Hi,
My D is a very good student and independent learner (no tutoring or help). She had all honors and APs. In regards to grade all As and few Bs and 2 or 3 Cs. SAT close to 1600, volunteering, club founder or lead roles, and work & research experiences. But didn’t get into any of her dreams or reach colleges. 
Now my son is expected to enter high school in the next school year. We are thinking to make a change for him and possibly have him in homeschool or attend an online school (because he gets easily distracted). Would that put him in a disadvantage in regards to admission into potential Ivy schools?
Thanks
Good students who are home schooled or who attend online schools get into top institutions every year. But so do kids who attend the kinds of high schools that your daughter did. Lots of students with perfect grades ant exam scores don’t get into any of their dream or reach colleges - that is why those places are called dreams and reaches!
Provided your daughter has a college to go to this fall that your family can afford and that she is happy to attend, it truly doesn’t matter if it was her rock-bottom safety. Don’t make her brother homeschool or enroll in online school just because you think it will mean he gets into “better” places than she did. What kind of high school experience does he want? What do his middle school teachers suggest? When you write that he is easily distracted, what do you mean? Is he just being a kid, or does he have a learning difference like ADHD? If it is a learning difference, has he been working with the resource team at his middle school to develop better compensation skills?
If your son is happy and doing reasonably well in school, I wouldn’t switch to online school or homeschool unless your local high school is very poor and/or crime ridden. My youngest daughter is doing online school this year due to mental health issues and I am hoping she will be able to return to her regular high school next year. The quality of education and socialization just isn’t the same without teacher and peer interaction. I know my daughter is more easily distracted at home than in a school setting.
I would not make decisions on schooling based on future college admissions. Your son really needs to focus on his high school years for now, without thinking at all about college or getting in.
If he has a problem with getting distracted, maybe you could get a physician or psychiatrist to evaluate him, or ask the school to do a neuropsychological test. ADHD cannot be tested, actually, but a questionnaire is used, and the family doctor could get you started (and there are psychiatrists who are skilled at this: check for clinics).
We used some online classes (due to health issues) but had the public school approve the courses first so that credits could be counted. Later on we helped get funding so the school joined The Virtual High School and 25 students could take a class each semester. There are pros and cons to online classes and some kids who don’t do well with in-person classes thrive.
That said, I think online classes are better used as part of an overall high school experience. The development of teenagers into young adults means a lot more than academics or college chances. Granted, many homeschoolers make friends and do activities and grow as well. But homeschooling for the well-being of the child in the present is a lot different than doing it to increase college chances.
You sound like a good parent who is concerned for your children so I hope you will consider the “whole child.”
I am a homeschool parent, our kids took mostly in-person once a week classes. Totally online classes were harder for several reasons, including understanding concepts, engaging in class discussions, and for motivation and socializing.
There are great options for homeschoolers in our metro area. Make sure you research all the options in your area.
Homeschooling should be a choice, based on what is best for your child, how they learn, if they have a dominant EC that requires flexible class schedule, if family has unique travel opportunities, if child has physical or mental struggles, if the public school is not a good fit or is not a safe place.
A parent’s goal should be to understand your child, how their brain works, what style of learning is best suited for them. What interests them academically, and what environment will propel them to be the most engaged learner?
The goal is to graduate your child at THEIR best level. College choices should fit the student. College is not a prize to be won to make parents proud. College is an educational extension of your child’s personality, learning style, interests and academic pursuits. (And of course needs to be affordable for the family.)
I think the decision on whether or not to home school depends on the personality of the child and the educational options available that best fit that child’s needs. As the parent of an ADD child who is also “easily distracted,” I have found that anytime I attempt to facilitate learning, it doesn’t end well. She would also view it as an eternal punishment. (Also keep in mind that ADD children tend to be people pleasers, and you might unintentionally send the message to your son that he isn’t “good enough” if he doesn’t excel.) For her, it has been a better choice to put her in a traditional school that forces her to sink or swim, and then I only have one role - parent. But, we have a great public school option as well as great charter and private options.
