<p>One of my daughters (10th grade) is extremely intelligent, but high school is not going well. We plan to home school her starting after Christmas. I have home schooled other kiddos in the past and am completely comfortable with that aspect. However, I never had any this close to graduating and applying to colleges.</p>
<p>Any suggestions or pitfalls to avoid to make college applications go easier 2 years from now?</p>
<p>I find it interesting that you have homeschooled some kids and not others. I’m the same way - I homeschooled my oldest 2 and public schooled my youngest. Since you said your daughter is extremely intelligent, you probably will want to consider AP courses. If you look at some of my other posts, you will see that I’m a big fan of PA Homeschoolers. They offer a large selection of AP courses with some of the classes having AMAZING teachers. I’m especially impressed with their Chem and Macro teachers. Another thing that I wished I had done for my oldest was read some of the things from <a href=“http://www.aiminghigherconsultants.com/”>http://www.aiminghigherconsultants.com/</a>. As with PA Homeschoolers, I have no connection with the author of this sight. She has some very interesting and valuable things to say about the whole high school and college app process. She talks about transcripts, school profiles,… This author is not shy about her Christian faith and since I don’t know your faith I just want you to know up front. Regardless of your beliefs though, I found her insights to be quite valuable. There is another site that I go to, but for various reasons, I like Aiming Higher better - but that’s just me. The other website is: <a href=“http://www.thehomescholar.com/”>http://www.thehomescholar.com/</a>. I would encourage you to check both websites out. (Again, I have no affiliation with this site either.) Good luck to you!</p>
<p>Thank you! We do have access to our state’s online education & AP courses. But trudging through the online courses and staying focused (while the whole fascinating WWW is at her fingertips) is another set of problems we are having. I am considering dipping our toes into the world of dual enrollment come Fall.</p>
<p>Dual enrollment is most certainly a great way to go! We were not fortunate enough to be able to do so for lots of reasons. The only thing you might want to consider is how many classes she would have dual enrollment for by the time she graduates - especially since she is still pretty young. The reason this “could” be a problem is with regard to the area of how she is classified when she applies to colleges - as a transfer student or a new student. It has been my experience (please note, this may not be fact, just my experience) that there seems to be more scholarship opportunities as a “new student” than as a “transfer student.” Perhaps someone else on the forum could confirm or deny this or you could check the websites of a few colleges that she thinks she might possibly be interested in just to see what that school policy is. The advantage to dual enrollment though is that you have more people for letters of recommendations, you have someone else giving your student grades, you show that your daughter is taking a rigorous curriculum, and it can help with college and scholarship apps. Best wishes to you!</p>
<p>My children have all done dual enrollment. They each earned about a year’s worth of college credit. WHen they applied to 4 year colleges, they were considered freshman. Once they got to the college, they had sophomore status. They did also receive large (freshman) scholarships. They were able to finish college early which was a huge cost savings for us. </p>
<p>Not all colleges handle college credits earned while in high school the same way, so be sure to ask the colleges your child applies to what their policy is. For us, it was an excellent option and my children were glad that it worked so well for them. </p>
<p>Right! We would be looking at a few DE courses, not too many. Davenmame - that is something I have been paying attention to while D’s sister has been filling out her apps. “How many is too many” seems to vary from school to school. </p>
I wanted to correct a misunderstanding here. All DE or AP or college classes taken while a student is still in high school (prior to graduation) does NOT negatively affect their scholarship opps.
A student could come into college with 60 credits ( junior standing) and still be considered “incoming frosh” for scholarships…but once at the univ, be considered a junior.
The student is NOT considered to be a “transfer” student. NO. That is a classification given to students who took college classes AFTER high school graduation.
So, YES, there are many more merit offers for incoming frosh…and your child will be an “incoming frosh”…even if he/she has 45 credits, 50 credits, 60 credits (whatever) if those credits were taken WHILE in high school.
The state of Washington’s Running Start program is an excellent example. Those kids are ACTUALLY attending a CC campus, but they are STILL in HIGH SCHOOL. They graduate from HS with both their HS diploma and AA diploma…BUT…they are still considered incoming frosh for MERIT consideration. THEY DO NOT apply as transfers. NO. They still apply as incoming frosh.
Thank you for that information!
Excellent point mom2collegekids. My children were all considered freshman when they applied to collges even though they had about a year’s worth of credits. And they were awarded freshman scholarships.