<p>I play a few instruments and do a lot of work on my art portfolio at home. On the homeschool application sheet, can I designate these as classes? I'd like to put it on there, because I spend a good amount of time on these things.</p>
<p>Also, if I can, do colleges count these as an extra course or more of an extra curricular activity?</p>
<p>You should do it the way it makes the most sense… I mean, you’re the only one who’ll know what that is exactly. With a non-traditional application you kind of need to work it around to your best advantage.</p>
<p>Not knowing the specifics of your art and music, though, or how much time you put into them or anything else, my first instinct is to make the art portfolio work a “course” and make the music an extracurricular.</p>
<p>For my son we put his music as an extracurricular (even though he took lessons for a couple years) because it was a more on-and-off type of activity. For my daughter we made it a course because she has been in serious lessons for years, plays in youth symphony year round, as well as two other ensembles. She’s planning on a music minor in college. It isn’t really <em>extra</em>-curricular for her, it’s very much “curricular.” :)</p>
<p>I think, from how you’re describing it, these sound more like activities than courses. They will look just as impressive listed as extracurricular activities on an application when you list the amount of time you’ve devoted to them. If you do list them as courses, colleges will probably count them as electives. Hope this helps.</p>
<p>Thank you! I wanted to put it as an extracurricular and not really a course, so this settles it.</p>
<p>Just to stir the pot: music lessons, orchestra participation, etc. would count for credit in a regular school. It all depends on how you’re doing your transcript. If it’s your parents, they can award you credit in any subject as long as they determine the number of hours and how your work is evaluated.</p>
<p>My parents aren’t filling out my transcripts, actually. I do the music and art independently, but I really want to count it as an extracurricular.</p>
<p>Unrelated to the music/art: do you necessarily need grades on your homeschool transcript? We never did grades for my 9th/10th grade coursework. As a junior and senior, I go to a college full time for the most part. Is it necessary to put grades on the work if i’ll have several graded courses from that school to build a GPA with?</p>
<p>I know one homeschool parent who didn’t assign grades to her daughter’s transcript and two colleges she applied to told her the application could not be considered complete without grades, so the parent sent it a copy of the transcript back with grades attached. Other colleges her daughter applied to did not seem to mind the lack of grades.</p>
<p>You can send your transcript without them. It may happen that a college will ask for them nonetheless. Or not.</p>
<p>I attached grades to some of my kids’ homeschool “courses”, and for some of them I just assessed them with a “Pass”… it depended on the nature of the subject area and how they approached it.</p>
<p>I guess i’ll have to call, because the pass/fail system is a good idea that I hadn’t even considered. Plus I doubt that my parents will go through and re-assess EVERYTHING for two years.</p>
<p>We just sort of went along and re worked/learned things if necessary until I fully understood.</p>
<p>I had two kids go through the process without any grades and with no “outside” (college or otherwise) courses who did fine. I don’t think parent grades would carry much weight in any case. But do what they ask.
After my son applied to Johns Hopkins, we located something on their website that required a graded transcript from home school applicants. I sent a letter saying that I understood that 45% or so of SAT takers said they were “A” students, and that considering that and my son’s schooled friends, I would say that my son was an “A” student. He was admitted.
I just think that they perceived him as otherwise desirable within their applicant pool.</p>
<p>The parent grades thing is what I was also considering. I mean, if I did something REALLY badly, we would probably go back and re do it anyways.</p>
<p>If you went back and mastered it, sounds like an “A” to me.
That’s the way the SAT Subject Tests work. Get a 560. Come back and get a 700 six months later. A 700 mastery of that subject to me, and I’m guessing in the eyes of any reasonable admissions person.</p>
<p>my parents just gave me an A in everything, but my college grades and SATIIs backed everything up</p>
<p>That’s another good way to think about it, both of you. I planned to take 4 SATIIs as well.</p>
<p>Okay, here’s another thing I keep seeing. State high school equivalency certificates, what exactly is this?</p>
<p>Regarding State High School Equivalency Certificates–you should contact your state board of Education about this as the process varies from state to state. Another option is the GED. </p>
<p>If I could make a recommendation on your transcript and the art and music. You can designate art and music as extra curricular activities and also give yourself grades and credit for these. (Schooled kids will present in this way). It might be a good idea to seek out a form of external evaluation for your work or formalize it in some way, ex. compile a portfolio of your art or create a website or gallery show. For music, sit for a state music teacher’s evaluation or other regional music competition. External evaluations will validate a grade issued by your homeschool.</p>
<p>I would strongly advise against taking the GED. It’s designed for students who haven’t completed high school, not homeschoolers, and there are plenty of schools that take homeschoolers who don’t have a state high school equivalency certificate.</p>
<p>I don’t want to take the GED, and I don’t think i’m allowed to actually. I mentioned it once to someone (not about taking it, because I had no idea what it was) and they flipped out.</p>
<p>I like the idea of putting it as both, since I was in orchestra at my old high school and I got a grade for it. I think that’s how i’ll put it, because I don’t really have any other “electives” to put down.</p>
<p>And i’m sorry for neglecting this thread, but i’m back. AP tests are done…thank goodness.</p>
<p>Also, the state of Michigan is a nightmare to get ahold of apparently, so even if you don’t live here, can someone tell me about their state’s requirements for an equivalency certificate? I just want a general idea of what some states require.</p>
<p>I put a lot of courses on my transcript that aren’t “traditional” courses- figure skating, piano, ancient Troy, and method acting. With the exception of Ancent Troy, all of the classes were based off of my ECs. I tend to read a lot :), so for the courses were based off of books I had read, for piano it was biographies of composers, analysis of sonatas, and I can’t remember what else. So in that sense they were all traditional courses, in that they were based primarily off of reading.</p>
<p>As far as grades go, we kind of went back two years after the fact and determined what my grades had approximately been. Good luck! :)</p>
<p>Sounds like what I did for English and History. I sort of lumped the two together since i’m not really into history, and i’m a really fast reader so I read a lot of books on various subjects.</p>
<p>I’m not really too worried about grades anymore. I’ve taken college classes and done really well in them, so that can always back it up.</p>