CAS at BHS

My now 20 year old daughter graduated from CAS. She got into Cal Poly SLO Architecture and UCSD for a non science degree plus a few other UCs and colleges. She liked CAS in the beginning and the teachers did get to know her. But by her junior/senior year she wished she had picked AC. She wanted more choice socially and academically. She was able to say on her college applications that she took the most rigorous curriculum offered to her as she wasn't able to take as many AP classes as other small schools. I liked that her teachers knew her and that she wasn't super stressed with a ton of AP classes. However in her senior year she took AP environmental science outside of CAS and loved it and also met some new friends. She advised her younger brother to pick AC. He is really enjoying it and if he chooses he can get to know his teachers. 

My son is a senior in CAS and has enjoyed it for the most part. However, it isn't that academically rigorous and the program is such that you have very few electives and thus, limited chances to take AP classes.  When we were starting to look at colleges before his junior year, he regretted not going with AC or BHIS, but it didn't last long as he's a pretty optimistic kid. The pros of CAS are the small cohorts, video classes (although BIHS also offers video classes) and getting to know the teachers (I would imagine this would apply to BIHS kids, too). Also, he was never really stressed out like a lot of high achieving students and had an active social life. As a parent, I wish that he enrolled in AC or BIHS for the most flexibility; kids change so much over these four years. That said, he's not a super academic kid so might have been miserable in BIHS; or maybe it would have pushed him more? Who knows?! Good luck!