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I wrote the essay below for (incoming) high school students who are considering homeschooling. It may be of interest if you have a high school aged child who's homeschooling or considering homeschooling.

If you're a high schooler considering home-schooling, you're likely wondering how it will affect your college prospects.

Public Colleges

It can be difficult or impossible to get into public colleges as a homeschooler, owing to bureaucratic requirements. For example, UC Davis writes :

The courses of homeschools and unapproved high schools are not accepted by the University of California and cannot be used to establish minimum UC admission requirements. If you are a homeschooled student or attended a California high school without a UC-approved course list, you must establish your academic record through test scores or as a community college transfer student.


While it may be possible to qualify for the UC system via test scores, it's unclear what one's prospects are for getting into a campus of your choice. See University of California and homeschoolers at The Well-Trained Mind.

Other public colleges are more receptive to admitting homeschoolers. For example, University of Illinois writes writes:

We encourage home schooled students to apply to the University...We are very interested in having talented, well-qualified applicants from a variety of settings. Home schoolers would provide a diversity of academic experiences to the campus.


If you're considering home schooling, be sure to check out what the situation is at the public colleges that you anticipate applying to, in particular, those in your home state.

Private Colleges

Elite private colleges accept home schoolers. The elite private college students who were home schooled appears to be smaller than the fraction of high schoolers in the general population who are home schooled. About 3% of students are home schooled nationwide. By way of contrast:

• Princeton reports that only 0.5% of Princeton students were homeschooled.
• A University of Chicago student on College Confidential reported that 13 students in his or her grade were homeschooled. University of Chicago's class size is about 1,400, so about 1% of the students were home schooled.
• MIT reports that less than 1% of MIT students were homeschooled.

Some possible reasons for the discrepancy are:

• The fraction of homeschoolers who apply to elite colleges may be significantly smaller than the fraction of members of the general population who apply to elite colleges. For example, MIT reports that less than 1% of the applicant pool consists of homeschoolers.
• It could be more difficult for homeschoolers to get into elite colleges on average.

On the second point, even if it is more difficult on average, that doesn't mean that it would be more difficult for you personally. With suitable preparation for the admissions process along the lines described below, homeschoolers could have equal or better odds for getting in (though the situation is ambiguous).

Something that pushes in favor of homeschooling for admissions prospects is that if you homeschool, you'll have more flexibility in regards to how you arrange your coursework (for example, you can pick which textbooks to use), and if you use this flexibility well, your chances of excelling could increase.

Some points to keep in mind, based on a reading of webpages of elite colleges about applying as a homeschooler:

• Standardized test scores are weighted more heavily for homeschoolers. Some colleges encourage homeschoolers to take more than the minimum requirement of 2 SAT subject tests, and some refer to AP scores as a way for students to demonstrate their achievement. If you're unusually capable of getting high standardized test scores, the case for homeschooling is strengthened.
• Taking college courses at local colleges or summer programs seems to help establish a homeschooler's academic record. It also gives a homeschooler the chance to solicit recommendations from professors who can vouch for his or her performance.
• If you homeschool, it's important to document your academic program.
  Colleges expect that homeschoolers study the standard academic subjects (math, English, social studies, science and languages): if you homeschool, you shouldn't design an overly idiosyncratic program that doesn't include these things.
• Some colleges want evidence that homeschoolers can integrate well with other students, presumably in the form of extracurricular activities that have a social component.
• If you homeschool and can give a compelling reason for why you've done so in your college applications, this will strengthen your case for admissions.

For our research, we looked at pages published by: Yale, MIT, Princeton, Columbia, University of Chicago, Caltech, New York University and Homeschool Success, as well as College Confidential's forum with relevant threads. See in particular Homeschool students' admission rate to Harvard/Princeton/Yale How do homeschooled students attend Ivy leagues?.

For UC, distance education offerings, PERIOD, probably won't qualify as a-g credits in some particular areas. No matter who you take them with.

The only solution to fine arts and science credits that I've found will work-- and this goes for homeschool or virtual school students-- is to take those classes during a summer session at a regional/local college or community college. That way you have an OFFICIAL statement that you've completed a laboratory/studio experience which is the sticking point for UC in particular.

Yes, they are also squicky about natural selection in the sciences-- but that one is more easily dealt with via SAT II subject testing or producing a course syllabus.

It's that lab/studio component that is hard to meet. It has to be expert instruction (so not parents) and it has to be rigorous and specifically tied to curriculum at the secondary preparatory level (not science fair or art contest-- but INSTRUCTIONAL).

Credentials! It's all about credentials in bureaucracies.

I mentioned on another thread that the local schools won't give DS credit for the algebra 2 class he did with me last year, but they are giving him credit for being babysat in precalc (5 weeks so far). His teacher is out indefinitely and none of the subs are doing what could be called teaching. But the subs have credentials in that particular universe, and I don't.

HowlerKarma — Thanks for the useful information.

Jonahsinik, thanks for this post. We are right now in the information gathering stage of making the high school decision for always homeschooled 11 yo DYS, so this was very useful.

How many of homeschoolers are for religious reasons and not trying to accomodate a gifted kid? That could be a big reason for the percentages.

Also, I found that science museums or centers do offer high school programs that could work for the lab component.

Sometimes, Wren-- but getting a university to evaluate the scope and sequence of such a course of study (when not tied to a known curriculum) is a challenge.

By the same token, virtual school students are instructed to "keep a thorough laboratory notebook" (now, I know how to do that and how to INSTRUCT my child to do so, but most parents with the model don't)-- in the hope that colleges will look at it favorably. From everything I've seen, Val is right here-- it's about the credentialing when you get right down to it. When a college admissions officer has thousands of applications to sift through, s/he isn't going to waste a lot of time figuring out whether a homeschooler meets (or doesn't meet) the institutional prerequisite coursework. If it is that much work, it's probably more efficient time-wise to just dismiss them as a whole if there are any questions.

Really, a known course of study that is intended to cover the same material as a preparatory course? Definitely better than these from an admissions standpoint.

Unfortunately, colleges and universities assume particular coverage and mastery in incoming students. We've opted to try to match-- as closely as possible-- the credentials that higher ed is looking to put check-marks next to, and scramble as needed to make sure that learning and mastery exist to match. Not ideal, but strategic, let's just say.

This is how my DD wound up taking two dual enrollment math courses with no instructor, however.

If we do it, we will probably do at least 8 AP exams and take courses through CTY and Stanford Online HS to get the credentialed
Credits.