<p>The following website has a list of colleges that are “best” for home schooled students.
<a href=“The Best Colleges For Homeschool Graduates 2022 | The Best Schools”>http://www.thebestschools.org/blog/2012/06/24/25-colleges-homeschool-graduates/</a></p>
<p>It is just one perspective. I feel certain that many other colleges are good for home schooled students. Still, a good list to look at. </p>
<p>Your questions are great. I would suggest you visit a few campuses and see what you like. The ones in/near Alabama would be a logical place to start. It is also important to figure out what things you don’t like about a school, which will help you rule some out.</p>
<p>^Great post NROTC (:08).</p>
<p>However regarding the later post with the website link, I guess it depends what type of homeschooler OP is – I’m not sure the colleges they list would be good for a “regular” homeschooler, including a conservative Christian homeschooler, since they condemn “overexposure”, ie., exposure to people, theories, or content that does not mesh with their worldview at all (ie., evolution is not Christian, free inquiry is not okay, etc. and any college would have to agree with these tenets to make the list.)
They find Wheaton (IL) too liberal, and warn students to avoid other schools (including many reputable evangelical Christian schools) because
“Extreme forms of environmentalism” = climate change is caused by humans and overconsumption/production.
In short, this list should appeal to a small segment of homeschoolers and their parents and it’s useful it exists, but OP should read it critically to see whether the schools match what s/he wants in a college.
In my opinion, Wheaton, Calvin, Hope, or Gordon are all better evangelical, conservative Christian schools than the ones on the list.</p>
<p>I agree that for homeschoolers a smaller college is better though since there’s less anonimity and closer contact between classmates (discussions) and professors (small class vs.lecture hall). Going from a class of 1 or 3 to a class of 5,000 is too much for many of them.</p>
<p>@NROTCgrad, thanks so much for the awesome answer! That is very helpful! I enjoyed the WSJ article and all your advice too!</p>
<p>I am Catholic but I have many friends who are not, so I would be ok with any kind of Christian school I think, if I decided to go that route. I do agree that girls do have different learning styles than boys so that is definitely a good explanation!</p>
<p>@MYOS1634 thanks so much for your input too! I did like the best homeschool colleges article but I agree with what you’re saying. There is kind of a homeschool stereotype that the article caters to and I’m not sure really how well I fit that. I am pretty conservative but open-minded, and not necessarily the political kind of conservative. I’m not anti-science or anti-learning (I want to go to college to LEARN!) and I think some of those attitudes are not very good.</p>
<p>Right now I am thinking a smaller school would be better but I don’t want to dismiss large schools out of hand like @scmom12 said. What large schools have good honors programs like you said? I’m not worried so much about “overexposure,” I’m just kind of shy and not used to dealing with so many people! Smaller classes (like not 500 people in a class!) would be best for me I think. I am not really sure about rural or urban. I don’t think I would want to be someplace way out in the country with noplace for miles! But someplace kind of rural close to a good-sized city would work. The thought of living in a big city is kind of scary but kind of exciting at the same time! </p>
<p>You are asking good questions and have a great attitude. </p>
<p>Seconding/thirding having your parents run the actual net price calculator on three or so sample schools (Eg Alabama, Vandy, an out of state public, Gonzaga or another private Christian etc). Anyone who went to school long ago to have kids ready for college will be SHOCKED at the price tags. </p>
<p>No idea how it would fit financially, but for a home-schooled Christian kid from Northern Alabama, Pepperdine might be an interesting choice. It’s a very good Christian (Chruch of Christ) school (#57 in the US News list) and in Malibu - one of the most awesome campus locations ever.</p>
<p>If you decide to go see it, be sure and and also make a free reservation for the Getty Villa, which is just down the road. Amazing collection of classical antiquities in an awesome setting.</p>
<p>For conservative Christian, look into Wheaton (IL), Hope (MI), Calvin (MI), Gordon (MA), PLNU (CA), Samford (AL), John Brown (AK), and I agree Pepperdine (CA) is a very good idea.
For conservative to moderate, but not necessarily Christian: BSC (AL), Millsaps (MS), St Mary’s (IN), Ripon (WI), Centre (KY), Rhodes (TN), Albion (MI), Westminster (MO), Wittenberg (OH).
Christian but not necessarily conservative: St Olaf (MN), Luther (IA), Earlham (IN), LMU (CA), St Mary’s of CA (CA), Siena (NY), UPortland (OR), USeattle (WA), USan Diego (CA), UDenver (CO), UDayton (OH), U Scranton (PA), Pacific Lutheran (WA), Ursinus (PA), Eastern (PA), Messiah (PA).
