About
Courup School is an online American high school awarding a grades 9–12 US diploma. We prepare students from the United States and around the world for academic success and personal growth in a rigorous, personalized learning environment.
Discover Courup
Live seminars taught by faculty who all hold a master's degree or higher, alongside specialists working in fields such as artificial intelligence, software, and data science.
A structure that balances demanding academics with sport, performance, travel, and personal interests.
Critical thinking, character, and social responsibility taught explicitly alongside academic content.
A US high school diploma and transcript that universities worldwide evaluate directly.
Placement by assessment, individual course plans, and a platform that tells your advisor when you are slipping — or pulling ahead — within days.
An academic advisor and a wellbeing counselor for every full-time student. The advisor meets each student every two weeks and is responsible for both the four-year course plan and college counseling.
Why We Exist
The conventional high school makes a lot of assumptions: that every student lives within driving distance of the right teachers, that learning happens best between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m., that a class of thirty is a reasonable place to be known. For many students those assumptions hold well enough. For a lot of others — serious athletes and artists, students who move countries, students far ahead or working through gaps, students abroad who want an American diploma — they simply do not.
Courup School was founded on a narrower proposition: keep the academic rigor of a strong American high school, keep classes small enough that teachers know every student by name, and drop the constraints that were never about learning in the first place.
What We Believe
Eight students per seminar section is a ceiling, not an average. Class size is the single decision that most determines whether a student is actually known.
Students are encouraged to follow their curiosity — reading and researching in their own time to form real questions, then bringing those questions into live sessions to debate with specialists and instructors. Independent study sharpens the thinking; the live seminar is where it is tested.
Every piece of work — quizzes and objective tests included — is marked by the instructor who taught the lesson, and returned with comments within a week. Software handles logistics; humans handle judgment.
Our student body spans time zones and countries. That is a feature we build curriculum around, not a complication we manage.
Time management, honest work, and collaboration are explicitly instructed and assessed, not assumed to develop on their own.
We tell families plainly what we offer and what we do not, and we publish figures we can stand behind.
Context
Accredited online high schools have operated in the United States for decades. Several are affiliated with major universities, and their graduates enroll at selective colleges on the same terms as graduates of brick-and-mortar schools.
Online American high schools have been operating for decades, including programs run by well-known universities.
Reputable online schools follow the same course requirements, credit hours, and assessment expectations as strong campus schools.
University admissions offices routinely evaluate transcripts and diplomas from accredited online high schools.
A student's postal code stops determining which teachers and courses are available to them.
On accreditation: Courup School is currently progressing through the application process for accreditation by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). Our academic team is experienced in the American curriculum and builds our program to WASC standards. We recommend every family ask any school, including ours, for its accreditation details in writing, and we are happy to share where our application stands. Separately, Courup School LLC files the annual Private School Affidavit with the California Department of Education, as California law requires of private schools operating in the state. Filing the affidavit registers a school with the state and confirms it is operating lawfully; it is not accreditation, approval, or endorsement by the state, and we do not present it as one.
How It Works
Courses meet in 50-minute periods with a 10-minute break between them, capped at eight students. English and Mathematics meet three times a week; other courses meet twice. Sections run in the Americas, Europe/Africa, and Asia-Pacific time-zone bands, so students can choose one that falls within their waking day, and the school day ends at 5:30 pm. Every session is recorded and available for review.
Between seminars, students work through readings, problem sets, lab exercises, and writing drafts on the school platform. Materials, deadlines, feedback, and grades all live in one place — accessible at any hour from any time zone.
Coursework, proctored examinations, and project-based assessments together produce the grade. Everything is marked personally by the instructor who taught the course — objective tests as well as essays, labs, and problem solutions — and returned with written comments within one week of submission.
Community
Courup students know each other because the classes are small enough to make that inevitable. Clubs, student government, competition teams, and service projects are student-run, with faculty advisors who help rather than direct.
Because our students live across many countries, the community itself becomes part of the education: a seminar discussion about migration, markets, or climate policy contains students who have lived several sides of the question.
Admissions conversations are informal and unhurried. Ask us anything — including the hard questions.