<p>I’m trying to decide whether it’s worth it to visit Bowdoin. It would be a great school for Fang Jr, but it’s so far for us to visit that I don’t want to go if he has only a small chance of acceptance.</p>
<p>SAT: 750 CR/710 M/680 W</p>
<p>GPA: 3.25 unweighted in college classes (we’re homeschoolers), no grades in home classes because why give grades at home?</p>
<p>APs: 5 in Am Gov, 5 in Micro, Macro (doesn’t have score yet)</p>
<p>ECs: plays at national level in his sport, but it’s not a sport played at any college he’s applying to</p>
<p>probable National Merit Semifinalist
Academic Award of Excellence in History at his community college</p>
<p>I think many homeschoolers whose kids are applying to college try to make the homeschool transcript look as much like a regular high school transcript as possible. Regular transcripts are what admissions staffpeople are most familiar with, after all. Accordingly, many homeschoolers will assign grades to work their kids have done at home. I certainly plan to when my kids are ready to apply to college. They need not be all As, either. I try to encourage my kids to do A-level work, and we won't move on to new topics unless I feel confident my kids have a firm grasp of the concepts we've covered, but I did feel that my son had not quite earned an A in one of his classes last term. AP exams and SAT II exams can provide objective evidence that your son's at home classes were rigorous classes and that the grades given were deserved. I think most homeschoolers will go further, and provide detailed class descriptions and reading lists in addition to the transcript.</p>
<p>Your son sounds like a competitive applicant to me. At the level of a college like Bowdoin, nothing is guaranteed, but I don't see why he would not have a realistic chance of being accepted. I don't know how they feel about homeschoolers, as we have not gotten to that stage yet - hopefully someone else will be able to comment on that.</p>
<p>I don't plan to try to make his transcript look as much like a regular high school's as possible. I have the idea that diversity is good, and selective colleges will like it. As long as the admissions officers are convinced that the homeschooler can do college work (which Fang Jr obviously can, since he will have completed over twenty college classes by the time he enrolls at a four year school), I'm hoping they'll like the idea of having a student with a different teenage experience.</p>
<p>My guess is that he has a good chance - SAT and AP scores are good and he has done reasonably well in his college courses (I can't assess his grades since I don't know where he has been taking his college courses or what he has been studying). Bowdoin does do the "holistic" approach so should not have a problem assessing the intellectual capabilities of a kid who has followed an atypical academic path. And his accomplishments in sports will matter even if he cannot pursue the sport in college as its evidence of focus and dedication. .</p>
<p>"...he will have completed over twenty college classes by the time he enrolls at a four year school..."</p>
<p>Some colleges/universities will consider him a transfer student, possibly a junior, so if he wants to enter as a first year student he needs to check with the schools in which he is interested to see how they will handle his college credits.</p>
<p>Good point, dntw8up. I did check that out. It's typically not a problem for students who are taking college classes as part of their high school career.</p>
<p>I don't think that he wants to apply as a transfer student. There are so few slots available at a place like Bowdoin for transfer students and the odds are so much longer for admission.</p>
<p>I think your planned approach is valid. I guess, right now, keeping track of grades (at least informally) and thinking about doing a traditional transcript plus more detailed course descriptions seems like "covering all bases" to me. I definitely think colleges are becoming a lot more open to homeschoolers and more interested in diverse records, so my opinion may change as we come closer to actual application time.</p>
<p>Have fun in Maine - it should be lovely in September.</p>
<p>My son was accepted ED I by Bowdoin for the class of 2012. We are from California, so it was important for him to visit (twice!) so that he could make his own conclusions about the distance, the school, the fit, etc. I am aware that it's not always realistic to do so . You don't state why your son is interested in Bowdoin. The stats alone aren’t enough to give me an idea of how he would fit in with the profiles of that my son and his fellow future matriculants, and current students. We know of kids with higher objective stats who were rejected and kids with lower stats who were accepted.</p>
<p>My son is looking for a small LAC with a welcoming community and small classes. He loves politics. He'll probably study history, possibly political science. He loves the snow and the cold (not that he has a lot of experience with either). So Bowdoin is a natural fit. The other colleges he's considering, other than Bates, are small LACs in the Midwest.</p>
<p>I can't say much about how to write up your son's transcripts but given his performance on standardized tests and academic awards, I would certainly say he has a strong shot and a trip to Bowdoin would be well worth the expense given the much greater expense of attending. I can understand your concern but since he has a good chance of being accepted, he should have a mental picture of Bowdoin in his head based on an in-person visit before deciding whether or not to enroll. Bowdoin's location and government/history program was a major reason why I applied and enrolled, but despite all the guidebooks I read, CC posts I went through and internet searches I did, I wasn't able to say Bowdoin was a good fit until I was on campus. Good luck to your son and I hope you enjoy the trip.</p>