Homeschooling in High School: College Admissions Planning
Homeschooling in high school can be a little more structured if college is on your child’s horizon. While many states vary in their high school graduation requirements, most colleges want to see that their applicants have completed some basic standards:
Four years of language arts
Three to four years of math
Two to three years of science
Two to three years of history
Two years of foreign language study
A general average of six full classes per year
As homeschoolers, this is very easy to attain. My kids did four years each of language arts, math, history, and foreign language, and three years of science, as well as fine arts, Shakespeare, physical education, and other electives. When my son, who had taken two semesters of dual enrollment math classes in high school, realized that he had met his college’s core requirements and would never have to take another math class again in college for his history major, he was actually shocked! We choose to do less than the bare minimum, and we believe it sets our children up for success in college as well as real life.
So what exactly do we do in high school to prepare for college? High school is when I do believe it’s good for homeschooled students who have only ever had mom as their teacher to take classes from someone else. My kids have done a combination of online classes, local tutorials, and then dual enrollment classes at our local Christian college in their junior and senior years. I’m still the one overseeing their education, but different teachers focus on different things, so I like to have them practice this before college.
For college admissions, we take standardized tests to see where we fit in the admissions picture. My kids grew up on college campuses because their dad is a professor, but if your children are not even familiar with a college campus, try to look for cultural events at your closest college or university so that they get the feel for being on a campus throughout high school. We talked a lot to them about potential colleges starting at the beginning of high school, and we had them talk to current college students and recent graduates that we know from church and other activities. There’s no substitute for visiting college campuses (and ideally, sitting in on actual classes) to get a feel for what type of institution fits you. During junior year for our oldest, we visited his top choice school, his mom and dad’s alma mater, and he liked the small liberal arts school vibe. But we made sure to have him visit a big state school that same month to contrast. It was very clear to our son that a school of 1,500 was a better fit than the school of 5,000 where his dad teaches or the school of 25,000 where his grandma teaches! Some of his friends had the opposite response. Once you’ve expressed interest in a school and had your test scores sent there, an admissions counselor will be in touch with your student about requirements and when their admissions process begins.
Most of the schools my son applied to use the Common App website, so once applications opened during the summer after junior year, we started working on getting his transcript uploaded and had him write his college admissions essays. I recall doing this in my AP English class senior year. For our son, the process was that he wrote a draft of the essay prompts and then had us give him feedback and suggestions to tweak them. If you’re not confident in your ability to help your child, you can reach out to any high school tutors you’ve used as well as any friends who teach at the college level. Your child’s college essays should all be their own words, but they certainly can take feedback and assistance in crafting them. Please do ensure that no AI is used in the application process. Admissions counselors have plenty of tools at their disposal to identify AI use, and they truly want to get to know your child and determine whether he is a good fit for their school and whether their school is a good fit for him.
For National Merit as well as his colleges of choice, my son needed two letters of recommendation from teachers not related to him. He asked his beloved online math teacher who had taught him for three levels of math between 7th and 11th grade and his favorite history teacher who had taught him two co-op history classes. He approached them in the summer, at least a couple months before their letters of recommendation were due, and he sent our a reminder thank you email a couple weeks before they were due. Afterwards, of course, he wrote them handwritten thank you notes, both for their excellent work in teaching him over the years, as well as for their time in crafting their letters of recommendation.
High school students can start working on earning scholarships as early as freshman year. Many organizations such as the American Legion and Optimists International hold speech and essay contests for high school students and award college scholarship money to winners at multiple levels of the competition. Our local credit union offers scholarships to high school seniors who bank with them. I noticed last time I was grabbing an SAT prep book for my daughter that the public library had several books on finding external scholarships for college. Ask at your workplace and community resource centers like the public library if there are scholarship opportunities you can pursue. If your child has good test scores and GPA, the institutions where they apply are likely to offer them merit based scholarships, and if they play competitive sports, your coach will help you talk to athletic recruiters for athletic scholarships.
While it may seem daunting to a homeschool family without a guidance center doing to bulk of this work for you, we know many homeschool families whose children have gotten into their top choice schools with significant financial aid. Homeschoolers can absolutely get into and thrive in college!
