Home School Acceptances, Class of 2013!

Pre-College Issues Home Schooling and College
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<p>danas, thanks. Did your son enjoy Dartmouth?</p>

<p>Our read from the outside was that the Dartmouth distribution requirements were probably not that onerous. My son is dyslexic. Large volumes of reading and writing are fatiguing. So, if the distribution requirements would force him to take simultaneously several courses with large volumes of reading and writing, he could blow up. He actually loves courses like Constitutional Law. But, he finds courses with mathematical content much less taxing. Some schools distribution requirements could be pretty onerous for him; others less so. The hardest requirement for him is foreign language, he just doesn’t hear sounds in a way that lets him reproduce them (and spelling in a foreign language can be pretty challenging). Dartmouth has a language requirement but has a procedure for waiver. We’ll talk with them about whether he would qualify.</p>

<p>While his primary interests at the moment seem to be in areas like politics and strategy, he probably needs to major in something that has mathematical content, like economics. Dartmouth actually has a major in Mathematics and Social Science, which would probably be perfect for him.</p>

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<p>Shawbridge, I’m not sure if it’s different at other colleges your son is looking at, but I know my social science-y kid has a TON of reading and writing to do at Amherst. If that’s a significant factor for you and your son, you might want to talk to the disability services people about that specifically. Obviously for math, econ, etc. it would be less. There certainly are many classes at Amherst that are more quantitative and homework is organized around problem sets, labs and/or tests. My son took logic, which was structured like that. But aside from logic, his classes so far in philosophy, religion, American Studies, and LJST have been extremely heavy on reading, especially, and also writing. In the beginning, he was taken aback by the amount of reading required (and this is a kid who was always a very avid and quick reader). He seems to have adapted to it now, after almost a year, and I don’t hear him complain about it much anymore. He did say that coming back from the bookstore at the beginning of each term he feels like a cartoon of a guy carrying so many books they are piled up to his chin.</p>

<p>Now that’s just his experience with his particular classes, and he’s just a freshman so it’s a pretty short time frame, but it might be something to explore a bit while you’re visiting. Maybe you could get a reading list from some classes he’d be likely to take.</p>

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<p>'rentof2, good suggestions. We’ll check out reading lists.</p>

<p>I am not dyslexic (runs on the other side of the family) but was in the math/science/social science end of the world and tended to the mathematical side of things. I found the humanities and literature courses at Princeton pretty dismaying in terms of the sheer volume of reading (history courses clocking in at 400 pages per week and my Shakespeare course required reading all of Shakespeare’s plays in one semester if I remember correctly and he really needed an editor with some of the lesser ones) but Princeton had much stiffer distribution requirements that those at Dartmouth now (no idea what they were then). I never thought Princeton would be a good place for my son for that reason. </p>

<p>My sense is that social science courses can become less reading-intensive as you get more advanced – the advanced psych course’s reading can involve reading a few journal articles and having to think about them to tease out how the experimental manipulations actually relate to the supposed theoretical constructs whereas the beginning courses require a lots of reading and relatively little thinking. (Less true in sociology or comparative political science). I think both kinds are manageable for him but the advanced courses will not be an issue.</p>

<p>The killers for him will actually be the humanities and literature courses. History, religion, philosophy, American Studies, and possibly LJST would fall in the humanities bucket rather than social science (econ, psychology, government/political science, sociology). Advanced courses in humanities are no different, as far as I can tell, from intro courses, though I personally did not get much from these courses. I wanted to shoot someone (metaphorically speaking) while taking metaphysics but the offenders had all died one or more centuries earlier. </p>

<p>He can easily handle one course like that a semester and maybe two, but probably not three. So, a semester with math, chemistry, econ, and moral philosphy would be fine, but a semester with math, metaphysics, the Russian novel, and comparative religion would probably be deadly. </p>

<p>I think writing is less of a problem than reading. But, in choosing courses and a major, he’ll have to pay attention to the ratio of concepts per word (very high in math/physics, pretty high in chem/econ, much lower in humanities with some exceptions). To use an analogy from linear programming, he’ll have to maximize academic interest subject to keeping the ratio of concepts per word (or total number of words) at some reasonable level. It would be better if he didn’t have to apply that constraint, but that’s who he is.</p>