There’s Notre Dame, Boston College, and Georgetown if you want the most famous Catholic schools in the country 
Very hard to get into. :)</p>
<p>@MYOS1634
Thanks for pointing out the details on that homeschooling list. I confess to not having read much of the piece, only a glance at the colleges. Glad you went into more depth.</p>
<p>Sapphire,
It so happens that I too am Catholic. Because you are in Alabama, I tended to assume that you were Protestant. My mistake.</p>
<p>So, with your ACT and SAT scores, I recommend that you do at least apply to Notre Dame. Only you can decide if it is the right school for you, but you can make that decision after you visit. Two other elite Catholic colleges are Georgetown and Boston College. Both are run by Jesuits. As MYOS1634 mentioned, all three are very difficult to get into. Some people call them the “Catholic Ivy League.” Notre Dame seems more representative of the entire breadth of Catholicism (at least to me).</p>
<p>Other excellent Catholic colleges include:
University of Dallas
University of Portland (Oregon), which happens to be a sister school of Notre Dame
College of the Holy Cross (Massachusetts)
Thomas Aquinas College (California), has a “Great Books” curriculum which has no majors. You will either love it or hate it.
University of Dayton (up here in Ohio where I live), I am very fond of this school. Wonderful people!</p>
<p>A very interesting option might be the College of St. Benedict/St. Johns University in Minnesota. This is two colleges in one. Let me explain. St Benedict is all girls and St. Johns is all guys… BUT they take classes together at both campuses. The two campuses are about three miles apart and apparently a small bus service connects them. Total number of students is only about 4,000. This could be a good choice given your home school background. Also they are liberal arts colleges. Take a look at their website: <a href=“http://www.csbsju.edu/”>http://www.csbsju.edu/</a></p>
<p>I certainly do not suggest that you limit yourself to only Catholic colleges, but thought I would share some of the best and most interesting ones. I have researched a bunch of them for relatives.</p>
<p>Best wishes op, although I have nothing helpful to add. I will follow though, because I have kin in Huntsville, but mostly because my kids went to a tiny “Christian” school from age 3 to 18. Interestingly, their school would not count “Catholic” as “Christian” . Most of their friends went to “Chrstian” schools in California, and there is a forum for “Christian” schools. . Let me know if you need a link to find it. </p>
<p>I went to Catholic school for 10 years, and THOUGHT I was a Christian, but my son was pretty concerned about “Catholics” at graduation. </p>
<p>Doing fine at a Loyola though. It’s all good.</p>
<p>Enjoy!</p>
<p>@NROTCgrad that’s okay. It’s easy to assume that! We are definitely the minority here in the Bible Belt, so I am used to getting along with all sorts of Christians. And yes, @Shrinkrap, there are lots of people around here who would tell me I wasn’t a Christian, so I do my best to prove them wrong by my life. :)</p>
<p>I am very interested in some of the Catholic schools! Like I said at first though I am nervous about moving a really long way from home. Notre Dame is like 8 hours from Huntsville… I guess I could deal with that. But Minnesota is a looooong way! I would have to really like it there! I guess I should get info from all of these schools and try to visit some of them. Thank you for all of your suggestions and advice!</p>
<p>Once you’re past a 4 hour car ride, it’s all pretty much the same as it starts to be a plane ride.</p>
<p>I’m sure this isn’t all-inclusive, but it will give you a good list of top Catholic colleges and universities to take a look at:
<a href=“Top Catholic Colleges and Universities in the U.S.”>http://collegeapps.about.com/od/collegerankings/tp/top-catholic-colleges.htm</a></p>
<p>A lot of variety there, in terms of size, location and the RC orders under which they operate.</p>
<p>Sapphire,
Let me suggest a road trip. You are only about an hour away from Sewanee-University of the South which is probably the best liberal arts college in Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, or Georgia. Vanderbilt happens to be about two hours away from your home, and is arguably the best major university in those four states too.</p>
<p>So, how about visiting them soon? This would allow you to begin a basis for comparing others schools. Since both Sewanee and Vanderbilt are outstanding schools you will have an excellent opportunity to establish a high standard for colleges which you might visit later. Sewanee is rural, while Vanderbilt is urban. So you get to do that comparison too.</p>
<p>For what it is worth, Sewanee is a Christian college (Episcopalian) and might be a great fit for you. In addition to the college itself, there is an Episcopalian seminary at Sewanee. If you don’t already know, Episcopalians are Protestants who worship like Catholics, complete with mass. Like all Protestants, they do have notable differences with Catholicism, but their services appear extremely similar. You might actually be quite comfortable at Sewanee. Definitely worth a visit.</p>
<p>^it’s important to visit Sewanee and, if possible, schedule an overnight to have a feel for the school
because 1° their campus is like an entire mountain complete with a forest. It’s like going to school in a castle and living in the enchanted forest. Yes they actually own sooo much land that they basically own the mountain(only one side, but you get the idea).
