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For many MIT-bound high school students, the last year of high school is a waste of time. In addition, many students come in with AP credit for a semester's or year's worth of calculus, physics, biology, and/or chemistry. Perhaps MIT could accept some students a year earlier and have them start their MIT experience online during their last year of high school. This would be the time for them to tackle a semester- or year-long project that would earn credit for several course requirements. The tuition for that year could be much lower, saving the students money, while the experience could catapult them past the typical freshman year and into a much deeper experience once they arrive on campus as sophomores (or second-semester sophomores in some cases). They, in turn, would help TA an online project for at-home freshmen once they were at MIT the following year, keeping costs down for the Institute and furthering the connections among the students at home and on campus.

For high school students who would need to take the typical freshmen requirements once they are at MIT, but who have strong credentials in the humanities, perhaps a different version of the online project would satisfy requirements for writing or humanities electives.

By having these experiences earn lower-cost MIT credits, it would increase the yield of accepted students actually matriculating because they would be coming in with another semester or year's worth of credits. It may also increase the on-time graduation rate.

A New Financial Model, Improving accessibility and affordability, Education & Facilities, Educational experiences, Global Implications of EdX, Beyond the residential campus, online, freshmen, project-based learning, humanities