Don’t want to take a math or science AP class? Want a high-level stimulating course that gives you college credits? The answer to this dilemma began last year in the CollegeNow program offered by Yeshiva University. Officially for high school juniors and seniors, these online college-level courses are stimulating and exciting.
CollegeNow describes itself as a program with which “students can learn more and save more.” Each course gives the student three college credits and the cost is only $500 dollars, which is “roughly 80 percent off the typical tuition cost,” according to Joseph Hirsch, YU’s CollegeNow coordinator. The credits are transferable to other colleges. Three out of four of the classes being offered this coming year are Judaic Studies (Jews in medieval Spain, interpersonal relationships in Halacha and introduction to Jewish philosophy). There is also one secular course offered, intro to psychology, an alternative to the AP version.
I took two of those CollegeNow courses this past year, in my senior year of high school, and enjoyed them very much. YU did not shirk its responsibility in this new program, and has some of their greatest professors and rabbis teaching these online courses. During the fall semester I took a challenging and stimulating class given by Professor Ronnie Perelis on Jews in medieval Spain. The workload was demanding (in a good way) and I developed many skills in using primary sources and analyzing them, writing and historical analysis. The second course I took, during the spring semester, was with Rabbi Daniel Feldman on interpersonal relationships in Halacha. It was fascinating and informative. Both professors gave me constructive feedback on my work and I felt that I was learning from them even though it was online. I remember one time I went to the Met with my high school class and visited the Yerushalayim exhibit. Many things about the relationship between Jews, Christians and Muslims that I had learned with Professor Perelis were discussed in the exhibit (e.g., the people of Yerushalayim came from Sephardic lands during certain time periods). I shared my excitement about the connection between the Jews of medieval Spain course and the Met exhibit with Dr. Perelis, and he responded. I felt as though the student-teacher relationship was strong and real, even though we communicated only online.
The online aspect of the course was helpful; I could do the work at a convenient time for me, during free periods in school or at home. CollegeNow promised that flexibility when it stated that one of its goals is to “help students jump-start their college career by earning credits in a highly collaborative, flexible learning environment.” To be honest, the fact that it was online first scared me because I’m not very tech-savvy. But CollegeNow has constant technical assistance and the teachers were understanding that this was an online course. If I was confused about something, they didn’t penalize me. Canvas, the platform YU used, was straightforward, and YU provided a tutorial on how to use it, so problems rarely came up.
Every week of the course starts a fresh module with new assignments. Although each of the teachers I took had slightly different styles, both courses followed a pattern where I had a sufficient amount of work to make it feel like a real college class, without being overwhelmed. There were a couple of assignments in which we had to collaborate with our fellow online students, a real challenge when you can’t speak face to face, but it ended up being productive. Both courses had final projects that I really enjoyed doing.
CollegeNow describes the ideal student as “hard-working, intellectually curious, and a great time manager.” If that describes you, and you are a high school junior or senior, you should definitely sign up in addition to or instead of your APs. Even if it doesn’t describe you, why not try the course to see if you can challenge yourself? The courses are a real treat for all those who want to join. CollegeNow is part of YU’s initiative to expand online options. As Joseph Hirsch explains, “with support from the AVI CHAI Foundation, YU set out to expand its online offerings and make it possible to access the richness of its academic community without having to set foot on campus.” For more information visit www.yu.edu/college-now or email [email protected].
Bergenfield’s Sara Schapiro is a recent graduate of Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for girls and and an incoming freshman at Stern College for Women.
By Sara Schapiro
