Does Being Homeschooled Hurt my chances of admission, especially Ivy League University?
Being homeschooled, was almost the only choice. I live in a large suburbs between D.C. and Baltimore. I had to leave may private school because: They inflated there prices by over 50%, and they had a change in administration. The year prior 45% enrolled in community college. Not that here is anything wrong with choosing that path. However, my mother had me in a steady 8 extracurricular, and I was at this school since I was 3, and at that time it was a Magnet, for elite schools. Especially Ivy League and similar school. But over 12 years it involved. A change in school board, wanted to have kid from my neighborhood, to shift to a school that were in the “ghetto”, in order to change there reputation. We tried charter school, and the other schools were known to have children that were “Dangerous”. There have been stories about kids who had high aspirations, and getting beaten or even murder for it. I also was eventually, and not to seem like a pretentious know it all, but in some subjects. I used the curriculum taught for fun, and new more than the teacher. My Tutorial is basically, a church school, the high school part is just under Homeschool. In this area it is mainly churches. That is why, I am Home schooled.
@cj5555 My two homeschooled sons were both accepted to numerous Top 25 colleges – one on the strength of his music talent, and one on his academic merit. But I don’t believe there is a universal answer to your question. Some colleges seem to be biased against homeschoolers and others are quite welcoming.
One indicator of the college’s stance may be (but not always) the additional application requirements imposed on homeschoolers. Are they reasonable or ridiculous? We found both. As you approach your senior year, you can communicate with adcoms and gauge their level of interest in you. Do additional testing and coursework as an independent verification of your academic ability. My academic son took 7 APs, 7 DEs, and 4 SAT2s. Explore interests and passions in your ECs.
Being a homeschooler puts you in a much smaller applicant pool than public or private schools, so I think it is easier to get noticed. But your credentials need to be solid in order to turn that notice into an acceptance.
One final thing – judging solely on this post (maybe bad idea) your writing needs improvement. I realize you are only a freshman, but your grammar, spelling, capitalization, and structure are poor. Your post is hard to understand at points. Take several writing-based courses to improve your abilities in this area. Those will serve you well when it comes time to write application essays. Good luck!
With the possible exception of Yale, being homeschooled will not hurt your chances of admission to an Ivy League school. However, the chances for any student being admitted are very slim.
You will need to have a very rigorous transcript and high standardized test scores. Most highly selective schools will require you to submit a school profile, a transcript, course descriptions, and a reading list.
Please follow dscottvb’s suggestions about improving your writing.
Good luck!
@dscottvb Thank you for your advice. I just have one question, what are DE’s ?
@cj5555 DE = Dual Enrollment classes at local college, used both for high school credit and possible transfer credit. They add to the rigor of your homeschool curriculum and validate your readiness for college-level work.
Your writing suggests that you are not comfortable with the English language.You are going to need to work on that if you want to be admitted to any selective college.
ds finished at Colgate University, an elite top school. previously home schooled.
Home schooled DD was accepted to Yale EA, but chose to go to another top 20 school that offered her a full tuition scholarship. My assessment is that home schooled students are judged according to the rigor of their course load, GPA, test scores, extracurriculars, essays, and recommendations just like all other applicants.
I agree with previous posters that you should concentrate on improving your writing skills. Often how one writes is the first and best indication of the level of education one has received.
On my mind, the home schooling is a kind of the studying that rates less than usual studying. Applying to the university you may have some rating troubles.
But, who knows, maybe you’re lucker.
@samuelGorbold And you base your assessment on the rigor of homeschooling academics on what exactly? I have 4 homeschool grads and a rising high school senior. Their academics loads have been incredibly challenging.
Fwiw, they have had zero problems with college admissions or being awarded scholarships. Our current college student is attending with a full-ride scholarship. My rising sr should be a NMF and has an impressive resume of academic awards.
Of course, the number of students posting in poor English on this homeschooling board suggests that many are international students or poorly educated. I suspect the former bc most native English speakers, regardless of their educational background, would not make some of the obvious phrasing mistakes like on instead of in.
I understand I need to work on my odious writing. I usually post in the middle of the night half awake, and it has reflected thought this thread. I also did and do not usually type my post. I say them to my phone, because I have issues with my hands. I also do not usually re-read my post. Finally, thanks for your responses, they are greatly appreciated.
Should I go back to regular school? I would have taken more AP classes by 11th grade than all of the schools offer entirely. Also the district changed my zoning to a school 30 minutes+ away, where commonly kids do not graduate, and popular careers include: drug trafficking, gang activities, and professional robbery. They also kill people there (not over exaggerating). My former private school is involved in a scandal – glade I got out-- and will likely shut down. So homeschooling is my only option, unless I wanna get stabbed with a shiv, on my way to class.
Amazing. How did you do on all of those APs? Since you are so so advanced and the choices are death or homeschooling, why don’t you take the 3rd option and DE. You can do that online or in person. (And don’t ask where. That is what Google is for. Google your local CC options.) Since you were attending a private school, DE costs should be significantly cheaper. That way you can get input to improve and grow academically over the next year.
I was homeschooled from kindergarten to 12th grade because I didn’t live near any private schools and my school district is, for lack of a better word, crap.
I did fine on the SAT, got really good grades in high school (all of my tests/papers were sent to a different state to be evaluated by college professors) and I still had trouble getting into college…especially the state colleges (I didn’t want to move out of state, so it limited my options)
My advice is to start out at your school of choice non matriculated…it’s exactly the same as if you were a matriculated student, but you have a semester to “prove yourself” to your school and then just transfer in. It kinda takes away the BS of being rejected just for being a homeschooled student (I lived in an anti-homeschool state).
Good luck! Don’t stress too much, it will work out 
@dscottvb This is a really old post but I’m curious, what do you consider to be ridiculous?
@Bozusaki The threshold for “ridiculous” will, of course, vary for each family within the context of colleges they are considering. Some of the colleges my sons applied to required no additional documentation from homeschoolers beyond what was required of all applicants – although we knew that a traditional transcript and a significant # of DE, AP, and SAT2 grades/scores would help the adcoms properly evaluate readiness for college work, so we provided those.
At the other end of the spectrum, we found schools that required things like: a list of all reading completed during grades 9-12; the Table of Contents for each textbook used; course outline, syllabi, detailed assessment tools and learning experiences for each course; specific SAT2 tests not in areas of interest/strength, etc.
Some parents may consider these acceptable demands; we did not given the colleges that didn’t require any of these things, and so we eliminated 3-4 schools on that basis. We did prepare a small packet with a statement of homeschooling rationale and approach, curriculum, course descriptions, texts used, and sample work. We sent it to every college that wanted additional documentation, but did not customize for each college (other than a cover letter).
In the end, both sons felt more valued at a couple of LACs that (coincidentally?) did not require any additional documentation, and are attending those (two separate colleges).
Hope this helps…