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folklaur
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| Posted: Oct 25 2006 at 8:44pm | IP Logged
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She had a plan.
It was a GOOD plan.
She was going to be a pastry chef. The local community college has an excellent culinary arts degree, and for years -- that was what she wanted. Pastry Chef.
And it was good. We were basically relaxed unschoolers, and it was okay, because we could be relaxed unschoolers with that plan. The good plan. The *nice* plan....
And then.....
She took Marching Band 
And she loves it, and found she not only loves music, she REALLY loves music, and is really good at it. (who knew? I didn't...)
And now, I am sitting here thinking "ACK!" because the nice, simple, relaxed unschooling - based plan is no longer the plan, and now we need a new plan.
She wants to be a Music Teacher. She wants a degree in Music Education.
Okay -- great. But now she would like to attend the local UNIVERSITY, and if I had been "Good Homeschooling Mom" that would be okay. But I wasn't. We didn't have to worry about transcripts, etc. WE HAD THE PLAN!
See - the local University (though not my first choice by a long shot for her) -- would still enable her to live at home (good) and if she is in the top 5% of her high school graduating class, she gets free tutition to any of the three State Universities (better!) since the plain fact of the matter is we don't have much financially to help her with as far as college goes.
And if had I had "accredited" transcripts and GPA's to give them, then it would all be good.
If. Which I don't obviously.
Now I am trying to run circles seeing if she can take district finals for classes so as to go on a transcript that would "count", etc. etc.....
Ack.
And want to know the worst part? I talked her into Marching Band  
"Why don't you join a team? Daddy was in Marching Band. Maybe you'll like it! Blah-blah-blah...."
I don't know if I have a question, exactly, but I would love some advice.
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MacBeth
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| Posted: Oct 25 2006 at 8:51pm | IP Logged
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Laura,
What about Benedictine College? I know it is in Kansas (an easy drive from AZ...I know...I've done it  ). They have a great music ed. dept., they are VERY Catholic, and they have plenty of financial aid. Just a thought!! 
They love homeschoolers. Put a nice portfolio together, and see what happens!
(This is my third edit)
We just attended a music conservatory fair, and I have loads of info from colleges and conservatories. PM me if you need more advice on what they need on the apps.
__________________
God Bless!
MacBeth in NY
Don's wife since '88; "Mom" to the Fab 4
Nature Study
MacBeth's Blog 
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folklaur
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| Posted: Oct 25 2006 at 10:36pm | IP Logged
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MacBeth wrote:
Laura,
What about Benedictine College? I know it is in Kansas (an easy drive from AZ...I know...I've done it ). They have a great music ed. dept., they are VERY Catholic, and they have plenty of financial aid. Just a thought!!
They love homeschoolers. Put a nice portfolio together, and see what happens!
(This is my third edit)
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Is there a way to tell that a post has been edited? I didn't know you edited it  .
....sigh....They don't have Marching Band......
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ALmom
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| Posted: Oct 25 2006 at 11:54pm | IP Logged
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Laura, first, while we weren't unschoolers, that post could have been me about 2 - 3 years ago. We hadn't sweated over what was on our transcript because our daughter insisted that she was NOT going to college, period. Well, we did some scrambling and managed to get the right things on the transcript while still making progress in education. We never even got around to taking courses from outside ( a few tutors but no duel enrollment) mostly because I was slow to figure out these things. We weren't looking, our dd didn't want college - right?
My oldest is now a piano performance major at a local university. They do have a very famous marching band that draws people from all over. They don't care about accreditation - just put together a transcript (ours looked reasonable but not all that official). We did have a signature from our church school administrator and a name for our church school - and she found somewhere to make an official looking seal for our school which is also on the transcript).
Now, I really don't think the University much cared what was on this as long as they could check off requirements for admission, though having some sort of transcript made life easier. They certainly knew we were homeschooling. If your child has a good SAT or ACT score, they don't much care - certain scores provide an automatic level of academic scholarship and then you compete for more with essays and extracurriclur activities. The competitive academic scholarships are probably easier to get with lots of duel enrollment of non-parent graded courses. If you are a national merit scholar - they give very, very generous scholarships automatically and they don't care how you schooled. You can go to the website and see what they expect to see on the transcript.
The only downside is that the University is a thouroughly secular college and does not provide a lot of Catholic support (though not too far from EWTN for an occassional boost), though the music program is solid and even have some real traditional professors and a cooperative atmosphere among students. They have a music education and music therapy degree as well. It is a "football" school - which is why the band program is awesome. You can compete for scholarships to be in the band - but of course then you are at every football game with obnoxious fans, etc. It just depends on how much you can put up with. If you are in Arizona, this may be closer for you than others and if you want, PM me and I'll give you more information - good and bad.
Janet
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marihalojen
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| Posted: Oct 26 2006 at 7:27am | IP Logged
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Laura, I still have two sisters being homeschooled, well, sort of homeschooled. One is a Senior this year and transcripts were never kept for either one. They both started in an alternative school (half day of classes a few days a week) last year and the oldest was able to intern at the Whaling Institiute for a day tagging whales through the school. It changed everything. She is definitely going to college now, but the alternative school wouldn't even talk of graduation since we couldn't prove accredited courses and all. So her best plan at that time was to double up on classes and take summer school too, just racking up credits. She even anticipated going an extra semester to gain enough time.
