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A Homeschooler Applies to College
I have six tadpoles, all of whom have been or currently are homeschooled, the oldest of whom is a college junior and the youngest of whom is a third grader in our own Edith Stein Academy. Right now, our high school senior and I are engaged in college application fun. I thought it might be of some interest to the Ricochetti to hear what the process is like for home schooling families like the one here in Toad Hall.
College Prep
My goal for my high school students is a rigorous college prep course with plenty of math and science and plenty of humanities. For math, my current high school senior did some of the Saxon math courses for high school, this outstanding and extremely fun geometry text, and is currently taking college calculus for credit at a local community college (he got an A the fall semester! Woo hoo!). His older brother, a super-duper smarty pants with perfect SAT scores, did the same math course, started college calculus a year earlier in 11th grade in conjunction with computer science at the community college, and had four semesters of college level math and credits by the time he completed high school (Calc I, II, III, and Discrete Math).
My current senior’s science course work included physical science, biology, and chemistry, all with labs. We used these texts, although I would have preferred something better. They did the job well enough of imparting the information and were easy to teach to homeschoolers. I taught two of these classes to him and a small group of other students while biology was taught by another mom.
Throughout middle school and high school, I combine history/geography with literature, and his high school course work started with the ancient history, Greece and Rome, in which we read translations of Homer, Plutarch, Thucydides, Sophocles, as well as more modern things like Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” and even “Pygmalion.” Then he studied medieval history, comparing the rise of England and Spain, read “The Ballad of the White Horse,” “Beowulf,” and Churchill’s History of the English Speaking Peoples. We read “Song of Roland” and “El Cid.” His junior year focused on American history. We read Ben Franklin’s biography, David McCullough’s John Adams, Richard Brookhiser’s Founding Father, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Witness, and other books. This senior year calls for government for one semester and economics for the other. For government, we use Declaration Statesmanship, which has the student reading Federalist Papers and Tocqueville. The economics course will cover Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson as well as Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?
I use Latin as the foreign language of choice here in Edith Stein Academy. I have been learning it with my students, since my previous foreign language study was French, German, and Japanese. My senior has only had two years of high school Latin, but he is very involved in music and we allowed him to overload on that during the past three years. However, his sister, a high school sophomore, is in her third year of high school Latin, for her interests are different. She will almost certainly also take calculus at the community college level her senior year, where she will also take physics or another science course.
We also make sure our students have a strong physical education, art training, religion study (the students and I are Catholic but they have a Jewish heritage as well), and an opportunity to work in the community, either as volunteer or hired labor. This current senior is an outstanding musician and has played in multiple ensembles for several years, putting in easily 10 hours a week just on rehearsals, never mind lessons, individual practice, or performance. Several ensembles are through the community college, which means that he is also getting college credit for them.
One of my big concerns as a homeschooling parent was the lack of opportunity for a musician to play in orchestra or band, but in fact my son has done more exciting things then he might have done had he been playing in a high school band. He is generally playing with very professional and demanding musicians who are adults, not with other teenagers. It required much more leg work and outreach on our part to find the opportunities, but they are well worth it.
Some Important Differences for the Parent
In traditional high school, the student has a guidance counselor. The homeschool parent needs to be more proactive.
The PSAT is a test typically taken in the fall of the junior year. This test is the criteria for the National Merit Scholarship (which, if I may brag for a moment, my oldest son was a Finalist and awarded a Scholarship). In order to register for this, a parent needs to contact the school district, which administers this test.
The SAT is run by a different company, the College Board, and the registration for that test is online, so is pretty much the same for homeschoolers as regular students. My students have not taken the ACT test, so I have no familiarity with it.
I need to generate transcripts for my students. As a homeschooler in New York State, I am subject to regulations that require me to submit a detailed Individualized Home Instruction Plan (IHIP) for each student each year, and to submit quarterly reports on the student throughout the year. I know some families that homeschool under the radar, and while part of me cheers them on, to do so creates additional problems down the road that I choose to avoid through compliance. Since I am actively pursuing a college prep course for my high school students, generating a transcript is not too difficult and is made easier by my IHIPs.
