Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion How selective colleges view homeschoolers

High schools provide a profile to the colleges. The profile gives enough information that the colleges get a good idea of the rigor of courses.

The profile might include the courses offered, grading system, GPA/class rank correlation, average SAT scores broken down by GPA range, colleges attended by the prior graduating class by GPA range, etc.

Looking at a past profile for our district, the 40 kids in the top 12% GPA had an average SAT score of 2086. The bottom 20% had an average SAT score of 1484. 91% of students that took AP tests scored 3 or higher.

From that information you can draw some conclusions regarding the rigor of AP/Honors courses at the school. I think most colleges have an idea of the rigor of certain high schools if they get multiple applicants from the HS each year.

Yes, except no curricular standard exists among b&m/online schools either. A course titled "English Literature" could require one essay per semester or five, one book per semester or five. It might include short stories, poems, and plays, or it might not.

Not necessarily - our school district's curriculum has very specific standards for each grade/subject.

polarbear

I looked at the article briefly and there seemed to be griping about sending SAT Subject Test scores. Those are some elite schools, and whether the Subject Tests are required or not, most qualified applicants (public, private or homeschool) will submit those scores (and if not required, those tests are often recommended for elite school applicants).

For 2E homeschoolers, one problem with using testing to prove academic rigor is that homeschoolers also have trouble getting College Board accommodations. If the CB has denied or given less than adequate accommodations, a 2E homeschooler will not be able to show what he knows. And even if he has appropriate accommodations, 2E kids are notorious for randomly bombing exams even if they know the stuff cold.

This is why my 2E high school student is attending the local community college. Hopefully his As in college level courses will be accepted more readily than my mommy grades. Ironically, the CC classes are *way* easier both in content and in how they grade than anything he ever did with me.

Question
Would you be willing to comment on homeschooled students and the college admissions process? We have four children we are homeschooling and we hope to continue that up until they go off to college.
—Elizabeth

Question
Do you have a bias against homeschooled students? They don’t always have the classes available to them, such as AP, honors, labs, etc. If you don’t have a bias, what do you look for in a homeschooled student? The transcript may include nonstandard courses. How do we let a school know, other than with standardized test scores, how they might be a good fit for that school?
— Leslie Howard

Answer
Mr. Walker of Texas: Homeschooling is a more recognizable educational enterprise than it once was. This has made directors of admission more comfortable with their ability to properly evaluate a student’s readiness for the rigors of a challenging college curriculum and a student’s social adaptation skills. We recognize that there are many ways to get a rigorous education, and AP and honors classes are just two of the most popular examples.

We probably provide better service and a more complete and personal evaluation of our homeschooled children than we do to our more traditional applicants.

While homeschooled children present slightly different application materials, the differences are shrinking. We are seeing parents become more entrepreneurial in finding good educational experiences for their children, and more parents are pooling resources to provide the more specialized subjects in the sciences. The Web has allowed for a much broader and more organized enterprise than was ever possible. Even the term “homeschooled” has become a less accurate description of where learning takes place. The term is more descriptive of where the administrative staff resides and where the student’s “home room” might be.

Answer
Mr. Syverson of Lawrence: We welcome homeschooled students. Just as with high schools, there is great variation in the strength of the preparation we see among homeschoolers. And in many instances, because they are not presenting a traditional set of credentials, it is important for homeschoolers to be particularly thoughtful about what they will include in their application. Some will submit a number of SAT subject tests taken over the course of several years as a way to document their mastery of these areas. Others will prepare for AP exams as another way to document, with a traditional metric, the rigor of their work. Many will submit one or more substantial works they have done as part of their courses.

Answer
Mr. Poch of Pomona: I do have skepticism about some versions of home schooling. We will seek concrete evidence of preparation which may, for better or worse, fall both to a wider range of standardized testing but also to evidence of collaborative work with other students both academically and socially. The home schooled student does carry an additional burden of proof. How to address it?

Good and deep articulation of the courses of study followed. Representation of knowledge acquired and intellectual skills developed. Interview if possible. Admissions officers may rely more heavily upon standardized testing than we would like because the transcript of a home schooled student will carry the imprint of a parent and the references if written by a tutor or parent cannot address questions we would have regarding the engagement of a student with a teacher and peers in a classroom or collaborative learning environments.

Anticipate what we would like to see. Develop a full curriculum and make sure math and laboratory sciences are part of the experience. Even where general admission requirements may ask only for optional presentation of tests or where no SAT subject tests are required, I suggest that the student present those familiar representations of their work and achievement. If the standard expectation of the college is for two SAT subject tests, send more. Send four or five in different academic areas to fully represent a range of academic exposures.

Answer
Mr. Brenzel of Yale: We see only a few homeschooled applicants, and we do occasionally admit a homeschooled student. Evaluation is usually difficult, however. It helps if the applicant has taken some college level courses, and we can get evaluations from those teachers. We are not keen on homeschooled students where the only evaluations come from parents and the only other information available consists of test scores.