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gwendyt
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| Posted: Oct 25 2005 at 9:13am | IP Logged
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Forgive me if this has already been a topic of discussion, but I was hoping to pick the brains of those of you who have gone through the college admissions process. We had our mom's support meeting last night, and many of our mom's have 8/9th graders where they are looking ahead to high school and possible requirements for college. One mom in our group, who has the most experience, really encouraged us all to be enrolled in a school (she does OLR) because it has made it SOOO much easier for her kids to get into college and also play college sports. I don't really see myself going this route (of enrollment), nor do some of the other ladies, but you can tell many moms feel uncertain as to what to present then for educational "proof", so to speak, if you don't have a graded transcript to show. I know that many colleges are friendly to hsers, but what if this isn't necessarily true of the local state colleges that many of our kids around here end up going to? This mom also commented that she felt her program was more rigourous (in the basic subjects) and defendable rather than say the mom in our group who is giving credits to her high school kids for everything under the sun when perhaps she is stretching things and credit isn't really deserved? What are colleges asking for? What should we be looking ahead to provide? Thanks for any advice you can offer, and I hope to pass some of your wisdom along!
Wendy
DH Joe(91), Mom to five: Erin(96), Amanda(98), Alex(01), Jacob(03), Jonathan(04)
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Wendy
Married to DH Joe 18 yrs., 8 beautiful children - 2 girls, 6 boys (14,12,9,7,5,3,1,newbie born 3/1/2010)
A Little of This, A Little of That
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Anne Marie M
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| Posted: Oct 25 2005 at 9:27pm | IP Logged
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Wendy,
I've only got a few moments, but here goes. . .
Yes, a transcript is important - but you can make your own and have colleges accept it. Some will want a portfolio (which includes a detailed list of course descriptions and books used). For info on putting your own together, read Cafi Cohen's books (especially And What About College? (I think)) and The Well Trained Mind. Our home-brewed transcripts have been accepted at 5 colleges to date and have also been accepted for numerous scholarship applications (with good results). They are also acceptable for things like National Merit Finalist applications.
My oldest is a student at U of Dallas. My second oldest is a high school senior now. The difference in the process for him is that he's looking at a wide variety of types of colleges, including big science colleges (like Rice and Caltech). These colleges tend to require more in the way of SAT subject tests - although they require them from everyone (instead of just homeschoolers, like Notre Dame does).
The academic rigor of any program can be shown through a portfolio and documentation by test scores. My daughter's GPA was in line with her SAT scores, and we didn't have anyone question her transcript.
As far as local state colleges go - I know HSLDA has helped some families when state colleges clearly go against federal requirements. Don't know any details, sorry.
Gotta go! Let me know if you have any more questions - and I'm sorry this is so disjointed! 
Anne Marie
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gwendyt
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| Posted: Oct 26 2005 at 10:22am | IP Logged
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Thanks Anne Marie! I'll look into those book recommendations. Anyone else with suggestions/experience out there?
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Wendy
Married to DH Joe 18 yrs., 8 beautiful children - 2 girls, 6 boys (14,12,9,7,5,3,1,newbie born 3/1/2010)
A Little of This, A Little of That
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Willa
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| Posted: Oct 26 2005 at 11:49am | IP Logged
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I have limited experience -- my oldest son who was accepted into a Catholic homeschool-friendly college (Thomas Aquinas College). His acceptance was based upon his homemade transcript and GPA which correlated well with his SAT scores, and upon an admissions essay he wrote. He did not apply to any of our state colleges (we live in CA).
The difference of opinion you mention between the two moms comes from two opposing views of what education is about. The OLR mom sounds as if she believes education is a certain set of subjects and classes that prepare one for a standard college experience. The other mom sounds like she believes learning comes from living and so her transcript is based on what her kids are doing in their lives.
I have heard of kids getting to college using either of those approaches -- or a combination of both. I think colleges look both for objective validation of academic claims, AND also for intellectual energy or vitality (usually the extra-curricular activities indicate that kind of thing). But the details vary from college to college.
My son's college applications were a combination of both. We certainly didn't have a rigidly structured high school curriculum but since he was intellectually inclined, his transcript was easy to formulate and fit pretty well into the standard college-prep model.
I don't know if I agree that a structured "school at home" curriculum is more necessarily more rigorous than an unschooling one. I just finished reading a book by an unschooling mom -- her son was taking German 6 and French 4 by the time he entered a selective liberal arts college and he also had a wide variety of other experiences through his unschooling years. It was all pretty much self-directed with the parents as facilitators and guides/coaches.
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Willa
hsing boys ages 11, 14, almost 18 (+ 4 homeschool grads ages 20 to 27)
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ALmom
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| Posted: Oct 29 2005 at 12:00am | IP Logged
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My dd was just accepted to the state University with an automatic scholarship and a chance to try for more scholarships (she is not brilliant but they offer a scholarship based on an SAT above a 1240).  We are beginning to breath easier this year. I heard through the grapevine that they have been quite welcoming of homeschoolers.
I really don't know if they have put two and two together and know we are homeschooled or not. We have a standard transcript from the church school and a mile long list of outside music activities (volunteer, orchestra/chamber type stuff and jobs). They certainly know we live in AL and that our transcript is a bit different (grades only by semester instead of every quarter, no class rank, no class size, no honor society or school honor clubs and we didn't manage to do science for 4 years which is standard in our state) than the typical public or private school transcript.
It really is possible to get into state schools. If your own state is a boogaroo maybe a nearby state is more accomodating. Scholarships really can bridge out of state tuition costs. If you can manage a 1400 SAT in our state you basically get a free ride. But even if you don't there are some really odd ball scholarships that no one thinks about - "priority given to descendents of ...". Nowadays some of these descendents are non-existant so go for it.
I really do think that a transcript of some sort makes life easier for all. Also, extracurricular activities are important and most scholarships require some essay writing. Another hs family we know - the dad is having dc (twins) apply to 30 colleges. They calculated probabilities of both dc getting a full ride at the same school and this is the result. The poor dc are up to their ears in essays but really having a good time. Can't that be added to the math and English for the day (REAL learning)?
I think no matter what you do, there will be some stress until you actually see the acceptance letters and /or scholarships roll in. If you have a system that is working and your dc is learning, I'm not sure there is much point in changing anything just for college admissions. I would make sure I had some way to give a transcript and do a little test prepping before the big college entrance tests (but not stress over it). The college our dc is entering will look at the highest of 5 scores. We'll take it a 3rd time just to try for the 1400 - you never know, but it is not really likely - she gets bogged down on that critical reading section(which counts) and scores to the sky in grammar and essay writing(which none of the schools are looking at this year since it is the first year on the test)
This is only my experience in a rather heavily homeschooling area (where ps always rank at the very bottom next to Mississippi). Experiences may be different on the East or West coast. Also this is our very first child in college so we are far from experts. However, we made tons of mistakes that I hope not to make with dc #2-6 and our transcript really looked super light in 9th grade (at the time dc had no desire for college and we were very relaxed until she started talking college and panic set in). Panic didn't help, btw.
Janet
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tovlo4801
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| Posted: Oct 30 2005 at 6:49pm | IP Logged
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ALmom wrote:
Panic didn't help, btw.
Janet |
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 I need to relearn this lesson ALL the time!
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Getting accepted into college?
