I am currently studying Japanese in College, and starting next quarter we will be doing kanji. I'm not too far into RtK 1, maybe around a hundred frames in. I had an idea on how to work backwards and I'm wondering if it will work or not. The basic plan is to learn kanji on demand out of order from RtK. For example if I had to learn 頑 (stubborn):

Stubborn
-beginning
-two
-human legs
-page
-one
-shellfish
-eye
-animal legs

Does the order learned really make a big difference? Any thoughts on weather or not this would actually work?

Heisig tends to group primitives, and he also introduces kanji in an order so that earlier kanji are used as primitives in later kanji.

I think a lot of criticism towards RtK is that the Kanji aren't taught in any "standardized" order (ie frequency, grade school levels, etc), but I think it's highly recommended that you learn it the way he teaches it. It would be a ton of extra work if you re-ordered the book so you could follow along in a college course. Even after the first year or two of the college level course, I doubt you'd learn more than 200-300 kanji anyways, assuming this is your standard run of the mill college language class.

I only 'studied' kanji using the Heisig method but living in Japan at the same time meant that I picked up a few out of order at the same time when I decided that I needed them. I found that it's possible but that it's also a lot more work. Heisigs ordering and grouping of the kanji means that you don't have to work to remember most primatives. If you have just learned 20 kanji in a row that all use 'shellfish' you are unlikely to ever forget the shellfish primative. Out of order you still have to create stories and I found the primatives became much more slippery.

If I were you (assuming you intend to eventually learn all the basic kanji) then I would say just put on the gas and learn them with the book as fast as you can before you start them at school. Then use school time as a chance to review, solidify and start picking up the readings. But that said - even learning them out of order with the Heisig method was a lot easier for me than my attempt at rote repetion. Good luck whatever you decide.