students are generally welcoming and empathetic. Even more than that, there is a distinct kind of respect that comes from not at all assuming you're smarter than the person you're talking to--everyone's high-powered enough to learn from and curious enough to give it a try.
It's important not to get too intimidated or too obsessed with sizing yourself up--luckily many other students have been engaged in non-conventional kinds of education most of their lives.
You can get into whatever classes you can pass the placement test or prereqs for--and even then it is difficult to exhaust the curriculum. You learn to stop paying attention to age or grade-level.
My impression is that useful and deep social interaction at OHS is pretty difficult for many (maybe most) students. Class is generally very focused and all communication has to be worth a pass in front of everyone's eyes. One of the things that bothers me most is that I'm not sure how many brilliant and interesting OHSers are just too shy or not motivated enough to reach out.
That said, there are a lot of clubs on Fridays--in fact the whole day is reserved for club meetings. Last year, for example, I attended a neuroscience club, two physics clubs and two math clubs. It's much easier to find people with common interests at these--although some are more academic or presentation-based than others.
The most regular way people interact is on Skype (yes, even during classes) either one-on-one or in discussion groups. I have found the discussion groups (besides the ones specifically devoted to some classes) to be far from the rigor of any class and pretty unproductive--but I've only been in a couple. Skyping with someone for an hour has been more rewarding. Note that you might be up at strange hours to talk to friends.
Meetups are held regionally, and I've gotten a lot out of them--last year I met up for MIT Splash! and made a couple really good friends.
Besides these there is Summer Session, which I have not been to, which is supposed to be an amazing opportunity to meet peers and connect. Every summer, a lot of OHSers flock to Stanford for a couple weeks (there's also graduation a couple months before).
Generally, I think the OHS is missing hallways or some kind of hallway-equivalent--where you can just bump into people or quickly ask them what they're up to or check what books they're reading.
OHSers are still teenagers--so there's still a lot of signaling, but it's not particularly mean or dramatic, usually just nerdy.
I haven't written much about the courses that are available (even though this was one of the main attractions for me) because it didn't seem directly relevant to this question--but the course catalog is really worth checking out. As mentioned before, your courseware will be as challenging as you can handle. For example, in math, you won't have the experience of hitting a ceiling--there's plenty of courseware to go through (multivariable calculus, linear algebra, differential equations, real analysis, complex analysis, number theory... I can empathize if your mouth is watering).
One last thing to mention is that you get access to all of Stanford's online resources! This means everything from scientific papers to JSTOR and old archives are suddenly available to you--which is just awesome for research.
Edit: see this page for the experiences of other students.
See Questions On Quora
Continue reading...
I'm a rising senior OHSer--the following are my thoughts after my first year. I came in intending to focus, and I got a lot more focused. At this point, I'm not sure if OHS helps people to focus more or if focused people are attracted to OHS or if OHSers could generally be much more focused--probably a mix of all three.
The flexibility of taking courses through OHS also probably means your mileage will vary--but if you're smart, able to work hard and work with/connect with your brilliant peers, then I think you can get just as much out of it as I am--and more. I really love and have focused on math and a couple sciences--so this answer will necessarily be incomplete.
When you're in class or later on the Internet then it becomes easy to forget the strangeness of having so much of your life online. It rapidly became enjoyable for me--even with the added costs of tech issues and the hassle of scheduling proctors. My impression is that not enough OHSers (me included, last year) get outside or exercise or interact socially--by and large everyone is super busy. However, I also know people who have figured out these problems and many others sufficiently. Working out these issues early on also seems like a really good idea to me, since self-direction is essential for a lot of lines of work.
Class is sort of like Skype with a bunch of extra features. Professors can go through PowerPoints, there's a textchat for use throughout class, and a general-purpose whiteboard that everyone can access during brainstorming. The professor usually has their camera on, and the speaker at any given moment is given audio and video--although this might change when we switch to Adobe Connect this year (I expect it will mostly feel the same). You can raise your hand, laugh, applaud, and signal approval or disapproval with icons--these really add to the feedback system in class, but still seem a poor substitute for facial expressions.
<anecdote> When our conferencing software, Saba/Centra, totally and crazily broke down last year--many could not access their classes for a while and we got all kinds of spontaneous funny video effects "for free"--it was known as the Sabapocalypse. </anecdote>
One perk of the online classroom is that you have all the time you need to compose your thoughts or even just to double-check some facts you wanted to mention. This doesn't mean people never make mistakes or say silly things on the mic--everyone can fact-check everyone else too--but I would say that some people are held back by their shyness. Although your audience sometimes seems intimidating, in practice they're quite forgiving.
