What equipment do I need to take the classes?

A computer - that’s it!

If your course requires real-time writing or drawing, you may be given a Microsoft Surface loaner to use in addition to your computer.

How many class sessions are in a course?

Most semester courses consist of fifteen 90-minute class lessons. Most trimester courses consist of eleven 90-minute class lessons.

Do courses have prerequisites?

Many traditional colleges require a slew of core curriculum and full-length prerequisite courses that prevent you from taking the courses you’re truly interested in until sophomore or even junior year.

At 1-on-1 University, we aim to put students into the heart of compelling courses as quickly as possible, enabling them to explore exciting topics right away and helping students discover their future college majors and their potential career paths.

Consequently, most of the courses listed on the Courses page do not have prerequisites. Many courses integrate the prerequisite information into the beginning few lessons of the course, making the certain courses accessible to students years before they would qualify to take them in a traditional university setting. For example, a number of math, physics and economics courses require a small amount of calculus that can be covered in the first few lessons to any student who has completed algebra 2. A few courses do have significant prerequisites, however, such as multivariable calculus (calculus required).

So, does that mean I qualify to take any course in any department?

Some high-performing students will qualify to take any course in any department, but not every student would qualify to take any course in any department. For example, a student with strong reading and writing skills that struggles in math may qualify to take all courses in the humanities, arts or social sciences, but may not be suited to take certain higher level math or science courses.

Some courses, such as Spanish Language Accelerated, have been designed for any student who is willing to put in the work.

If I miss a class session, can I make it up?

Since you can customize your class calendar to fit your scheduling needs and you can take your classroom with you anywhere, you don’t ever have to miss a class!

Students may reschedule classes up to one week before the scheduled class time. If a student does not attend a class, then that class time is lost and the course proceeds the same way it would in a traditional university setting. However, unlike traditional universities, the professor will modify the homework assignment and future class lessons to ensure that no material is missed.

How much required homework will be assigned to me?

You used the H-Word - we prefer to call it “funwork”! Just kidding, we call it “homework” too - it’s just genuinely enjoyable and rewarding when it’s part of exploring a subject that you have thorough appreciation and deep interest for.

To answer your question, the amount of homework varies a bit from course to course - usually around 2.5 hours of homework between most classes.

What does homework consist of?

Different courses work differently – some mostly consist of reading assignments and writing essays; others consist of reading, problem sets and tests; others may involve other projects or activities as well.

I did the math and it sounds like 1U courses cover material faster than most universities

Yes, due to the highly customized and adaptive nature of the course, 1U has found that it has been able to accelerate the learning process. We aim to have students cover 100% of the material (sometimes more!) in about 25% less time than they usually do at other universities.

Who are the 1U professors?

They are university professors/lecturers/adjunct professors/PhD candidates/PhD’s – they are the very same people who teach undergraduate and graduate students at brick-and-mortar universities around the globe, including Yale, Harvard, London School of Economics, and others.

What is the class schedule?

At the beginning of the course, you and the professor work out the class calendar and the assignments calendar for the entire trimester/semester. If need be, you and the professor can tinker with schedule a little bit along the way.

Does 1U offer pre-recorded video courses?

No, 1U offers live, real-time courses with professors exclusively. See How It Works for more details.

When do semesters/trimesters start and end?

Whenever you want them to! Generally, summer courses are limited to the summer. However, you may choose to have them overlap a little bit with the end of the previous school year or the beginning of the next.

Will it help me get into college?

Yes, 1-on-1 University courses are absolutely a great way to demonstrate academic abilities and a passion for the academic fields that you are interested.

Admissions officers have expressed that they were impressed with our transcripts. Moreover, your professor can offer an insightful letter of recommendation that could be valuable to the college admissions process.

Will I get College Credit? Is 1-on-1 University accredited? Will it help me graduate earlier? Will it pass me out of university prerequisite requirements?

1-on-1 University is an official CollegeBoard online AP provider school. As such, students can take our official AP courses and receive college credit at participating universities, helping students to potentially graduate earlier (although few students choose to graduate earlier, and instead prefer to take more courses.)

1U was founded in 2015 and the accreditation takes a minimum of seven years, so 1U is not accredited at this time. Consequently, while universities will take 1U courses into account for the purposes of admission, we don’t expect that they would accept transfer credits in most cases.

Yes, in the case of language courses, you can pass out of college requirements and prerequisites by taking any of a number different language exams. In other academic fields, different colleges will have their own processes for passing out of prerequisite requirements. In some cases, you will need to petition a department; in others, you will need to take a test, etc.. In short, yes, 1U courses may help you pass out of prerequisite requirements at other universities.

Can I build my own course?

Yep! With the coordination of 1-on-1 University and your professor, we can construct a new, college-level course in one of many fields that suits your academic desires.

(Please note that while we are able to construct nuanced learning experiences, such as Philosophy & the Simpsons, we cannot, however, allow students to take a course that is not academic or not at a college level, such as “Watching a Season of the Simpsons and Calling It a Day” – Nice try, Kyle!)