2 yrs online home schooling, getting GED & SAT. Frustrated, don't know what to do! Help please??

Pre-College Issues Home Schooling and College
1

<p>Sorry for my long first post and ignorant questions. I could really use some advice.</p>

<p>Back story:
When I was 16 I left high school halfway into my freshman year and moved to Florida with my family. I didn't want to attend a new public high school (big mistake which I now deeply regret) so I chose home schooling on Florida Virtual School online. I completed 9th grade and most of 10th grade on FLVS, but then began working in my family's business and slacked off. A year ago my family decided to move back to New Jersey. I'm 19 years old now. I plan on completing the final two classes I need to finish my 10th year on FLVS, then studying like mad for the GED and hopefully passing with high scores this June, then taking the SAT in June or October and hopefully getting a good score as well. I'd like to study nutrition or dietetics, and the schools I have in mind are Drexl University, Syracuse University, Temple University, and maybe even Penn State.</p>

<p>~
I have a few questions: </p>

<ul>
<li><p>First, what should I even do? I've never had any guidance from anyone so I'm completely clueless about how I can improve my chances of getting into a university or if I can even make it in. I've never had a chance to ask a school guidance counselor for help or advice. I regret not going back to high school and taking too long to catch up in my online schooling. I'm very determined but also feel like it's too late for me to do anything at all.</p></li>
<li><p>I've read in some places that universities do not take online schooling seriously.. Some require the GED as well as high school transcripts, so would my FLVS transcript be eligible? Or would I have to show my 9th grade public high school transcript? I know I only have the 9th and 10th grades of FLVS completed, so would it be convenient for me to finish 11th year and as many additional classes as I can before taking the GED? Would those FLVS credits even matter?</p></li>
<li><p>Is it even possible for me to go straight into a 4 year university without community college? Money isn't an issue for me, and my FLVS grades are pretty good, all A's and B's in every class except math. </p></li>
<li><p>I plan on participating in a lot of community service as well.. whatever I can do to better my chances. The reason I'd rather not do community college is because all of the options around me are terrible! All of my friends have had bad experiences with the two community colleges in my area. I was even considering going to Philadelphia community college but also became discouraged after reading so many awful reviews from current and former students. I also may be moving to California within the next two years.</p></li>
</ul>

<p>A huge "thank you" to anyone with the patience to answer my questions.</p>

2

<p>Is it really too late for you to enroll in public high school? You’re 19 already, but you were already 16? as a freshman,–that’s pretty old–so you’ve always been a little older. If you have some documented reason for that (ie LD, non-native English speaker) your access to free public high school may be even longer than for others. </p>

<p>You might want to contact admissions at the schools you are interested in. My guess, but it’s just a guess, is that they wouldn’t consider 2 years of mostly online schooling and a GED to be competitive with their applicants who completed 4 years of high school. Also, you should look at whether you’ve really completed the recommended courses for colleges which interest you. Many colleges are looking for at least 3 years in subjects like English, math, or foreign languages. I’m not sure that rushing into a GED is your best option if you are still eligible to attend and complete high school. Perhaps someone at your local public high school would be willing to meet with you and discuss your options? </p>

3

<p>Syracuse admission requirements for home schoolers include high school transcripts, SAT scores, 2 letters of recommendation, & either the GED or a letter of completion from your district. </p>

<p>Can your parents put together a list of all your classes so you know what you’re missing? At most you have 2 years of core classes to make up? Applications for the fall of 2015 are due Jan. 1st, so you have time. </p>

<p>Can you pick up some textbooks and self study? Since you’re past the age of compulsory attendance, I’m not sure your parents have to do any paperwork for the NJ high schools. Just figure out what classes you’re missing and complete them. You can do MOOCs, the online courses you’ve been doing, self study, AP or CLEP exams, or a combination. Check the admission requirements of the schools you’re interested in for subject requirements. If they want lab science, maybe you could take a class or two at a local community college. Otherwise, I’d be inclined to pick up some books at Amazon and self study for the AP or CLEP exams. The APs are given in early May; I’m not sure when CLEP test dates are. You don’t have to take AP classes to take the exams. If you’re too old to take AP exams, take the CLEP exams offered by the College Board. You’ll have grades for transcripts and college credit.</p>

<p>Make sure you study for the SAT too. I’d suggest going to the College Board website and taking a practice test to see what you need to brush up on.</p>

<p>Good luck. Let us know how it works out. :)</p>

4

<p>It is not fair that the GED is stigmatized by university admissions, but it often is, so my first suggestion would be for you to fully investigate all of your other options, and leave taking the GED as a last resort and only if you have to.</p>

<p>You are able to enroll in FLVS classes until you are 19 and you have until you are 21 to complete the courses. Now that you are out of state, the classes would not be free, so it might be too expensive. However, that would be a clean way to handle all of this since you have two years of work on record with them. You could complete your 11th and 12th grade academic core classes with FLVS, and accelerate through them since the program is so flexible, over the next year. You would complete a high school program (you would want to create a transcript that shows all your coursework and that meets your state’s high school graduation requirements as far as credits.) Online schooling is taken seriously (we homeschool and my kids all take classes via FLVS and are getting into college just fine.) However, you have to be able to submit a coherent transcript that proves you have completed the equivalent of a high school diploma. Combine that coherent transcript with high SAT and ACT scores, and you will be competitive.</p>

<p>Even with that transcript and high SAT and ACT scores, some schools may not accept it. You will be an applicant that is more out of the box than the standard high school applicant because you still have two years of high school credits to complete, and not all schools are ready to deal with that. Let that be their problem and you just move on to schools that are willing to give your application a serious look, and there are many that will.</p>

<p>That said, you have dealt with a lot of instability. While you were in Florida, I am surprised that you were able to attend FLVS but yet, apparently, did not report your progress to the local school district. Were you ever officially registered as a home school student? Did you officially drop out of school at 16 when you lived here? And now you are looking at another move in a couple of years to California. That is a lot of instability.</p>

<p>So, if one of my kids was in your situation, while going back to FLVS could be a good option, I think I would recommend that they go see what an admissions counselor at the community college had to say about doing that. Perhaps it makes more sense to just go straight to the community college first rather than finish up high school classes with FLVS. At the community college, you could establish a record of excellent college level work, obtain that AA/AS and then transfer to a 4-year university. I think you would benefit from being in a classroom with supportive classmates and professors, so that you have some external influences helping to encourage accountability and also to cheer you on.</p>

<p>I was curious about Drexel’s policy for GED students, and they do have one - students with a GED must have completed at least 24 college credits before being considered for admission. So you have to have at least a year of college to be considered anyway if you decide to take the GED. They also want letters of recommendation, and if you were to enroll at the community college and do well and take the time to get to know some professors, you would have those letters of recommendation.</p>

<p>You just need someone to sit down with you and help you map out a plan, whether to complete high school classes and then enroll in college, or bypass the rest of high school and just get started in the community college.</p>

<p>Don’t give up hope. You still have many options. You just need to choose a path and stick to it (and get your parents involved so that the whole family is involved in helping you, even if the family business creates a lot of demands.)</p>