<p>I am stunned. S made it through the prescreen for UNT. Has an audition scheduled (has been scheduled since Dec 9). He got a letter today that said he is not admitted to UNT!!! This completely baffles me 'cause he got a huge academic scholarship to Denver/Lamont last year. He is homeschooled and did honors level courses. His SAT reading was great, math so so, and writing of course with the essay not so great (25 minutes?? I was an English professor and I couldn't write a good essay in that time). But UNT's website says for public school kids only need a combined verbal/math of 950 which my S has much higher. I know they say "individual review" for home school kids but this is crazy!!!!
I can't make arrangements for travel now, which is gonna probably end up costing us money. Or are his hopes completely shot?????!! And of course the school is on break until Jan 2!!!!!! AAAAARRRGGGGHHHHH!!! Can we appeal? I just don't get it!!!</p>
<p>Shellybean - I would be very surprised if you could not appeal this decision, and the school of music would probably be an ally for you, as well. However, since they’re closed for the break, not much you can do until later. In the meantime, if you book your flight via Southwest, which is usually good for Texas destinations - they have no change fees - so, if you don’t end up using the fares for the audition, you won’t lose your money and you can use those tickets to go somewhere else.</p>
<p>There may be some advice on some homeschool threads about dealing with these kinds of issues. I’m sorry, but I don’t have any personal experience. For now, take a deep breath and try to enjoy the holidays. It will all work out, really.</p>
<p>I understand why you must feel so frustrated and panicked. I agree with Spiritmanager-- there is probably an appeals process but you won’t be able to get through to anyone until after break. Do check the homeschooling forums where you may find support and ideas on how to handle this. (There is a homeschooling-to-college yahoo group that is quite supportive and knowledgeable. If you can’t find them, PM me and I’ll give you their web address.)</p>
<p>shellybean,
I don’t know UNT and I did not homeschool, but my middle child had a complicated HS transcript and his SAT scores were lousy and not representative of his abilities due to his having learning disabilities. There were many colleges that were confused or did odd things with our son’s application. Fortunately we had a good college counselor who prepared us for this. For example because our son had some college extension classes one school insisted he be a transfer student, even though those courses were applied to his HS diploma. Our state school initially did not let our son into the honors program, because of his gpa and sat scores. But when I called the admissions office and explained our son’s situation they reevaluated his application and actually invited him to the honors college and included a generous scholarship. So PLEASE don’t panic just yet. More likely your son’s application somehow got put in a pile by somebody working in the admissions office who did not understand the transcript piece. It probably never got placed in the appropriate pile for homeschool review.</p>
<p>The thing to remember (I did some work-study in my Universities admission’s office) is that these places get tons of applications and the people handling the applications are not necessarily all admissions officers. Things sometimes get mis-filed or put into the wrong pile. I was told that admissions officers have about 5 minutes total to spend reviewing an application packet. That is not a lot of time, so one could easily see where a confusing application might just get put aside and end up in the wrong pile.</p>
<p>It is certainly worth a call and/or letter to the admissions office. Since your son was home schooled, his application was given individual review. So there is some sort of paper trail. But as a Texas state school, UNT is subject to the top 10% of Texas high school class automatic admissions requirement. This law has taken discretion away from admissions committees since it means there are far fewer places for individual review admissions.</p>
<p>State schools are sometimes harder for homeschooler admissions I think. And admissions seem, out of necessity, to be less holistic and more numbers-based. I am assuming your son met all the prerequisites in terms of number of science, math, English, history, language classes for high school graduation. Did he have a diploma or GED or did he submit a transcript?</p>
<p>Did you or the guidance counselor submit a letter explaining everything? Two of my kids had unusual high school histories, one due to a performing art and one due to health. I wrote a letter for each college for each child, at the suggestion of the guidance counselor, and my letter went in the package with the transcript.</p>
<p>You seem like someone who would have done everything right. It is possible that you can talk with them once break is over but I also hope there are other options your son might be happy with.</p>
<p>I really don’t know but others might: if the son has musical talent, would it be wise to get the music department involved? Perhaps this could happen simply by your son writing a to the music department saying he is really sorry that he was not admitted to the university (perhaps due to his homeschooling, perhaps not)m, really wanted to attend, and thank you for considering me. They might respond by helping with admissions, who knows.</p>
<p>Sorry to hear about this. Schools do strange things sometimes. I for one really dislike their focus on numbers and both my college children have proven that the SAT is completely irrelevant when it comes to predicting college grades.</p>
<p>It’s worth appealing to the music department for help, and it’s worth appealing to UNT in case they made an error. But also don’t focus only on this school. In my state, having good grades and honors classes will not get you into the five top state schools; even taking 5 or more AP classes and a 4.0 is no guarantee of getting into the top two.</p>
<p>Thanks guys. I have learned it was officially because of his SAT. I submitted a detailed portfolio, transcripts, etc – everything as outlined. I have since learned that UNT is very anti homeschool. That is, their automatic admits for public school are top 10 percent of class and SAT of 950 for CR+ math, writing not required or considered. For homeschoolers, students are automatically placed at the 51st percentile of class rank or lower and their CR+math must be at least 1160 and their writing section is required. I found many websites discussing the problem with UNT and homeschoolers.
