<p>Our homeschooled D1 didn’t apply to Harvard but she was accepted ED to her first choice college, a highly selective LAC, and she shopped around at a lot of other highly selective schools before settling on her ED choice. I’d say the most consistent message we got from admissions officers at these schools is that they want to be sure homeschoolers have an adequate background in math and science. Many homeschoolers can demonstrate the kind of “passion” and extraordinary achievements in one or more areas that make them interesting to adcoms, but a significant fraction of them are deficient in math/science; in many cases that’s what separates the most competitive homeschooling candidates from the rest. Never heard one word about spelling bees.</p>