Stanford's EPGY courses

[SS in MD]

Hi all,

Have any of your dc taken courses thru' Stanford's EPY https://epgy.stanford.edu/overview/index.html? If they have what courses would you recommend or avoid? Are they really worth all the $$$? The only way we could afford these classes would be with financial aid. I'm specifically interested in the W11A-W11C Expository Writing for our oldest dd (14 yo)- https://epgy.stanford.edu/courses/english/W011/ - has anyone had experience in these?

Do dc typically take 3 classes per year (1 per quarter?)

 

Any advice on these classes or EPGY experience as a whole would be very much appreciated!

Thanks!

Sangita

[Charles Wallace]

Hi all,

Have any of your dc taken courses thru' Stanford's EPY https://epgy.stanford.edu/overview/index.html? If they have what courses would you recommend or avoid? Are they really worth all the $$$? The only way we could afford these classes would be with financial aid. I'm specifically interested in the W11A-W11C Expository Writing for our oldest dd (14 yo)- https://epgy.stanford.edu/courses/english/W011/ - has anyone had experience in these?

Do dc typically take 3 classes per year (1 per quarter?)

 

Any advice on these classes or EPGY experience as a whole would be very much appreciated!

Thanks!

Sangita

 

This is secondhand information, but I have heard many negative reviews about their writing program -- enough so that I would be very dubious about signing up for any writing classes.

[Tiramisu]

Dd did one of the writing classes. I applied for financial aid and was surprised when we got a great deal. For that reason, it was worth trying it. Overall, the instruction was okay, but I think that dd would not have got as much out of it without my help. Your mileage may vary.

 

We decided not to take another course because dd really felt uncomfortable about some of the literature choices. (She's very sensitive.) I also thought I'd rather have dd spend her time reading different things, and when I looked at what would be read in the next class in the sequence we decided to drop it. I was good for a time, but I've had no regrets about changing course.

 

Before we started EPGY, I got feedback from someone about teachers. We happened to get the teacher that I was told did not use visuals or interact with students as much as others. If dd had had another teacher perhaps our experience would have been different, but we would have still had the problem of the depressing stories.

 

FWIW, I really like home2teach.com for writing class. I think they've been more helpful for dd than EPGY.

[Musicmom]

We haven't done any of the writing courses, so no input there. But ds did the Intro to C Programming series (very worthwhile, good tutor), Honors Precalculus (good--prepared him well for SAT II Math Level 2), Calculus A, B, and C (very good, but very time-consuming), Multivariable Differential Calculus (very good), and AP Physics C--Mechanics (not so good--they're rewriting it.)

 

I don't know how it is for writing, but I wouldn't attempt more than one class at a time. Some of them can be extremely time-consuming just because of the way they're set up. Calculus A, for example, was taking ds 5 hours a day, and it had a final that took him 3 solid days to complete. Calculus B and the Physics were also time-consuming and the Physics scheduling was very confusing. The university level courses (Calc C and Multivariable) were much more straightforward and more reasonable on time. Calculus C threw us a curve ball though--it was billed as a 12 week course and we found out after getting into it that it was actually a 16 week course. Ds had to put in a lot of extra time--no spring break--and work into June in order to finish.

 

One of the very best courses he took was the Intro to C programming--it was a lot more than learning C. It was beginning computer science and taught a solid base of programming skills. He did all 3 courses during the summer when he had a lot of time--doing them in one tuition period of 12 weeks--so that was a good deal financially.

 

Overall, most of the tutors were very good--some were quicker to respond than others, however.

 

I know you were asking mostly about writing, but hope this helps somewhat.

[Joan in GE]

Some of them can be extremely time-consuming just because of the way they're set up. Calculus A, for example, was taking ds 5 hours a day, and it had a final that took him 3 solid days to complete. Calculus B and the Physics were also time-consuming and the Physics scheduling was very confusing. The university level courses (Calc C and Multivariable) were much more straightforward and more reasonable on time. Calculus C threw us a curve ball though--it was billed as a 12 week course and we found out after getting into it that it was actually a 16 week course. Ds had to put in a lot of extra time--no spring break--and work into June in order to finish.

 

One of the very best courses he took was the Intro to C programming--it was a lot more than learning C. It was beginning computer science and taught a solid base of programming skills. He did all 3 courses during the summer when he had a lot of time--doing them in one tuition period of 12 weeks--so that was a good deal financially.

 

Overall, most of the tutors were very good--some were quicker to respond than others, however.

 

I know you were asking mostly about writing, but hope this helps somewhat.

 

Helpful info! Thanks.

 

Joan

[SS in MD]

Thank you all for your insight regarding EPGY! I appreciate it. I was also thinking of dd taking the beginning C programing class, but dh thinks it may not be wise to spend $$$ if she finds she's not interested in programming.... he thinks we should find a boxed curriculum and see how dd likes that.

Thanks!