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

I'd argue that many colleges, certainly the selective ones, actually do have MUCH information about various school districts, especially those from which they get many applications. I have a friend who pre-kids was an admissions officer for a highly-selective university. She had a regional market, travelled and visited schools within the region constantly, and had a very in-depth knowledge of those school districts. So she could, within her region, rank and/or compare districts and private schools against one another. Many universities are staffed this way within their admissions deparmtments.

Interestingly, she's now building a business on the other end -- working with high school students to identify good match universities to them and so she is out building relationships with college admissions officers. It's a much more family-friendly position for her.

Agree- it's one small advantage of staying in a highly rayed district. The colleges are familiar with the district and there is a proven track record of kids who attend these selective colleges every year. I'm sure the admissions people have a fair idea of what to expect when they are familiar with the school and its applicants.

Maybe I'm looking the wrong way at the HS GPA vs SAT score in predicting college success, but I don't get it. My kids participate in college showcases for their sport, so we see a lot of GPA/SAT score info on kids.

My eldest had something a bit below a 4.0, and she will admit, she could have done better in HS. However, I have seen plenty of kids at the showcase tournaments with a 4.0, but they have three-part SAT scores lower than my kid's two-part SAT score. So, these studies are telling us that if my kid and the 4.0 kid attend the same college and take the same courses, the 4.0 kid will likely have higher grades/better chance of college success? I don't think so.

Ah, but are the transcripts otherwise similar enough to comparable? That is, do those 4.0's represent rigorous coursework? Or fluff taken to maintain that pristine GPA?

That's the other thing that comes into play.

Interestingly-- the elite school that DD is in the process of applying to, they also want to know about parental educational attainment and employment.

That makes a great deal of sense to me as a harbinger of a student's likely potential for success at such an institution-- it's a proxy for the values that a student has re: education, for the student's likely native ability, etc.

But HK, elite schools ask for parental background so that they can adjust the academic achievement of "privileged" students *downward* to reflect they advantages they have had, whereas your logic would argue for an upward adjustment.

This one seems to be asking for the reason that I posited.

I can see how it can relate to either "legacy" types of admissions policies, or to the practice that you've postulated, Bostonian, but I think that it probably varies significantly with institution.

This particular institution has a reputation as crushing-- but also has VERY low attrition and high 4y graduation rates, so I'm thinking that they actually are asking on the basis of wanting to know who is most likely to find success at the institution, not necessarily looking for SES/racial balance.

Hmm. In my cynical view, I always suspected schools asked about parental achievement and education in order to get a feel for how much in donations they might reasonably expect. ;-)

Oh, I definitely think "ability to pay full-freight" plays into it.

Here is a post describing the extra work that needs to be done, perhaps by the parent, for a homeschooled student to apply to college. The author is a college professor but still calls it "daunting". OTOH, at the Well Trained Mind forum, there are lots of mothers of homeschoolers who have helped their children navigate through college admissions.

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