<p>Anyone have experience with how colleges perceive any of these distance learning programs?</p>
<p>1) Stanford's EPGY. My son is currently doing some EPGY courses. I have heard that this program has a good rep with colleges, but looking for further validation.</p>
<p>2) BYU Independent Study High School Courses</p>
<p>3) Keystone High School. Not their complete high school diploma program, just their courses in general.</p>
<p>4) any other distance programs you may know about.</p>
<p>Just looking to have a good transcript at the end of high school with some outside validation besides mommy grades. Live in a state where the public universities don't much like homeschoolers and make them jump through extra hoops that public and private school kids do not. Not necessarily looking at an in-state college, but would appreciate advice on programs that are from the big regional accreditations (in our area it is SACS). These would be looked on more favorably by our state university system.</p>
<p>No experience here, but wanted to offer another option.</p>
<p>My dd (a Sophmore this year) is only doing self-study. No distance learning, community college classes, etc. (We'd like to do the community college option, but the nearest campus to us is nearly an hour away -- we live in a rural area!)</p>
<p>What we're doing instead is Advanced Placement exams. (She's planning on taking at least 4, in addition to 3 SAT-II Subject Tests) That will give her transcript 'outside verification' without having to go through the extra expense of distance learning. She'll take at least one AP exam or SAT-II Subject Test for each core area (English, Science, Math, History, Foreign Language, etc.) to demonstrate her knowledge levels.</p>
<p>We looked into one distance program...I'm not sure which one...and they wanted $700 per class...and, if I remember correctly, Keystone didn't have much to offer in the way of "honors classes". Nothing higher than Spanish 2, for example, and I don't think they had calculus either.</p>
<p>My daughter included courses from University of Nebraska Independent Study High School (ISHS) in her home school curriculum. She's now a sophomore at Northwestern University. When she was first considering applying to NU, we sat down with an admissions officer to discuss their homeschool requirements, and he told her she'd need a few grades from an outside source. When my daughter told him she was taking ISHS classes, his face lit up. He said they were very familiar with ISHS, and that was exactly the sort of work they'd like to see. Apparently it was, because she eventually applied and was admitted.</p>
<p>ISHS has a long and respected history pre-dating modern homeschooling and the Internet. Their course work is reasonable, and lends itself to independent study.</p>
<p>That said, I do agree with hsmamainva. Distance courses are not the only way to go.</p>
<p>My (nonhomeschooled) son took courses with EPGY and the University of Kansas distance program. He did the EPGY because he finished BC Calculus in 9th grade and wanted to continue with math for three more years. We happened upon the Kansas program because he needed/wanted a course in a particular subject that was unavailable at his school.</p>
<p>As far as how colleges viewed these courses, I don't know. Stanford didn't admit my son and his ultimate college wouldn't give him credit for the math (although he was able to skip those courses). </p>
<p>My recommendation would be to use google and find distance classes in those areas where they would offer something you can't. A number of colleges offer programs -- wouldn't your instate colleges be inclined to accept things from another state's public university?</p>
<p>For my homeschooled daughter, she took a correspondence course each year with an Egyptologist or ancient historian; these generated no letter grades but it did make her transcript more distinctive and gave her a nice recommendation in her field and some evaluated work product. She also took some courses in the summer program of a college. This was all the outside validation she needed.</p>
<p>You could have her take AP courses from PAhomeschoolers. With a good test score at the end, I can't imagine a school thinking there wasn't sufficient verification of what was done.</p>
<p>Other alternatives -- SAT IIs, CLEPs, self-study for APs, community college courses, etc. No one size fits all.</p>
<p>We plan to do CLEP's in addition to the outside courses, but I was just hoping for an opinion of the programs I listed, though I do appreciate the other programs that everyone commented on. We had looked at University of Nebraska, but I wasn't impressed with what I saw. Mostly I didn't like the textbooks they were using.</p>
<p>AP's are not good. Our public schools won't let homeschoolers sign up for the tests, at least without a lot of aggravation and persuasion.</p>
<p>Wasn't really expecting any of the high school courses to get college credit, like EPGY, but I sure would like to know how the colleges look at those courses within your high school transcript :-) And he doesn't want to take college level courses at this time. He is only 14. Will wait a few more years to take those upper level courses.</p>
<p>SAT II's I personally just want to avoid. Too many hoops to jump through. I'd rather him have the course experience too. He plans to go the ACT route, rather than the SAT.</p>
<p>So, no one has personal experience with BYU High School Courses? How about Keystone's elective courses? We have been looking at their 3D Animation, Web Design and Multimedia courses. I have a computer science major in the making :-)</p>
<p>
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We plan to do CLEP's in addition to the outside courses.... AP's are not good. Our public schools won't let homeschoolers sign up for the tests, at least without a lot of aggravation and persuasion.
