Difficulty: Moderately challenging
Things You’ll Need:
- College Applications
- Internet Access
- Computers
Step1
Begin with the end in mind. If you know now that your homeschooled 14-year-old has the potential and interest to pursue college, start gathering and organizing information about admission requirements for representative schools.
Step2
Maintain your child's portfolio diligently. It will form the basis of your homemade "transcript," or, for some schools, can be substituted for one.
Step3
Contact the schools your child is interested in attending to find out if they have special admission requirements for homeschooled students. Some (Stanford, for example) have created guidelines to help homeschoolers with the application process (and Stanford has admitted numerous homeschoolers).
Step4
Apply with confidence. More than 900 colleges nationwide, including many rated as "highly selective," regularly admit homeschooled students. In many ways, the homeschool experience helps your child stand out from the masses.
Step5
Focus on areas other than transcript information. Many colleges state that certain parts of the application package, such as SAT II and ACT scores, letters of recommendation, and the application essay, are given greater weight when considering homeschoolers for admission.
Step6
Help your child prepare to use the admission interview as a forum to emphasize how the homeschool experience has developed her as a whole person. Colleges that admit homeschoolers all say that the child's reasons for homeschooling are integral to their evaluation of her.
Comments
Anonymous said
on 11/22/2005 The Colleges That Admit Homeschoolers FAQ on the Web
(http://learninfreedom.org/colleges_4_hmsc.html) is a good source of college admission information for home-schooled students.
HigherEducation said
on 7/15/2007 Hello,
I have a blog where students and parents can ask questions about issues related to post-secondary education, check it out...
www.highereducationtoday.blogspot.com
Feel free to shoot me a question and I will do my best to help you out, the key is that I am not directly affiliated to anyone!
stargazer546 said
on 5/28/2007 This is a nice article on the process, another good place to find information is http://www.ivyleaguebound.com , they have information on where to find statistics about each school, that will help the student decide if it is the right school.