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<p>Sounds like you’ll get it figured out very well and make an informed choice.</p>

<p>At Amherst for the first semester all freshman take a first-year seminar. I can’t remember which one my son was originally placed in, but he had a scheduling conflict and had to switch to another. Because of various time limitations he had, and the fact that most of the FYSEs were already fully enrolled, he only had a few to choose between. Two were organized around topics he really didn’t want to delve into for whatever reason, so he was left opting for a class called “Big Books” – ha! And they were VERY big, indeed!</p>

<p>He ended up really enjoying the class a lot, and loved the professor, but combined with his other classes, his daily and weekly page load was insane. Fortunately, he’s a kid that gets caught up in a great story and can knock off hundreds of pages and barely notice it. It wasn’t that the Big Books reading that was uninteresting or too laborious, it’s just that with his other classes’ reading demands he didn’t feel like there was enough time in the day.</p>

<p>I guess it was good bootcamp for him, though. He seems to have gotten into a rhythm with it.</p>

<p>Anyway, Amherst’s open curriculum could be very helpful in putting together the optimal schedule.</p>

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<p>My son enjoyed Dartmouth very much, and met several other home schoolers, including one who became a member of his (rock) band. I think upper New England, and I’d include western Mass., doesn’t have the automatic stereotypes about home schoolers as some other parts of the country. The first sit down test he took he got about 50% of the way through. His professor approached him afterward perplexed, as his papers and class involvement had been good. He told her he had never taken such a test as a home schooler. She threw the grade away. He got up to speed on the formalities of school pretty quickly. Another professor scheduled had a lunch date with him because she was considering home schooling her own kids.
My daughter is a home schooler at Princeton. She took the Humanities Sequence, a double credit, two semester freshman year course. Essentially the Western Canon from the Old Testament through Marx and beyond. The day of a mid-term in the course, someone mentioned that the assigned readings that week were 1000 pages. These were medieval writings. This was extreme even by Princeton standards, and nothing like my son ever had to do at Dartmouth. My son never mentioned feeling overwhelmed by the reading, but he pretty much grew up reading. Even so, I don’t think the reading load was as heavy at Dartmouth.<br>
Amherst is a reading intensive place by reputation. However, it is intimate enough to have people flexible in dealing with issues like your son’s, I’m guessing. Professors tend to be very approachable at Dartmouth as well. Teaching is supposed to be job #1 in hiring decisions. The quarter system, with a three course load, ought to allow for one reading course and two others at a time.
Unfortunately, like any institutional school situation, there is no guarantee that the individuals and the structure will respond the way you would hope. I think choosing schools Dartmouth size and below is a good idea. I also think that his admissions results were so strong that the schools don’t have worries that he will have serious difficulty.</p>

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<p>danas, thanks. I’m impressed by your son’s freshman year professor. Your daughter’s experience at Princeton is consistent with mine (and some of our friends’ kids), but that course sounds really over the top. We’re in the Boston area and homeschooling is definitely unusual but not disrespected. It may be more common outside the metropolitan area.</p>

<p>Well, we’ll investigate in the upcoming two weeks. And, you are right, while the institution may be properly primed, some individual faculty members may not go along. We found that for the high school part of my son’s education – the IEP said one thing plain as day and the teacher would just ignore it because it would be either extra work for them or it just didn’t match what they thought their course should be. That’s part of what got us to the homeschooling part of his education.</p>

<p>I don’t think he’ll have serious difficulty if he can a) organize the curriculum to space out the reading; b) get a foreign language waiver; and c) get reasonable accommodations. Indeed, if he gets all three, I think he will be playing much more to his strengths than high school allowed him to. The more conceptual and abstract it gets, the better he will do. One other good thing. He likes and is talented at studio art and will probably take a significant slug of art courses. No reading or writing (except maybe an occasional artist’s statement or show review).</p>

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<p>Just listing the notables. Homeschooled since mid 6th grade, plus taking a year or two off due to family health issues and unforseen circumstances. I think I got waitlisted at so many places because they liked me, but they weren’t sure if I wanted to really attend THEIR specific college. Knox seems to be an excellent choice in everything except for location (which matters to me somewhat, but not nearly as much as being mostly debt free!). I particularly like the fact that they run on a trimester system, having only 3 courses for every 10 week session. It’s much more appealing than 5 or 6 courses every semester. They seem really interested in having me, and even had a personalized letter sent to my parents from the parents of a Junior on campus who’s background was somewhat similar. I can’t wait to visit next week! It does make me sad that there is very little discussion about Knox on CC as it isn’t a name school, although it is a top tier/top 50 LAC from what I gather.</p>