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I would keep pursuing the AP option. APs are recognized by a larger number of colleges, and in particular a larger number of top colleges, than CLEP. Call College Board and see if they can give you suggestions, try private schools, call different public schools. Just bevause one principal said no does not mean that it is a district wide policy.</p>
<p>I agree with texas137, push for the AP's, and keep in mind that policies can change. When we started out, the local public school wouldn't even talk with homeschoolers. By the time my daughter was a senior, she was able to take SAT's there and even take a few classes (one AP). We accidentally found out about the change, and might have finished without ever knowing they had opened up.</p>
<p>Be sure to check out private schools in your area. A private school in a nearby town made it very easy for my daughter to take tests. Another was closed up tight, so it can really vary. Surprisingly, the more exclusive of the two was the one that welcomed her.</p>
<p>It's my impression that AP tests carry considerably more weight than CLEP's for college admissions, at least for many schools. If you're going to build a curriculum around tests, SAT's and AP's make the most sense to me.</p>
<p>I don't want to start a debate about this, because you know what you're looking for, but just for the record, my daughter loved her Nebraska ISHS text books. They really worked for her. In addition to the text books, they have excellent study guides.</p>
<p>I agree with the above two posters! Try private schools! </p>
<p>Our local public school wouldn't let my daughter take an AP test there last year either, but a private school about 30 minutes away was happy to let her take it there.</p>
<p>They just passed a law in our state (Virginia) where all public high schools in the state <em>must</em> allow homeschoolers to take AP exams as well as the PSAT, so that's a change, just from last May to now. (The same high school that said "no" to an AP exam 3 months ago just said "yes" to the PSAT last week!)</p>
<p>I posted some info under the American School thread. When we looked into BYU they seemed to have everything, except for a high school diploma. After beating around the bushes-- 3 emails back and forth they finally admitted they don't have a diploma program. They weren't very open about that, and so I never bought anything from them. I have since heard problems about errors in the programs, etc. The prices are reasonable but dealing with a teenager who is frustated because of errors in the programs is definitely a hassle. For the cheapest university HS classes --LSU (Louisiana) for courses, but they don't have a diploma program either. As we ended up with Indiana U. HS, they are very willing to accept other courses, and we used Univ. of Misssouri, as well as the local public HS. They also offer distance education for university credit or dual credit. One point to make is that the books are older, so are significantly cheaper than going to a local community or regular college. The courses are generally very well edited, and you will not have as many errors,or ambiguities, and if you do, the instructor is just a phone call or email away. I also wanted a program where you could find the books yourself, and didn't have to get them with the course necessarily. Actually I like the availablity of courses, North Dakota has a small pet care, chemistry, they did have Norwegian, and next she will move onto the horticulture, and some of the art classes. They will have a Calculus class coming, and then we'll go back to Indiana for college courses in math. I'm taking a college course in accounting through Texas Tech, but you know for $400 I was disappointed the course came in an envelope and everything is all crinkled!!!! U. of Oklahoma has HS European History, Chinese, and Greek at the college level. U. on Nevada seems to excell in languages for Distance Ed. Missouri goes to year 3 of French. LSU has Civil War Literature, you know, it sure seems fun to be able to take advantage of the strengths of the different colleges due to their geography!!! Hope this helps.</p>
<p>That limits your child's college choices, because SAT II tests are a specific requirement for admission at some colleges. It's best to let your child decide which colleges might be interesting, and investigate EARLY what each college's admission requirements are. My son may be interested in applying to some colleges that require SAT II scores of all applicants. He has taken one SAT II test (the Math Level 2) test, and it was fine.</p>
<p>tokenadult, those are two excellent points. First, it seems a shame to close those doors right from the start. It's common for a school to require three SATII's from homeschoolers even when they don't from other applicants.</p>
<p>Second, it's very important to investigate colleges early in the homeschool process. I don't think that can be said often enough. (Obviously, since I keep repeating it.) It doesn't commit you to a particular school. On the contrary, it builds momentum and broadens the field of choice. Visiting campuses and being informed about requirements can help provide goals and make things like SAT tests seem less intimidating and difficult.</p>
<p>I agree, Nan! Here's our personal story...should it help someone else!</p>
<p>I started taking my oldest on college visits when she was 13. I only received positive reactions from the admissions staff about bringing a middle-schooler to the campus. We didn't cross any colleges off her list at that young age; but she <em>did</em> learn what courses to take....which schools were most receptive to her as a homeschooler...how to converse with admissions counselors (I doubt she'll be as nervous, should she need an interview!) and which campuses were the most confusing to negotiate (can I say "Virginia Tech"? LOL)</p>
<p>She's now a 15 year old Sophmore, who's narrowed her list of colleges down to 10. She's going to revisit half of them this year and half of them next year. Some require SAT-II's from all of their students (UVA, for example). Some will look at them if they're included in the application (William & Mary - Mary Washington). Some don't accept them at all and want to see AP Exams from homeschoolers (James Madison). Some <em>require</em> SAT-II's from homeschoolers (Virginia Tech).</p>
<p>I didn't want to do anything (as her 'guidance counselor', so to speak) that would in any way prohibit her from applying wherever she chooses.</p>