I have been homeschooled my whole life. I have utilized my extra time well (I think)-I play an instrument and have won music competitions since I was 8 years old, have attended an intense competitive music weekend hosted by prestigious brass band members every year since 8th grade, and have attended music camp every summer since I was 13. I also play in several bands and volunteer teaching music lessons to kids at my local Salvation Army. I teach a Sunday school class at my church and lead a character building class for elementary school girls. Every Summer during high school I have read 100 books over the course of the summer, and during my junior year I read 370 books in one year (roughly one a day). With the exception of bio, math, and one year of Spanish all of my high school classes have been taken either at my homeschool co-op and a local college, where I have gotten straight A’s. (I have a 3.91 GPA overall and a 4.0 at the college). I have a 1400 on the SAT (630 math, 770 CRW), but my family has 7 kids, 2 of whom were in college at the same time, so I wasn’t able to afford AP tests. We also didn’t realize the importance of SAT II’s and so didn’t pursue them (major oversight on my part). I think my essays are strong and I have good recommendation letters from a College professor and 2 teachers from my co-op, but I’m really anxious about all of this. My two older siblings had less impressive EC’s and didn’t pursue AP or SAT II’s and were accepted to pretty good colleges, but I have more selective colleges on my list (as well as safeties, of course). Could I still be a competitive applicant to colleges despite all of this? Any and all feedback would be appreciated…I wish that I had thought about college applications more during HS but I can’t go back.
I think you will be fine! Good SAT scores, college courses and recommendations etc! Also you should communicate your passions for reading and music.
Colleges have gone away from requiring SAT Subject Tests (and now “recommending”) but they want them from Homeschoolers - BUT I think you can explain that they were not affordable.
Be confident - I’m pretty sure you’ll be successful!
Thank you! I’m afraid to address the affordability issue because I don’t want draw a lot of attention to the fact that I don’t have them and I definitely want to avoid sounding like I’m making excuses (my dad has a pretty good job so on paper it looks like we should have been able to afford the tests-but with 7 kids, high taxes, and only 1 income money has been tight) I read somewhere that on college applications you should just focus on the things you have done rather than what you haven’t.
Are you a senior? What schools are you applying to? And what’s your EFC? Not all homeschoolers take APs. My middle son did not submit AP scores, and he was admitted to schools like UCSD, UCI, U Rochester, Northeastern, and Penn (his reachiest school). His SAT was higher than yours and he did have two subject tests. He was also a musician, but was applying for animation/game design/fine arts for the most part.
If there are unusual circumstances, it’s ok to talk about them in your essays if they’re not in a self-pitying way, and certainly your parents can write about financial limitations in their counselor letter and school profile.
The college admissions game is won or lost when you build your college list.
It contains realistic academic fits, or it doesn’t.
It contains realistic financial fits, or it doesn’t.
SATII’s are required only in some cases, and your college classss will still show that you are ready for advanced work. It’s not hopeless. Make sure your SAT is above the 25th percentile everywhere you apply, and have a couple safeties where it is over the 75th percentile. Run the net price calculators.
Yes, I’m a senior. My reach schools are NYU, Barnard, Boston College, Boston University, and Villanova. My matches are Fordham, Union College, and Marist. I’ve already been accepted to all of my safeties (I applied EA to my safeties but am applying RD everywhere else). My EFC is 004320. I have asked my parents to explain why I have no APs but my mom doesn’t think it’s necessary-she thinks I’m stressing out about it too much. And I’ve already written all of my essays. I’m not sure how I would work my financial situation in without sounding whiny or like I’m making excuses
I don’t think you need the explanation from your mom – bottom line you were homeschooled and that means you are going to be evaluated differently than students coming out of traditional high schools. I think you have corectly identified schools as reaches & matches, and you really don’t have to worry too much as your safeties have already accepted you (assuming they are affordable).
Given family finances, I’d suggest dropping NYU because it doesn’t meet full need and so you are unlikely to be able to afford to attend. Boston University and Villanova also do meet full need, though overall they provide more funding to their students than NYU. But for all 3 schools, unless your test scores are well above median you probably can’t expect a lot of aid.
