College Chances for Homeschooler?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hello,

I’m trying to get into college, but am in a very tough spot and am beginning to wonder if things will work out at all.

I was homeschooled from elementary through high school, and for a while, it seemed I was on a very good academic path. I even took several online college classes (one through Duke University) before I finished high school, and passed them all. By the time I got to my Senior year of high school, I wasn’t too serious about going to college anymore because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life. So after graduating, I decided to jump straight to the workforce while taking some time to think about my future.

Fast forward several years later. I got a job that is the envy of some of my friends, at a reputable company, but realized what I was doing there wasn’t what I wanted to do forever. I felt stuck, because there are no advancement opportunities without a degree, or any appealing jobs without a degree anywhere else near me for that matter. At around the same time, I developed an interest in technology and decided I wanted to go to college to pursue a degree in computer science (I already know a little web development and computer programming, having taught myself how to do it). The university I was looking to go to requires an SAT or ACT score. I needed to take it again because mine was no longer on record. Problem was, I had been out of academics for a while and had forgotten much of what I’d learned (especially in math). So I studied hard for months preparing for that ACT, staying up late at night (often sacrificing sleep in the process) and sinking my hard-earned money into any prep material I could come across. Finally, test day came and went, and I scored more than high enough to get into the school of my choice. I was all set, or so I thought.

I called them recently, and when I asked about anything else a homeschooled student would need to submit, they replied “Oh, you’d need to submit a Stanford Achievement Test or Iowa Standardized Test score, too, since you were homeschooled”. I don’t recall having taken either during my high school years, so I’m trying to see if a school district here will let me take one even though I graduated long ago (so far, no luck). Personally, I think my ACT score - combined with my high school and online college transcripts - should be sufficient to prove I can handle the workload, especially given the entry requirements are normally pretty lenient at this university, but whatever. Guess it’s because I was homeschooled. The technical college here won’t even let me in without getting a GED since my diploma wasn’t earned through an “accredited source”.

So I guess my question is, what are my chances since I was homeschooled? My test scores and GPA are fine, but it seems like there’s a lot of hoops to go through because the colleges almost seem to get nervous the moment they hear “homeschooled”. Also, I know a lot of homeschoolers end up going to community colleges, but is that really a viable option? A community college would probably be more lenient in their requirements, but I don’t really want to go there, I need a four year degree (I could always possibly transfer, but I don’t know). I’m just ready to get into college, and really am kicking myself for not doing it right after I graduated.

Advice is appreciated.

2

–What is stopping you from doing the Stanford/Iowa through a private testing service?
–What is your ACT score?
–Home state?
–Did you keep sufficiently detailed records of your homeschool plan/approach?

3

ACT Composite is 23, their requirements are only 17 in English in Math, the rest doesn’t matter (other sites indicate a 22 or above would put you in the 75th percentile among their applicants). Home state is GA. My county was very lax about what records they needed from me, but yes, I did keep detailed transcripts. Am still looking for a testing service, no one around here seems to offer the tests or know much about them.

4

I have never heard of a college asking for the Iowa or Stanford test for home schoolers. If you truly need them and the person on the phone was not mistaken, try setontesting dot com. They offer the Stanford 10 Online among other testing choices.

5

What university were you looking to attend that required the Stanford/Iowa?

6

Augusta University. I’m going to guess the person was not mistaken, since their “requirements for homeschoolers” page on their website lists the Stanford/Iowa as a requirement.

7

If you are set on Augusta, write the Stanford 10 online. Your ACT would make you competitive for UNG and GSU too – more expensive than Augusta, though – but it looks like they don’t require additional testing. There’s not much you can do but play by the rules; colleges need to know that homeschoolers are prepared, through their own policies, so it doesn’t do much good to “believe” that you’re prepared. Play the game. Claim the prize.

8

Most good universities will accept homeschooled students and don’t require the achievement test. Must just be the particular one you applied to.

If you have difficulty with this though, I’d recommend doing 2 years of community college and then transferring to a 4-year college. It’s usually a cheaper option and in the end you earn the same BA/BS from the 4-year college as those who went there for 4 years.

I have 4 siblings who were home-schooled their entire lives, and 3 of them did volunteer work for a couple of years rather than go to college. They never took the SAT/ACT. They then went to community college for 2 years and then transferred. Two graduated from UC Berkeley, one from UCLA, and one from CalArts.

9

Friend has a home-schooled acceptted by bio-chemestry of UCLA and Georgia Tech. He got full scholarship from Georgia Tech. I heard that the scores for home-schoolers are not counted as “believable”. Sound to me that univeristies are friendly to home-schoolers because this group is not typical. You are not directly competing with million high school graduates those are much more similar to each other.

University of California system are very friendly to community college transfer. It is much easy to get into Berkeley and UCLA as community college transfer, compared to apply from high school directly. UC Davis has 90% acception rate for transfer, even though entering from high school is no more easy.

Not sure about Georgia, but here UC Davis is ranked top 50 in many fields, and has back door wide open for community college. Community college gives an opportunity to prove that you can handle academics in classrooms.