Academics

Our students achieve ambitious academic and personal goals and graduate ready to face a world of limitless opportunities.

Mirroring Bryn Mawr’s college-preparatory program, Bryn Mawr Online offers stimulating and challenging academics across many disciplines. Bryn Mawr Online offers a robust and diverse curriculum that provides girls with a strong foundation in mathematics, science, humanities, arts and athletics. Upper Schoolers are required to study a wide variety of subjects and have the flexibility to discover and pursue their individual interests.

One of our primary goals as we work with our talented students is to foster critical and independent thinking. Girls are encouraged at each step of their experience to develop their own questions as we consciously nurture in students the awareness that asking one’s own question is often more valuable than answering someone else’s. Bryn Mawr girls are known for developing strong and well-founded opinions and for being confident in sharing them.

We believe in the delights and demands of learning. At Bryn Mawr, we inspire each girl to discover her voice, rise to challenges and grow into her own extraordinary self. At all levels, our academic program fosters critical thinking, creative expression, a sense of discovery, and honorable character. There are no limits to what our girls can become.

Sample Course Sequence

Grade 9

  • English
  • Honors Algebra 2
  • Honors Physics
  • Foundations of the Modern World
  • World Languages and Cultures: Spanish
  • AP Computer Science Principles

Grade 10

  • English
  • Honors Precalculus
  • Honors Chemistry
  • AP World History
  • World Languages and Cultures: Spanish (Continued)
  • Studio Art Foundations

Grade 11

  • English
  • AB/BC Calculus
  • Honors Biology
  • United States History
  • World Languages and Cultures: Spanish
  • AP Computer Science A
  • Public Speaking

Grade 12

  • English Elective
  • AB or BC Calculus and/or AP Statistics or other Math Elective
  • AP Chem/Bio/Physics
  • Elective
  • Elective
  • Elective
  •  

Program Requirements

English
4 Credits
Must be taken all four years

Mathematics
3 Credits

Science
3 Credits
Must include Physics, Chemistry, and Biology

World Languages and Cultures
3 credits of consecutive years of a language except in rare cases where accommodations may be made at departmental discretion

History
3 Credits
One must be U.S. History
 
Computer Science
1 Credit 
 
Art
0.5 Credit
 
Physical Education 
0.5 Credit 
 
Public Speaking 
0.5 credit 
Taken during Junior Year
 
Electives
Taken during Junior and Senior Years

Diploma Requirements

To receive a Bryn Mawr diploma, a student must:

  1. Earn a total of 21.5 credits
  2. Satisfy the course requirements above
  3. Carry a minimum of five major courses each semester
  4. Complete fifty hours of community service
  5. Maintain a satisfactory grade point average
  6. Meet the activities requirements
  7. Present a convocation speech to the school

Meet Mallory Pladus

English Teacher

Where do you live?
Lancaster, Pennsylvania

What do you like about teaching online?
I like the small school environment, the ambitious students BMOS attracts, and the flexibility learning and teaching online affords students and faculty.

What do you like to do when you’re NOT in school?
Hike, travel, play frisbee, and spend time on the Jersey Shore.

If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?
Japan. My dad is half Japanese, and there is a rumor in our family that he and my aunt relinquished property rights to a small portion of a mountain in Japan. I’d like to go see that mountain.

Best way to spend a Saturday?
Reading outside.

What do you want students to remember about you?
I want them to remember that I did my best to make literature open up for them in surprising, intriguing ways and that I cared about their ideas.

Personal catchphrase?
“Let’s reflect on this.”

Who inspires you?
Writers I love: James Baldwin, Marilynne Robinson, Louise Erdrich, to name a few.

What activity/class have you enjoyed the most through BMOS (and why)?
The poet Sarah Ali visited our English 9 and 10 classes to discuss her poem about animal roadkill. The students asked great questions, and she gave thoughtful answers. We broached a topic that often feels too intractable to talk about.