In fact, if any potential or current homeschoolers want to look at my transcript or IHIP format, I would be happy to share, just PM me. Another mom shared her format with me some years ago and I love to pass on the favor.
Let me just say that as a homeschooler, I am aware that a college admission officer might be skeptical about the value of Mommy’s grading system, so I really want to make sure that my students have outside grades that can corroborate their abilities. This we accomplish through community college coursework. This past year, in fact, New York State has reduced the college credit rates for homeschooled or high school students to only $55 per credit, which is really lovely. My son is taking 9 credits right now, in Calculus, Music Theory, and the aforementioned ensembles.
Finally, some college applications require a letter of recommendation from the guidance counselor, which means me. They also require letters from teachers, which could be tough if a student has now had teachers apart from Mom or Dad. My children have always had art teachers, music teachers, work supervisors, volunteer supervisors, as well as community college professors to call on for these kinds of needs, and in point of fact we participate in activities with at least half an eye toward college applications, so this has not been a concern.
One of my final jobs as homeschooling mom is to obtain a letter of completion from the school district. The regs specify what credits are required, so I lay it all out easy for the school district after I have submitted my final paperwork in order to obtain it. I cannot award a diploma, but my students graduate from Edith Stein’s program of study.
Finding the Right College
My oldest knew for years what he wanted to study and found the perfect program for him and applied early admission with an outstanding transcript as a National Merit Finalist with perfect SAT scores and was admitted right away, so there was very little trauma or stress involved. His brother has less certainty, but we believe that we have selected four good schools that he would be happy at and do well. One, Columbia engineering program, is our so-called “reach” school that we don’t really expect to get into, but the others I think are good likelihoods: Manhattan College, Providence College, and SUNY Stony Brook. He hopes to study engineering while also being able to participate in musical theater and/or performance. Having extra college credits going into college makes it more likely that he can take courses outside his major while in college. His older brother is currently double-majoring because of his extra credits.
If anyone has read this whole tome and has any questions, I’d be happy to answer them.
Published in General
His older brother, a super-duper smarty pants with perfect SAT scores
Wow! Quite a tribute to you, I’d say. As are all your other students. Kudos for teaching them Latin. Knowing Latin (same goes for some of the other Romance languages) instantly increases one’s vocabulary in English, and has the added bonus of causing spelling to make sense. People who know the Romance languages, but especially Latin, are better spellers than those who don’t.
Hillsdale, Hillsdale, Hillsdale. Even if he only does two years there then transfers to another school for the Engineering, he can do no better. They love homeschoolers, and have everything he will need, including scholarships. Since they accept no government money, I’m betting their application would be a breeze to complete, without all the government financial aid garbage. Send email to admissions@hillsdale.edu for information, or click the Admissions link on their web site and there is a simple box to click. Good Luck!
Sorry, he’s not interested. One of his criteria is being not too far from home, and Hlilsdale is in Michigan but we’re in New York. Columbia and Manhattan are a quick train ride away, Stony Brook is a two hour drive, and Providence is about 3.5 hours.
My hat is off to you, Mama T! I didn’t read a lot of those Ancient Greek texts until I was in the honors program during college.
Well done, and good luck to the high school senior tadpole! The curriculum looks like it is calculated to generate very well rounded kids.
Thanks! We’ve been able to push our high school students hard but still accommodate their personal interests and skills, so we’ve been pleased thus far.
Me neither! I love homeschooling — it’s like getting a whole ‘nother education. As a history major I never thought I’d be posting chemistry videos on youtube, but there I am…
Kudos and Godspeed to you and all!
I’d throw a couple more long passes down field given the geographical area that you are interested in. If Columbia is in scope due to distance, you should take a strong look at the NYU Poly engineering programs. I think you’ll be surprised at how receptive admissions officers are to sharp home schooled kids.
Well done and nice write-up! Have you gone to check out any of the colleges your senior is interested in? I toured PC when I was choosing a college (my oldest step-brother attended) and I remember I didn’t like it that much.