One advantage of public schools, especially larger ones, is that the social interactions expose a child to a myriad of extracurricular opportunities that he (or she) might not even realize exist. (D20’s school has a conspiracy theory club of all things.) One advantage of online schools is that a child who has found his (or her) passion can then condense the educational requirements so that more time can be allocated to the passion.
Getting into an Ivy League school is a crap shoot regardless of what type of schooling the student has, and even if the student is admitted, it still might not be the best fit for that individual. You want to make the decisions that will bring out the best in your child, both academically and socially. The best thing you can do for your child is to realize that the dream needs to be his, not yours.
@powercropper
This needs to be printed and laminated on large poster boards and handed out to every parent at high school freshman orientation.
A few B’s and C’s is NOT all A’s. I’m sure she was a good student but not perfect. It is very difficult to get into top schools even with perfect grades.
Don’t compare your kids. Homeschooling is a lot of work for the parents as you have to do all the paperwork.
In answer to the original question, no, homeschooling per se would not put your child at a disadvantage in college admissions. If you think homeschooling is the right choice for your child, don’t be deterred because of college admissions.
But also don’t homeschool him in order to get him into a better college.
In my area, teenaged homeschoolers typically take some community college courses in their junior and senior years, and perhaps before for particularly advanced students. There are also excellent online courses offered by Pennsylvania Homeschoolers. They have a full range of online AP courses as well as other courses. (Beware: PA Homeschoolers is a Christian organization, and some but by no means all of the online classes have a Christian fundamentalist orientation. Others are secular. Make your choices with care.)
My daughter is a decent self motivated student. She did a bunch of dual enrollment classes in high school. She took one online class in a subject of interest only offered that way. She received an A in the class. However she did not like it as an online class and would dislike having to take online school. I guess I wouldn’t go with online school without some sort of trial class. However I would not switch schools thinking it would make getting into a dream school easier. Kids get into decent schools from every type of school.
Thank you, everyone, for your responses. This is very helpful.
@happymomof1 - I meant, many of the top colleges were within her reach but didn’t get accepted. She had everything any of my town’s youths had (who got accepted in ivy leagues and tier1 colleges) except few Cs. I take it back, she didn’t have any national award. But I talked to many of MIT students and not all have national awards. I guess we don’t understand the college selection process. Maybe insight from some parents of general students who made to ivy league can help to understand the process.
@kidzncatz - thank you for sharing your daughter’s experience with online school. Our best wishes to you and your daughter. As a parent, we want the best for our daughters and sons, and their happiness is our happiness.
@compmom - thank you for your suggestion about “whole child” and keeping that in mind, we are trying to find the best path for him. He has done some course through VHS, and he is perfectly fine with subjects that he loves and likes. But then there are prerequisite courses for graduation and the students have to do even if they don’t like it (e.g. social studies). Anyone with a strategy that worked in this case?
@powercropper - how do you motivate a child who is not interested in a certain subject? Any strategy that worked for you or for any parent here who has such child and certain trick worked. I would love to hear that (especially as these days they are blessed with everything).
@tutumom2001 - you are so true, our public school is large and have all kind of clubs, elective subjects and many of APs. You are right about sink and swim. I’m thinking online school gives more control in case they sink too far below. Don’t you think?
@twoinanddone - Correct not all As, but that should not deter a student from getting into her top college choices. Should they?
@“Cardinal Fang” - Thank you for your suggestion.
@momtogirls2 - I appreciate your suggestion.
Thanks
How broadly does your school define social studies and will they allow VHS courses for credit?
@LoveToLearn99
Few C grades could easily be the reason your daughter didn’t get into her dream schools. Especially if in core courses.
I would not make a school change for your son based on your daughter’s college application acceptances. These are two different kids.
Are you hoping online or home schooling will set your son up for acceptances to top schools? If so…let go of that idea completely.
And remember at many of those schools more than 80% of the applicants do not get admitted. At some more than 90% do not get admitted.
There are good colleges out there for every student.
“Correct not all As, but that should not deter a student from getting into her top college choices. Should they?”