Our big problem now is if our appeal is unsuccessful, we’ve missed the prescreen deadline for pretty much everywhere he’d considered.
He’s still accepted to Berklee and will be doing an audition just for scholarship purposes for there. And he’s considered reactivating at Denver… This was just his best shot, financially. But if it doesn’t work, he’s stuck with being out of school another year. For us, that really is not cool. We live 30 miles from town, so for him to get a job, he’d be working just for gas money. He could do some gigs on weekends to earn some money, but what he needs is to be actively pursuing his music.
Frankly, with their attitude towards standardized tests and homeschoolers, I’m not sure this is such a great place for him anyway. As a college English professor and as a fellow musician, I think his best place is in a more conservatory setting. Maybe we’ll win that lottery we don’t play and be able to send him to Berklee. lol
Thanks everyone for the encouragement and help!</p>
<p>Hi Shellybean,</p>
<p>So sorry for what you and your son are going through. My son missed a full-ride academic scholarship at an out-of-state university by 10 points on his SAT. I’ve tried appealing once without luck and will appeal again after he completes his audition. It really is a numbers game. Have you thought about expanding your list at this point? What about William Paterson in NJ? The deadline is February 1. The school has an excellent reputation for Jazz and is one of the more affordable options out there. It would also put him in close proximity to New York and possible gigging.</p>
<p>Wishing you and your son the best and that your appeal is successful.</p>
<p>Hi Shellybean,</p>
<p>What a frustrating situation! Music conservatories rarely pay attention to (and sometimes don’t even require) SAT scores, but one can get in trouble with them when applying to a program inside a larger university, particularly a state university. And you’re right: some universities are notoriously anti-homeschool, even in this era. UNT’s formula sounds biased and unfair. </p>
<p>I agree with Bachmom, that it might be worthwhile to apply to William Patterson (and also research other programs that don’t require a prescreen.) I would even suggest that your son contact programs that <em>do</em> require a prescreen to ask if it can be waived (I know, it sounds like a longshot, but he might have luck with a carefully worded appeal explaining his situation with Berklee (where he is already admitted, which should be as good in itself as a prescreen.) It never hurts to ask. </p>
<p>I also think you should appeal at UNT (even if it seems like banging your head against a brick wall.) While their admissions office may have an anti-homeschooler attitude, it doesn’t automatically translate that he would encounter this bias in the music department if admitted.</p>
<p>Also try Peabody Conservatory. It tends to be flexible on administrative matters.</p>
<p>Others that do not require prescreens include Ithaca and Lebanon Valley College.</p>
<p>I hope he finds a place he will be happy and make great music!</p>
<p>More importantly I would contact the music department. Although faculty rarely are involved in undergraduate decision making, in a situation like this they might be able to pull some strings. </p>
<p>I agree about William Patterson and also you might want to look into University of Southern NH. It is not a particularly strong school academically but they have an excellent arts program and their music program is supposed to be pretty good. They likely would give your son money and Portland NH is a great town to do music in.</p>
<p>Shellybean, check your PMs!!</p>
<p>I can’t remember if you looked at SUNY Purchase but they would be affordable and many of their music faculty work at the pricier, more prestigious NYC conservatories. Good luck. I know this is very frustrating for you.</p>
<p>@StacJip means university of Southern Maine. Another option could be UArts.</p>
<p>oooops. Thanks LGSMom….getting senility …or exhaustion. …or just my always thinking Portland should not be where it is because it is so far south.</p>
<p>CCPA at Roosevelt in Chicago would be a great option for a jazz major and there is still time to submit materials. Great city and faculty and terrific performance venues.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. We are currently looking into U of Louisville, Univ of Southern Maine – thanks for that information, looks like a great place --, and CCPA, thanks Mezzo’sMama!!!
Also looking at Middle TN State.
Our other option is to take yet another year off. I really hate for him to do that, but our finances are so awful that I don’t know how we can afford to travel to any of the places he’d prefer… that is, we’re going to still do our Berklee trip since he is already admitted there. But we’re both resigned to the scholarship money being probably not a realistic issue there.
We might could swing one more trip – either to Louisville or to TN as I have family both places. But really, he’s unsure of those schools. We know Louisville has the Aebersold name. How respected is the program, though? And Middle TN has great “toys” for him: the Recording Arts dept. But is their jazz program respected?
And at both of those places he isn’t sure if they’d meet his main goals – being surrounded by very serious jazz musicians, networking, and gigging (probably off campus).
What I really hate for him is that his father and I were so totally unprepared financially. It would be so nice to jet up to every one of his much-more-ideal schools and let him play his heart out for auditions.
Anyway, thank you to all of you. For the help and for letting me vent!! Ya’ll are the best!</p>
<p>Oh, also, we are looking at SUNY Purchase and William Patterson, so thank you all for mentioning those. We had earlier looked at Peabody, but their academic seemed a little against homeschoolers, too. They would not accept a homeschool diploma — wanted a GED instead. That made us pause a little bit. But maybe I could inquire… I think Purchase and WPatterson will both be on our list if we are forced to wait another year.</p>