Barnard & Boston College do meet full need.
I think Barnard is very reachy for you – not that you shouldn’t apply, just that from what you’ve shared I don’t think your chances are that great and admissions there has gotten extremely competitive. But if you are willing to consider one women’s college, you might want to add some others which meet full need in place of the schools on your list that don’t - such as Bryn Mawr and Mt. Holyoke. If your parents can’t pay for AP tests for you, you really do need to focus on full-need schools for your reaches. So you might go over this list for ideas - https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2017-09-21/colleges-that-claim-to-meet-full-financial-need
If you took a decent selection of college courses at a local college and earned a 4.0 GPA in them, that may provide some external validation of your home schooling (as an alternative to SAT subject and AP tests for this purpose).
You need to check the requirements for home schoolers with each college. Some do require SAT 2’s for home schooled applicants while only recommending them for other applicants. The APs don’t matter as much for admission.
It’s very impressive that you read so much. But if were an ad com, I might wonder how you can read 1 book per day during the school year, along with doing all your other class work. It may make you seem like your course load is not demanding. Perhaps focus on your summer reading .
@wisteria100 I have checked the requirements for homeschoolers and none of the colleges I’m applying to require SAT II’s-I’m just scared that they still want to see them, but there’s not much I can do about that now I guess. As for my reading, I was thinking the same thing. I’m a very fast reader and thats why I was able to read so much- it only took me about an hour/2 hours a day to read each book and I usually wouldn’t do it all in one sitting, so it wasn’t as impossible as it probably sounds. I was going to send in my reading list from that year but now I’m afraid it will come off like I wasn’t challenged enough by my schoolwork. Should I just send in my reading lists from each summer? I hate to leave off my jr year reading because I’m proud of myself for completing that goal, but I don’t want it to hurt my application either.
@calmom thanks! I was thinking the same about Barnard-I know it’s a long shot and I probably have no chance of getting in, I just figured I don’t have much to lose by trying. I’ll definitely take a look at that list, although I’m a little wary about adding more colleges to my list this late in the game, especially what with my teachers already having submitted my rec letters. I don’t want to have to ask them to submit them for more colleges, and I feel like it’s really too late for me to drastically change my list
But I am saying that you should probably remove the reaches that don’t meet full need off your list- because even if you get in, you are unlikely to be able to afford them. Why send an application fee off to NYU when it is obvious that you are not going to get significant financial aid there?
When colleges choose to fund some students and not others, they favor the students who are at the top of their applicant pool – and your stats aren’t going to get you there at your reaches.
I do think the competitive colleges like to see SOMETHING from an outside source other than the SAT/ACT. That could come in the form of an AP or SAT 2. Or dual enrollment classes. Or even online classes that are graded independently. If you have some independent grades, I think you’ll be fine. I know people who’ve even bypassed homeschooler requirements (like SAT 2) by like having a strong enough dual enrollment transcript and higher than average test scores.
Many parents write the counselor portion of the common app for their homeschool kids, so I actually don’t think it would be that weird if she wrote something about why your family homeschooled in the manner in which they did. Not in a sob story kind of way or focusing on what you didn’t do. It should be written in business tone. I actually don’t think not doing AP’s is weird for a homeschooler who has done dual enrollment.
Have you run NPC’s for the reach schools you are interested in? The financial aid offices just crunch numbers for the most part unless you call with special data. If you have 7 kids in your family I’m guessing your parents have hard limits on what they will contribute. I would try to minimize your own debt as much as possible. There are many great affordable options and you do have strong scores. Don’t get too attached to any one school yet.
My kid is not going to do AP’s and probably not SAT2’s either. But he is probably going to have 30-40 dual enrollment credits and he has a 4.0 so far in those. His sophomore ACT score was a 31 and I think he will finish up fine on that in the spring.
You don’t need to explain about your finances. Since your EFC is that low, they will know you’re Pell Grant eligible. That is all they need to know unless there are large medical bills, a serious illness, or something like that.
And yes, your parents should be writing the counselor letter and profile at these schools. And yes, you’re not going to have full need met at those schools.