Well, not all students can get in to their top choice colleges if those colleges are rejecting 80%-90% or more of students like her or who are even more accomplished.
Which is why I believe it makes more sense to try to figure out what you want out of life and ways to get there (rather than set specific colleges as goals).
There is no way for you to predict admission to any university or LAC that has a 25% acceptance rate or lower.
At all of them, C’s are a big no-no unless perhaps they were freshman year and followed with an A in the same subject the following years. B’s are okay if there are only a couple and/or in non core subjects.
The student needs to take Honors and AP/IB/DE/AICE courses as appropriate, have a minimum of 5 academic courses including one each of English, Math, Foreign Language, Social Science, and Science every year, plus graduation requirements (Health, PE…) and/or personal picks if there’s space in the schedule (this can be Orchestra, Yearbook, Culinary Arts, Robotics, Theater Tech… Having one Art class, wheher performance or appreciation, is always a good idea.)
In addition, the student should be involved in a few ECs where they make a difference or stand out.
And NONE of this guarantees anything if the college admits 25% or less applicants. It’s just the baseline.
A student enrolled in an online school likely has access to fewer classes and fewer EC opportunities. Before you do this, you need to check 1° that the online school offers honors/AP/IB/AICE classes in all 5 core courses AND 2° that your local school district allows homeschooled children to join clubs and activities.
What are your son’s interests? Is he into sports, science, videogames, music…? What does he do in his free time?
If he doesn’t “want to” study some subjects, tell him tough luck. He needs to have basic foundations of knowledge. If he truly wants to study just a few subjects in college, the “free curriculum” colleges (Brown, Amherst, Grinnell are the most famous) are all super difficult to get into so he better excel at ALL subjects before he thinks of applying. Otherwise he needs to reach a high level of achievement in the subjects he doesn’t like (IB HL or AP or DE), so that he might be exempted from them in the most common type of colleges, those with gen eds for 30-40% of the degree.
Do you have access to Naviance at your school? It gives you a good idea of what scores and GPAs students that were accepted into colleges that your son is interested in.
@ultimom
The son of the OP is currently an 8th grader. Any current Naviance data for admissions stats will likely be very out of date by the time this kid applies.
@LoveToLearn99 - Perhaps you are writing very fast, but some of your writing makes me wonder if you are an immigrant parent and did not attend undergraduate college in the US yourself. That could explain some of your challenges in understanding college admission here. Forgive me if I’m wrong about that. Yes, a couple of C grades are enough to keep a student out of the places that you describe your daughter as having applied to. That is why we encourage students to build their list up, rather than down. The most important places for a student to identify are the safeties (preferably more than one), that the student will be very happy to attend if all else goes wrong in the admission and aid process. The only places that a student can safely predict will admit them are those that flat-out guarantee admissions based on stats that the student has, or that have open admission policies (like most community colleges). Everything else is a gamble - just with better or worse odds.
I am concerned that you seem to be fixated on ivy-level institutions when there are several thousand other options in the US, and even more if you consider institutions outside the US. Your son is in 8th grade. His behavior, from your, description, appears to be well within the norms for the school behavior of 8th graders. If you have specific concerns about his attention span, and his inability or unwillingness to focus in classes that he isn’t interested in, take those concerns to his teachers, and possibly to the resource team, at his school. They are the experts on behavior of students his age and have seen it all before. They will have good ideas for you. It really, truly, is OK for you to talk with them and seek their advice!
In the end if your son continues a pattern of getting good grades when he likes the subject or the teacher, and not-so good grades when he doesn’t like the subject or the teacher, he will still have plenty of educational and direct-to-the-job options when he finishes high school. I would encourage you to be less anxious about his college options right now, and to focus more on helping him grow into the good person he is meant to be.
@MYOS1634: “If he doesn’t “want to” study some subjects, tell him tough luck. He needs to have basic foundations of knowledge”
That depends. Not for admissions to UK unis, for instance (almost like grad school admissions where they care only about potential aptitude in the subject(s) you will study).
^ actually not completely accurate since British students need to have (I)GCSE’S in addition to A levels which may translate into various testing requests from Americans.