I want to be home schooled this school year so I could go to college next year. I am currently a sophomore. I am planning on taking the ACT, SAT, and AP. I want to use my homeschooling as a strategy to study for these test. I have already registered for the SAT for march. I am serious and I want to persuade my parents to agree. Please tell me your suggestions .
What’s the rush?
I agree with @JustOneDad, what is the rush?
My concern is that you will be really unprepared, and, studying just for the tests is not going to help. You need a breadth of coursework, which is required by the colleges for admission. Junior year is crucial. Foreign language requirements, AP coursework, runs the gamut in Junior year.
Plus, give the universities some credit, they will note how you are trying to game the system!
Look into dual enrollment programs at community colleges or universities near you. Taking college courses for high school credit is pretty common these days and might give you the experience you’re looking for without shortchanging your requirements for college.
How old are you? A friend of my s graduated after his jr yr. He was 15 when he applied to college, turning 16 in the spring. He had excellent test scores. Schools that were a slight reach rejected him; his parents believe it was due to his age. They believe if he had waited a year he would have had more school acceptances to choose from, more scholarship opportunities, and he would have gotten into some of his reaches.
A more productive way of dealing with that feeling might be to go on a year-long exchange program before graduation where you will learn a new language and get exposure to a new culture.
I am planning on applying next summer
I want to study for AP classes and I also want to convince my parents
Another what’s the rush? Homeschooling allows you the opportunity to study subjects unavailable to the typical high school student and/or to study subjects at a level beyond high school offerings. Instead of rushing, you can make yourself shine in areas of passionate interests.
You can also take college classes as a high school student. Dual enrollment allows you to stay in high school while taking college level classes.
You are kind of entering the game a bit late and homeschooling can actually make it harder not easier to get into the college of your choice. How are you planning on taking your classes? Will you do online or independently study for them? Even if you homeschool, the colleges still want to see the same type of course load, so you may not suddenly get a lot of free time to study for AP or SAT tests. You will see need to take classes and show them on your transcript. Homeschooling still requires you to actually school, only in a different way. It does not mean sit home to study for tests. The tests are alongside the courses, just like high school.
If you want to do early entrance instead, you might want to look for colleges that encourage this. There are numerous colleges that allow you to start in your junior or senior year. My sister went to a college that allowed it, even though it didn’t have an early entrance program. She started at 15. Take a look here. There is a list of early entrance programs in the US and other countries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_entrance_to_college
Also look at individual college admissions pages for early entrance opportunities. Many colleges mention it as an option. You wont need to graduate for early entrance, but you do need to show you are ready.
Now if there is something going on at school that makes you wish to leave and homeschool, that is a totally different situation. If that is the case, there are a lot of people here who can help give you suggestion.
Thanks Knomad
Does anyone to how to find a home school transcript templete and explain how they work? thanks.
I cannot help with the templates but I can tell you my conversation with an adcom at a school. I am looking at schools with my non homeschooled son but asking questions for my homeschooled one. One adcom said that they prefer courses to be listed by year, not by subject. She asked that they not go on and on and on. Nobody wants to read through 30 pages of transcripts, she said. try to minimize it as much as possible.
One school, which was test optional, told me that they will still admit students who are homeschooled without testing as well. For the test optional admission she suggested turning in actual work, so that a student can show the level of ability through assignments they have completed. She also said that we should try to make sure that my son work with some kind of teacher so that there could be letter or recommendation from someone other than the parent. She said that working with someone outside of the home was important so that they can have an outside assessment of academic ability.
I know this specifically was not what you were asking for, but I thought I would offer this info anyway.
Here are 2 different style transcripts:
http://www.hslda.org/highschool/docs/PHCblank.pdf
http://www.hslda.org/highschool/docs/Transcript_by_Subject.pdf
Fwiw, I have used a different format, but by subject, not yr, format for all of my homeschool grads. It has never been an issue. It has been easier for me to organize their work that way bc my kids have graduated with very abnormal high school credit loads. Also, there is a difference between transcripts and course descriptions. A transcript should be 1 page. Course descriptions should give a brief synopsis of each course with a description of the course, materials/resources used, and how grades were determined.
As far as letters of recommendation, they do not have to come from a teacher in a school. You can use anyone who knows you in an academic sense…if you have been to an academic camp, participate in any type of academic activity like a math circle, etc. those adults can write a LOR.
I have had kids accepted into competitive schools and I have never submitted any academic work that they have done at home. I think in the over 20 yrs I have been homeschooling, I know 2 families who submitted any type of portfolio (with the exception of art supplements). That is a less typical approach.
Fwiw, I don’t understand what you mean by “how the templates work.” You can build your own template in excel or word. You fill in the coursework you have completed. In practice, the process is similar to any school transcript. The “what’s” completed might be different. (For example, my 11th grader has 12 foreign language credits at this point in time bc she has been taking 3 different languages over multiple yrs.) Another FWIW, you shouldn’t be creating your transcripts,etc, whoever is responsible for your education should be.
As @Mom2aphysicsgeek started, turning in academic work is non typical. Remember my description was for a test optional school. This is what the adcom said should be used instead of testing, so if you choose to go test optional, even with homeschooling there are options.