<p>Accepted:
Knox College with almost full price covered in scholarships
Willamette</p>

<p>Waitlisted:
Brandeis (Sent in, will consider strongly if taken off the list)
Franklin & Marshall
Hobart and William Smith
Union College</p>

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<p>I was homeschool since 6th grade.
Accepted at: Xavier (Honors), Duquesne, Gannon, Immaculata, Elizabethtown, Furman, College of Charleston
Waitlist: Muhlenberg</p>

<p>I got honors invites at some of them… I don’t remember which, and don’t feel like looking :P</p>

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<p>Congrats on your acceptances, ama1090!</p>

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<p>Thank you! If only money hadn’t been such a factor :\ Oh well.</p>

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<p>I’m not home schooled, but I was just wondering:
Do home-schooled kids tend to attend colleges near their homes?
Or perhaps there’s no correlation at all.</p>

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<p>I have one that’s 3000 miles away and one that’s 3 blocks away. The latter, though, is only 16 and started college early. I thought at her age it would be better to live at home the first year. Next year she’s transferring to the flagship state univ., it’s about a 3 hour drive.</p>

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<p>'rentof2, my son is heading to Amherst, which is 1 1/2 hours away from us. Fabulous discussions with administrators and professors made it the obvious choice. The student-centered nature of the program probably is well-suited to kids who are used to charting their own path. Maybe I’ll see you there in the fall.</p>

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<p>Our kids have applied to schools near and far, but being close to home wasn’t hugely important. We’re in the Southeast; we have one daughter who is in the Northeast, and it looks like our son will be in the upper Midwest. </p>

<p>He has chosen Macalester!</p>

<p>Any other recent decisions by homeschoolers?</p>

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<p>I chose Pomona over Columbia, Duke, and Georetown SFS.</p>

<p>Very excited about my choice :)</p>

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<p>I’m headed to Villanova, although I almost picked Mount Holyoke. I’m very happy with my choice, though.</p>

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<p>American students in general tend to attend colleges near their homes. I haven’t found the homeschoolers I know to be any different from other students in that respect. Many choose a college near home; some do not.</p>

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<p>Shawbridge, I’m sure your son will love Amherst. It’s a very special place. You won’t be seeing me there in the fall, though. I went back last fall to help S move into his freshman dorm, but since we live so far away and it’s so expensive to go there, I probably won’t be back until May 2012 for his graduation. Not that I wouldn’t like to go visit, but…</p>

<p>Have a great time though. I was there for the day-and-a-half of parent activities during freshman orientation week. It was very nice. I even met another parent there (in person) that I first got to know here on CC. That was cool.</p>

<p>That’s nice for you that you are only 1 1/2 hours away. We got to see our son for about 6 days around Christmas, and that’s been it since he left home late last August. He’ll be home in about a week, though, and this time it’ll be for 3 1/2 months, so that’ll be great.</p>

<p>I don’t have any misgivings about the distance though. In many ways it has been a very good thing for him. However, I am glad my daughter will only be 3 hours away when she leaves for school this fall. At least I’ll have one kid I can visit occasionally! And, heck, I guess she might even come home for Thanksgiving and spring break. :)</p>

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<p>I suggested to both kids that it was good but not necessary to be closer for undergrad but for grad school, either coast (or another country) was fine. For my son, given the health issues he was having, we jointly agreed that being in driving range was a good idea. However, we were going up to roughly 4.5 hours, so 1.5 hours is a bonus. Harvard would have been a bit close – I am there once every couple of weeks and it is only 20-30 minutes away – too easy to drop by for lunch. But 1.5 hours is just far enough that we won’t go visit. And, there’s nothing drawing us to Amherst for any other reason (I’ve never been there before this year) – we have been to Mass MOCA in North Adams and to the Berkshires.</p>

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<p>Homeschooled my entire life and UC Berkeley bound!</p>