<a href=“http://www.ashley-spencer.com/ArtIsEverywhere/wp-content/uploads//2009/05/9-looking-down-mtn5735.jpg”>http://www.ashley-spencer.com/ArtIsEverywhere/wp-content/uploads//2009/05/9-looking-down-mtn5735.jpg</a>
Some love it because it’s gorgeous, one of the most beautiful campuses in the US; if you love the outdoors, you can go hike whenever you want, or be in nature. Others don’t like it because you have to drive (hence have a friend with a car) for 1hour to get out of campus and it’s very isolated. 2° it’s got a solid drinking culture that you may object to. It’s fine not to partake and the college does a great job providing activities but because the school is a little isolated, the “drinking culture” is big. You can mitigate that by requesting a room in substance free housing (anyone who gets drunk or high there* loses housing).
<a href=“http://farm5.static.■■■■■■■■■■/4019/4372492203_e92c3d03a4.jpg”>http://farm5.static.■■■■■■■■■■/4019/4372492203_e92c3d03a4.jpg</a></p>
<ul>
<li>don’t tell your parents, but this is college. Even at super religious colleges, there is drinking and/or drugs. I know some very famous Christian colleges (even from the list linked above) where kids pretended that they didn’t drink and absorbed enough alcohol-based moutwash to get really sick, and that <em>wasn’t</em> just one crazy kid trying to be hypocritical about it (“if it’s not labelled alcohol, it’s not”.) The trick is to find colleges where classmates do not expect you to drink if you don’t want to, where the administration provides lots of alternatives, and that offer substance free housing to those who want it. Also, colleges where pot is big tend to be different from colleges where beer or hard alcohol are big. You have to be mature and self confident enough that if you don’t want to drink, you don’t drink (there’s typically no similar expectations that you would like to smoke pot.) As a homeschooled kid, this will probably come as a shock. However, remember that what matters isn’t what other kids are doing somewhere else on campus. What matters is what YOU are doing and what choices YOU make. </li>
</ul>
<p>I agree that Episcopalian colleges may be of interest. Episcopalians have a very similar service, similar hymns, etc. Unlike the Catholic Church, they don’t have a Pope (or equivalent) and they approve of women in ministry.
Some Episcopalian colleges are no longer religious and are very famous: Bard, Kenyon (John Green’s college, Bill Waterson who drew Calvin and Hobbes…), Hobart and William Smith.</p>
<p>Unfortunately MYOS1634 is correct. Drinking and drugs are on every college campus, including Christian schools. The good news is that it is relatively easy to avoid. Even students that drink understand that not everybody drinks (and also understand that it is illegal in most states for people under the age of 21 to possess alcohol). About the only colleges where almost no drinking occurs on campus are the service academies – West Point, the Naval Academy, and Air Force Academy. Those students drink too, and they do plenty of it off campus.</p>
<p>At Notre Dame, the school allows students to drink on campus because it thinks that it can supervise them and keep them safer. From what I can tell, this works okay.</p>
<p>Sapphire,
You might want to read the following article about Christian colleges:
<a href=“How Evangelical Universities Promote Student Well-Being | Dale M. Coulter | First Things”>How Evangelical Universities Promote Student Well-Being | Dale M. Coulter | First Things;
<p>Also notice how the writer makes the distinction between a liberal arts college and a research university. The difference is mostly in two areas. First, Liberal arts colleges are almost always much smaller than research universities. Second, at pretty much every liberal arts college, professors understand that their real job is to teach; but at research universities this is not necessarily the case. Many professors at such universities actually consider teaching to be a distraction from, yes, their research. Some professors actually only do research, and have legal contracts which guarantee that they will not be required to teach.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, many research universities do a very good job of teaching. For example, Princeton, Notre Dame, and Miami University of Ohio all have reputations for taking their teaching seriously. Plus, many research universities have small departments which are dedicated to liberal arts education. Columbia University has Columbia College. Notre Dame has its Program of Liberal Studies. Ohio University-Athens has its Honors Tutorial College. The important thing is to look for a liberal arts program, if you want it, while exploring large universities. Just because a university has a College of Liberal Arts does not necessarily mean you will get a true liberal arts education.</p>
<p>On the flip side, some schools might be called liberal arts colleges but do not actually provide a liberal arts education. For example, the service academies – West Point, the Naval Academy, and the Air Force Academy – are listed in US News and World Report as liberal arts colleges. But they are not! Even though relatively small, and even though they have a commitment to teaching, these academies are, shall I say, STEM schools where engineering and science are the focus, not liberal arts. Webb Institute is similar in this regard; being very small but focused on STEM subjects not liberal arts. Yet, in general, if a school has fewer than 2,000 students it probably can be considered a liberal arts college.</p>