We actually liked the campus but maybe that was because the music department fed us and he was asked by the music program director to sit in on a jazz rehearsal that afternoon. Being fed always makes one feel more positive…
Ah, the department is probably a big difference. I mostly went to look because it was close and my brother went there, but PC isn’t really known for the engineering/compsci stuff I was looking for at the time. Glad you liked it!
In fact, they still are not known for that!
But, they have a program in conjunction with Columbia Engineering that is a “3-2 program,” which means that a student spends three years at a liberal arts school taking certain courses in the math and science areas along with the liberal arts program, maintains a certain GPA, and then transfers to Columbia for the final two years of the five years in total. The student receives two bachelor degrees, one from the liberal arts school and one from Columbia.
Oh yeahhhhh. That rings a bell. I remember not being enamored with the idea of staying in school for an additional year, or of having to move all the way to NYC. (Note that for most native Rhode Islanders, anything that’s more than 30 minutes away is too far. 15 minutes if you’re from Aquidneck Island)
How come we can’t home school college?
Cyber…tape/dvd; MA in Theology that way
I knew you were smart.
It’s amazing how much you can do remotely these days with online degrees which includes very high quality institutions. Just look at what you can do at, for example, at the University of Florida. (Go Gators! Beat Iowa.)
Yes but can you do it and not file bankruptcy when you are finished?
That’s your call in the end. You have to decide what the value of the degree is relative to its price. Going 20k in debt for that political science degree might not make any sense, but 30k in debt for that Electrical Engineering degree might be much more reasonable. It depends on the market for your skills, the student, and the institution.
If you are getting in-state tuition at UF, it’s probably going to be a good decision if you get a STEM degree that trains you to do something in demand. Paying out-of-state tuition at UF for a liberal arts degree that no one really cares about? That might not be your best move.
Having read this “whole tome,” I don’t have any questions.
You’ve also convinced me that if I did, though, there are no questions I could possibly think of, that you wouldn’t have the answers to.
Wow! What a wonderful job you’ve done. And how clever your kids were to have chosen you as their mother!
Thanks ! That means a lot (although I have to say Sr. Janet’s story was just now making me feel inadequate)…
Doesn’t matter if you file or not. The legal standard for discharge of student loan bankruptcy is “hopeless to repay.” For the record, going blind or being restricted to a wheelchair isn’t hopeless enough.
I used to help out with a Saturday morning science program for children at my old workplace. It was by volunteers, and parents were expected to take part with their children. After my son was too old for it I helped out only a few times a year, running some sessions on aquatic invertebrates and zooplankton, and helping with independent projects. The last few years the participants were almost entirely from homeschooler groups.
It was a particularly aggressive homeschooling mother who talked me into taking some of the older boys, who were otherwise too old for the program, out collecting in winter. I hadn’t done that before except in the case of a couple of independent projects. She used my camera to take this photo of her son and one other boy with me. Another time there were three of them.
Her son wanted to go to vet school. She said her family had talked ahead of time with people at the vet school of the university where I worked, and had been told that they especially liked homeschooled students, who had been among some of the more successful in their program.
This photo was taken 10 years ago. But our program was winding down then due to some of the main organizers retiring and moving away, and facilities at my workplace becoming unavailable. I did run into the mother and these boys again over the next couple of years, and it sounded as though they were doing well.
Wow, that sounds like a great high school curriculum. And it must be so much fun to learn along with the kids. I confess (anyone else?) that I watched the whole chemistry video through to be sure I understood the explanations, because I couldn’t have answered either without watching. I was extremely pleased to be able to keep up. I liked it that you left no steps out, so I didn’t get lost (which actually happened to me often in school; I’d never admit I was confused). Thank you!
I’d like to do high school over again in your classroom, frankly.
Thanks, Claire!
Wow! I wished I had been home schooled under you! What an outstanding mom and teacher. The only question I have is how much of your day does the home schooling take up?
Mama Toad, if you get a minute please adopt me. I promise to (occasionally) take out the trash.
Good question. As long as I have prepped over the weekend so all my students have a lesson plan for the week, I probably spend about four or five hours working with students each day. Each student needs about an hour of time a day at least from me directly, although it can vary.
My third grader probably spends about two hours a day on school, sometimes more, and my sophomore about six or more.