BYU Independent Study

BYU Independent Study is the distance-education arm of Brigham Young University, offering over four hundred accredited courses to middle and high school students across all fifty states and more than a hundred countries.

Last updated: 2026-04-24 · Every Homeschool Editorial Team

At a glance

Method	Online academy / traditional / self-paced
Worldview	LDS (operated by Brigham Young University; academic content delivered without gospel framing in most courses)
Grades	6-12 (plus university-level courses for advanced students)
Formats	Digital, video course, self-paced (no live class)
Cost tier	Standard (per-course pricing comparable to community-college rates)
Parent intensity	1
ESA-common	Yes in most marketplaces; accepted on most homeschool ESAs
Accredited	Yes (Cognia, WASC, MSA CESS, NCAA, NWCCU)
Established	1921
Website	is.byu.edu

Our scoreboard (1-5)

Criterion	Score	One-line reason
Academic rigor	4	Standard courses are solid college-prep; AP and honors tracks carry weight
Ease of teaching	5	Self-paced with automated grading and teacher feedback; parent is supervisor only
Content quality	4	A large catalog means variation; standard and AP courses are well-built
Flexibility	5	Start any day, twelve months to complete, fully a-la-carte
Value for money	5	$215-$319 per semester course
Worldview scope	4	Academic content delivered without explicit LDS framing; the institution is LDS
Visual/design	4	Modern LMS with video, guided notes, and multimedia
Support resources	5	148 credentialed instructors, free tutoring on select courses, student success center

Who the publisher is

BYU Independent Study operates within BYU Continuing Education at Brigham Young University. The program traces its origin to 1921. The program today offers 470+ accredited courses to more than two million cumulative enrollments across 153 countries, staffed by 148 credentialed instructors with PhD and master's degrees.

The program is a nonprofit arm of BYU, which is itself owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. BYU's institutional identity is explicitly LDS: the university's honor code, student body, faculty, and undergraduate curriculum are framed within the Church's standards. BYU Independent Study inherits the parent institution's accreditation and ownership but operates the high school and middle school courses as standard college-preparatory academic work, most secondary courses are delivered without explicit gospel framing, though they are created by an LDS-affiliated institution and LDS course developers.

The program holds multiple accreditations. Per the BYU Independent Study site, the program is accredited by Cognia, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), the Middle States Association Commissions on Elementary and Secondary Schools (MSA CESS), NCAA (for student-athlete eligibility), and the Northwestern Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU).

Every Homeschool classifies BYU Independent Study in the taxonomy as lds, not as any variant of Christian. The ownership and institutional affiliation are Latter-day Saint, even though the secondary course content is largely academic and accepted across denominational and secular homeschool populations. The classification describes who operates the program, not who uses it.

The core pedagogy

BYU Independent Study is self-paced distance education in the American correspondence-course tradition, modernized into a web-based LMS. A student enrolls in a course, receives access to the full course materials immediately, and has up to twelve months to complete the course at their own pace. Courses are delivered through a combination of reading, video lessons, interactive exercises, and instructor-graded assignments. Students submit work through the LMS; instructors return feedback typically within a few business days; the student proceeds when ready. There are no live classes, no fixed schedules, no cohort peers.

The high school catalog is organized into 220+ high school courses covering core subjects (English, math through calculus, sciences through physics, world history, US history, government), world languages (Spanish, French, German, Latin, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian), AP courses, CTE electives, and a homeschool-specific track that supports families running the full program. 100+ courses are NCAA-approved, which matters for student-athletes, and 150+ are UC-approved, which matters for California college admissions. The middle school catalog is smaller but covers standard 6-8 core subjects.

Signature mechanics: (1) Twelve months to complete. A student can enroll in August and finish in May, or enroll in January and finish in December. A struggling student can take longer; an accelerated student can finish faster. (2) Per-course enrollment with no full-time tuition. Students enroll in the courses they want, pay per course, and receive a transcript reflecting completed courses. There is no flat-fee full-time tuition and no forced package. (3) Free tutoring on select courses. Free tutoring is available on certain courses, including world languages, through the Student Success Center.

What they do exceptionally well

Pricing relative to accreditation stack. Standard semester courses at $215 per 0.5 credit and specialty courses at $319 per 0.5 credit are, in our assessment, below typical accredited online private school tuition. A full year of single-course enrollment (one credit, two semesters) runs approximately $430-$638 depending on course tier, which compares favorably to $800-$1,200 per year-long course at The Potter's School or to per-credit pricing at Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth equivalents.

The course catalog is wide. 470+ accredited courses across high school, middle school, and university levels means a homeschool family can find an AP or honors course in many subjects. Korean. Russian. Advanced Computer Science. Agriculture. Real-world welding and agriculture CTE. Multiple AP sciences. In our assessment, catalog breadth is one of the program's durable advantages.