The professors I had last year were amazing--especially in math and biology. Most of the instructors have PhDs, and/or equivalently awesome qualifications
(e.g. the calculus professor I had last year runs the Stanford Math Circle). That the instructors have actually done high-level work in their own fields seems to show up a lot in their teaching--and they are very willing to share their domain rationality and knowledge. I was also impressed by how willing professors were to answer questions and admit when they didn't know something (right before directing you to a couple books or sites!).
Last year, several OHS professors actually attended a seminar on learning and the brain--the highlights of recent scientific research--and came back to share what they had learned with students and (especially) the faculty. Around 20 people came to hear them, ask a lot of questions (including about problems with the research) and figure out ways to incorporate the findings. Taking advantage of neuroscience to optimize education--imagine that!
All the professors (AFAIK) hold office hours and are willing to meet privately if they can work it into their schedules. These are a lot of fun if you have time (especially with those professors who can't help proving things if you ask), and useful if you need help (maybe also an easier place to ask dumb questions).
One side effect of having such overly qualified and available professors is that most of the limits you encounter seem like your own fault--which is probably useful for later work, but sometimes quite stressful.
By far one of the most important aspects of OHS is--other OHSers! If you're the smartest one in the room, you need to find another room. OHS is an awesome answer to that call--gifted kids all around the world (though clustered somewhat in California) many of whom will be more advanced than you in any given discipline--or more than one!--and probably pulling it off more gracefully (and maybe a few years younger than you too). That said, the atmosphere is decidedly non-competitive--my guess is that battling against yourself to be better is enough work already--and students are generally welcoming and empathetic. Even more than that, there is a distinct kind of respect that comes from not at all assuming you're smarter than the person you're talking to--everyone's high-powered enough to learn from and curious enough to give it a try.
It's important not to get too intimidated or too obsessed with sizing yourself up--luckily many other students have been engaged in non-conventional kinds of education most of their lives.
You can get into whatever classes you can pass the placement test or prereqs for--and even then it is difficult to exhaust the curriculum. You learn to stop paying attention to age or grade-level.
My impression is that useful and deep social interaction at OHS is pretty difficult for many (maybe most) students. Class is generally very focused and all communication has to be worth a pass in front of everyone's eyes. One of the things that bothers me most is that I'm not sure how many brilliant and interesting OHSers are just too shy or not motivated enough to reach out.
That said, there are a lot of clubs on Fridays--in fact the whole day is reserved for club meetings. Last year, for example, I attended a neuroscience club, two physics clubs and two math clubs. It's much easier to find people with common interests at these--although some are more academic or presentation-based than others.
The most regular way people interact is on Skype (yes, even during classes) either one-on-one or in discussion groups. I have found the discussion groups (besides the ones specifically devoted to some classes) to be far from the rigor of any class and pretty unproductive--but I've only been in a couple. Skyping with someone for an hour has been more rewarding. Note that you might be up at strange hours to talk to friends.
Meetups are held regionally, and I've gotten a lot out of them--last year I met up for MIT Splash! and made a couple really good friends.
Besides these there is Summer Session, which I have not been to, which is supposed to be an amazing opportunity to meet peers and connect. Every summer, a lot of OHSers flock to Stanford for a couple weeks (there's also graduation a couple months before).
Generally, I think the OHS is missing hallways or some kind of hallway-equivalent--where you can just bump into people or quickly ask them what they're up to or check what books they're reading.
OHSers are still teenagers--so there's still a lot of signaling, but it's not particularly mean or dramatic, usually just nerdy.
I haven't written much about the courses that are available (even though this was one of the main attractions for me) because it didn't seem directly relevant to this question--but the course catalog is really worth checking out. As mentioned before, your courseware will be as challenging as you can handle. For example, in math, you won't have the experience of hitting a ceiling--there's plenty of courseware to go through (multivariable calculus, linear algebra, differential equations, real analysis, complex analysis, number theory... I can empathize if your mouth is watering).
One last thing to mention is that you get access to all of Stanford's online resources! This means everything from scientific papers to JSTOR and old archives are suddenly available to you--which is just awesome for research.
Edit: see this page for the experiences of other students.
See Questions On Quora
Continue reading...