However, after a year of this she has won the confidence of the school, and been awarded a College Level internship to the Maui Ocean Institute, been elected Student Rep, and Class President, formed a school Tennis Team, and found a lady to come in and offer Yoga for free to students, she takes double enrolled classes across the island, etc...etc...
The point is, once she "proved" herself the school is working with her, finding ways to help her gain credits in non-traditional ways like those listed above. (The yoga was a community service thing, the Tennis is a PE credit, you know how it goes.) And not just the local alternative school but potential colleges as well are working with her.
If it hadn't turned out this way there was talk of trying to get a transcript off of an accredited school like this one (I am not endorsing this particular one, just using it as an example, i.e. I've not explored the site fully) I am certain there are other ladies on this board with more info on unschooling transcripts (and hopefully they've had more coffee this morning than I!)
One last thought, if she can get accepted somewhere besides the number one choice, have you thought of transferring back home the next semester/year?
__________________
~Jennifer
Mother to Mariannna, age 13
The Mari Hal-O-Jen
SSR = Sailing, Snorkling, Reading
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: Oct 26 2006 at 7:47am | IP Logged
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As far as affordability, don't forget there is always federal financial aid. Although it is not as ideal as getting scholarship money, it does help.
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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Bookswithtea
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| Posted: Oct 26 2006 at 8:05am | IP Logged
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NARHS will also (for a fee) verify her coursework from the last two year as long as you can provide proof that something was done. I was just reading their catalogue yesterday afternoon, trying to determine if it would be a good choice for us.
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Blessings,
~Books
mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and  due 9/10
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juliecinci
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| Posted: Oct 26 2006 at 9:44pm | IP Logged
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Can I throw something out here too? If she is really serious, she can prepare for as many SAT II tests as possible to verify that she has covered the course materials usually associated with high school. Writing your own transcripts for homemade courses is also easier than you might think. There are lots of websites that help you.
I would take the lifestyle she's had and think through how you can give her credit for the things she has learned at home. If she has not done any math or science, you may need to delay entry into college for a year to get those credits. Passing the SAT II may be enough to win their confidence.
I've also found that talking directly to admissions is the way to go. Many of the admissions counselors have dealt with homeschoolers before and they'll help you figure it out. If she is really good at band they may even have an incentive to help you.
Last idea. There are some universities who will take your child as a "special student" status. That means that your daughter can start as a non-degree seeking student who has teh chance to prove herself academically before she is enrolled into a degree program. Only downside is that you can't get financial help when a child not enrolled as a FT degree seeking student.
What about College? by Cafi Cohen was really helpful to me.
What About College?
Bon courage!
Julie
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Julie
Homeschooling five for fourteen years
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folklaur
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| Posted: Oct 29 2006 at 12:31am | IP Logged
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Well, I talked to the university.
And that went MUCH better than I had hoped for or expected, and was also MUCH more informative than trying to deal with the high school. As a matter of fact, I won't really have to deal with the HS much at all (except for marching band... , of course).....
The University does have free tution scholarships for the top 5% of high school grads, but since homeschoolers do not have a weighted GPA, it doesn't cover them. However, they have set up a special scholarship open to homeschoolers based solely on their ACT scores, and it basically covers the top 10% of homeschoolers applying. She would get $1500/yr for 4 years as long as she maintained a 3.25 GPA. So that actually covers most of her tutition.
They have an admissions counselor that works just with homeschoolers now too, and she knew all the questions I was going to ask and had answers too.
I don't know why I didn't go directly to the university sooner, and instead spent so much time (and energy!) trying to work with the high school. Silly me ! And they will accept transcripts from me, and her ACT scores(or SAT but they prefer ACT and the ACT can also get them "out" of certain requirements...).
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Erin
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| Posted: Oct 29 2006 at 4:58am | IP Logged
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Laura,
I am so thrilled for you all. What a burden lifted God is gracious.
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Erin
Faith Filled Days
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juliecinci
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| Posted: Oct 29 2006 at 8:46am | IP Logged
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Laura, what a happy outcome!
One thing my husband always says (he teaches freshman composition at two different universities) is that colleges are businesses first. They need students. They want to recruit the best candidates that they can. Fortunately for us, homeschoolers generally have a good reputation as solid risks for most universities. And the "hard core" requirements are not as iron clad as we've been led to believe. If a university really wants a student, they will waive things.
I was told by the University of Cincinnati, for instance, that they are only interested in two or three sciences if the student is applying to a science related field. Otherwise, they don't even notice. Who would have known that?
Anyway, great that she qualifies so well!
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Julie
Homeschooling five for fourteen years
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Sarah
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| Posted: Oct 29 2006 at 10:01am | IP Logged
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I was a music major at Benedictine College and second MacBeth's recommendation. . .
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Six boys ages 16, 14, 11, 7, 5, 2 and one girl age 9
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dizzylaurel
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| Posted: Nov 09 2006 at 5:20am | IP Logged
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So happy to hear your news!
I also am so glad to glean from this board; with a daughter in 8th grade who still isn't sure she wants to head right off to college, and with an ever increasing trend toward more relaxed homeschooling, it's encouraging to know that so many of the colleges are now recognizing the homeschoolers as worth looking at in a "non high school" manner.
Not sure where the future will lead in the next four years, but I know I'll keep SOME paperwork--and maybe even be a bit grateful that PA requires a portfolio!
We'll be keeping your dd in our prayers!
Hugs,
Laurel in PA
mom to dd 12 and dd 7
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4Real Forums : High School Years and Beyond
Topic: Ack! Now what???
