Certificates and Transcripts

The Transcript

Every enrolled student has a cumulative transcript: a running record from the first semester listing coursework taken, research undertaken, and any certificates earned. Coursework and research run together in the Lyceum, and one transcript carries both. It is available on request at any time.

Each Lyceum semester is a topic-specific physics course covering one topic in depth over sixteen weeks of twice-weekly classes. A student, or a homeschool family, may list each completed course as a stand-alone topic course on a high school transcript, or group several together as a multi-semester physics sequence.

Certificates

Lyceum Course Certificate

Issued for each Lyceum course in which a student passes the optional Pass/Fail evaluation, and signed by the course instructor. Tuition covers the teaching and one evaluation per course. Applies to middle school and high school courses alike. The Pass/Fail decision is the instructor's expert judgment, drawing on the student's coursework and on what they show in the evaluation.

Certificate of Research Training

Issued for each semester of research completed in good standing in the Lyceum's research labs, with the lab's attendance and progress requirements met. Students join a lab alongside their courses, in their first year if they choose, with no requirement to finish the coursework first. See the sample Certificate of Research Training.

Full Program Credentials

Certificates earned in the high school program accumulate toward three named credentials, signed by Dr. Sergey Samsonau, Academic Director of the Lyceum.

• Lyceum Certificate of Mastery in Classical Physics: the six classical core Course Certificates, in Mechanics of Motion, Mechanics of Bodies and Fluids, Waves and Oscillations, Thermodynamics, Electricity & Magnetism, and Geometric Optics.
• Lyceum Certificate of Mastery in Classical and Modern Physics: the classical core plus any two of the four Modern Physics electives, in Special Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, Nuclear and Particle Physics, and Astronomy and Cosmology.
• Lyceum Certificate of Mastery in Classical and Modern Physics, with Research: the same coursework, plus two Certificates of Research Training from research semesters taken alongside the courses.

Most students take one course per semester across fall, spring, and summer, with research semesters running alongside, and reach the full scope in three to four years. Credentials are issued by the SoTS Physics Lyceum, based in Princeton, NJ. Students in the online program earn the same certificates and credentials as students in Princeton.

See the Lyceum overview for the program structure and for the grading standard these certificates rest on.