Self-paced pacing genuinely flexible. A student can stop for two weeks during a family move, drop back in, and still complete within the twelve-month window. A student who wants to finish a semester course in six weeks to clear space for another subject can.

Accreditation. In our assessment, the program's accreditation stack and its university affiliation give families building college-prep transcripts meaningful weight.

What they do poorly

No live teacher presence. This is inherent in the self-paced model but is still a limitation. Students who learn best through live discussion, immediate question-and-answer, or peer conversation will find BYU Independent Study solitary. The Student Success Center's free tutoring helps on select subjects but does not replicate a live class.

Course quality varies across a large catalog. In our assessment, the standard and AP courses in the main high school sequence are well-built and well-maintained; the quality of some specialty, CTE, and less-enrolled courses varies more. Families selecting a specific course should check reviews or sample the course before committing. This is a common feature of very large course catalogs and not unique to BYU.

Subject sequencing is the family's responsibility. Because enrollment is per-course and there is no flat-fee full-time program, the family builds the student's high school course sequence themselves. Students and parents who expect the provider to manage the transcript across four years, course selection, graduation requirements, AP planning, college-prep sequencing, need either a separate academic advisor or to do this work themselves. BYU Independent Study offers the courses; it does not run the student's high school plan.

LDS institutional affiliation occasionally surfaces. Course content in most subjects is academically standard, but some literature selections, historical framing, and course examples reflect BYU's institutional culture. This is not pervasive across most courses but is present at the edges.

Who it fits / who it doesn't

• Pick BYU Independent Study if: you want a-la-carte enrollment in specific accredited high school courses rather than a full-time online school; you are a homeschool family building a college-prep transcript and want AP and honors courses with recognized accreditation; you are a Latter-day Saint family who values the BYU affiliation; you are budget-conscious and want per-course pricing below typical private-school tuition; you have a student who needs flexible self-paced timing due to travel, asynchrony, or other life structure.

• Skip BYU Independent Study if: you want live-teacher instruction rather than self-paced courses (look at The Potter's School, Wilson Hill Academy, or American Heritage Online High School for live Christian online); you are pursuing a full-time online private school diploma (use American Heritage Online or Liberty University Online Academy); you want a provider with an active parent-teacher-student community; you need a provider that manages the student's transcript and graduation planning end-to-end.

Cost honest assessment

Current pricing per the BYU Independent Study tuition page, effective August 1, 2025 for high school courses, as of April 2026:

High school and middle school:

• Standard courses: $215 per 0.5 semester credit (a year-long 1-credit course = $430)
• Specialty courses: $319 per 0.5 semester credit ($638 per year-long course)
• Best value courses: $130 per 0.5 semester credit
• Quarter-credit courses: $130 per 0.25 quarter credit

University courses (for advanced students): $256 per credit hour.

Additional fees: Course extension $20, exam retake $15, assignment resubmission $10, withdrawal $30, printed readings packet $21-$35. Transcripts $8 (eTranscript) to $65 (mailed internationally).

Compared to The Potter's School (roughly $850-$1,200 per year-long live course), Wilson Hill Academy (roughly $700-$1,100 per year-long course), and Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (roughly $1,200-$1,800 per semester course), BYU Independent Study is meaningfully cheaper per course. The trade is the self-paced, no-live-class format.

ESA eligibility notes

BYU Independent Study is accepted on most state ESA marketplaces that permit individual online courses. Arizona ESA (via ClassWallet), Utah Fits All, Florida Step Up For Students, and West Virginia Hope Scholarship all reimburse BYU Independent Study course enrollments as of April 2026. Families in Iowa and Arkansas, which apply somewhat narrower rubrics, should confirm vendor status before enrollment. The institutional affiliation with BYU and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does not typically trigger worldview-based ESA restrictions, because the secondary-level academic content is delivered in standard college-prep format rather than explicit religious education, but states with conservative religious-curriculum restrictions may scrutinize the affiliation. The program's multi-accreditation stack simplifies most ESA approvals.

Alternatives

• American Heritage Online High School, a family seeking a live-teacher LDS online high school with a diploma program and integrated Seminary, rather than a-la-carte self-paced courses, would choose AHS Online.
• The Potter's School, a family seeking live-teacher online courses from a broad Christian (non-LDS) evangelical provider, with an active community and seminar-style classes, would choose The Potter's School.
• North Dakota Center for Distance Education, a family seeking a-la-carte self-paced online courses from a secular state-operated provider with similar accreditation breadth would choose NDCDE over BYU Independent Study.

How we verified this

Our editorial team reviewed the BYU Independent Study main page, the high school catalog page, the homeschool program page, and the tuition and fees page at indstudy.byu.edu for current pricing as of April 2026. We corroborated accreditation details through the site's public institutional materials. Prices and program details verified April 2026.