I go to an alternative schooling program. Basically it is a Texas accredited private school which incorporates homeschool aspects into it. (High school transcript says ‘home schooled’ on it)
There is still class rank, classes with other students, graduation, homecoming, but in a very small setting. There are only 20 students in my graduating class, which I will be ranked 1/20. It is not a hard school by any means, but I have taken a lot of dual credit courses (31 hours).
Are there scholarships that give money specifically to homeschooled students? Will being homeschooled impact my admissions either negatively or positively?
Also, do I need to submit my FASFA for merit scholarships? My net family income last year was 500k+ and I feel like colleges will be less inclined to give merit scholarships to those with large family incomes.
For most schools, no. A college will let you know if you have to do it (and it will be after you’ve already got your merit award so it won’t be a factor).
Some schools and scholarships rely more heavily on test scores for homeschooled students since there is no quality control on the gpa. For example, at Wyoming there is a Rocky Mountain scholars grant for students with a 22 ACT and above. The amount increases with a higher gpa/ACT. Homeschooled students need a 25 minimum.
It’s an accredited homeschool so they have like 20 full time teachers and an actual school campus with 120 students 6th-12th. I’m gonna have all as and 1 b in my dual credit courses so a 3.9 gpa through them. I have a 32 ACT, so I think I’m somewhat fine in that aspect.
So does anyone know about any homeschool scholarships?
We’re NYS homeschoolers. In the ~20+ years we’ve been homeschooling, I’ve never heard of a homeschool specific scholarship.
I find it interesting that there’s a scholarship that holds homeschoolers to a higher ACT standard than traditionally schooled students. Families in our network won’t apply to programs like that.
I don’t know of any homeschool-specific scholarships either, though in Florida homeschoolers are eligible for Bright Futures scholarships like other students.
You might want to look for merit-based aid at schools like UA and UAH (with that 32 ACT). There are others, too.
Many states in the west have very ‘loose’ standards for homeschooling, with no standardized tests required. Many students have 4.0 gpa because the only person who has ever evaluated them is a parent. How else are schools supposed to evaluate similar students except with a standardized test?
I’m sure there are plenty of homeschoolers who will happily take the scholarship money if their ACT is 25 or higher.
@twoinanddone Isn’t the ACT standardized? Why would “loose” standards matter if they kid gets a certain score, the kid earned that score, no matter how “loose” their education or test taking history was, or whether they’d ever taken another standardized test in their life. Have them write some essays, interview them whatever. Fine to discount or dismiss the 4.0 GPA, but it is a bit rich to demand they have a higher standardized test score, because they’ve never had to take standardized tests…Wouldn’t you think it should be the other way around - those public school kids who have had years of testing should have to score higher, since they have so much “valuable” experience taking standardized tests?
They get the same award amount for the 25 on the ACT as every other student, but they do not get a scholarship for having a 21 or 23 on the ACT (students with a 21-24 and a 3.3 gpa do get a smaller scholarship). Those are the rules. I don’t set the rules.
I think many schools look at an application from a home schooled student in a different way than a student at a traditional school, especially from a school known to the admissions officer. An AO may know by looking at a transcript that Teacher X at Boston Latin is a very hard A so be very impressed with that A on a transcript, while an A from a parent may have been hard to earn or may have been easy, no way to tell. The AO will look at other things, like an essay or test score to support that A. One of my kids went to a school with portfolio grading (she left before h.s.). We were all told that the AO’s would be looking at their applications in a different way. Yes, they are held to a different standard. They didn’t have gpa’s, so the AO or the scholarship committee or whoever had to use what they had to make a comparison, and in some cases it is the standardized tests.
Maybe every homeschooled applicant had a 4.0 and the school just decided they need at lest a 25 ACT to support getting a scholarship.
Some colleges aren’t eager to enroll homeschooled students and others just don’t know how to evaluate them. Then there are [url=<a href=“https://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/magazine/article/?article_id=39384%5Dthose%5B/url”>https://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/magazine/article/?article_id=39384]those[/url] that do want them so they figure it out.
I’ve heard of colleges asking homeschoolers for subject tests, but this is the first I’ve heard of one expecting higher standardized test scores. The average standardized test score for homeschoolers tends to be higher than the average of public school kids, but holding them to a higher standard isn’t fair. I don’t see our kids pining away after schools in Wyoming, though, so it’s not hurting us any. We can take our money elsewhere.
My school is very alternative. It is considered homeschooled to the state, but my parents don’t teach me. I have a class of 20-25 seniors and will receive a class rank. I take courses through real teachers who went to school to teach and go to 6-7 different classes a day with 6-7 different teachers. My school has the ability to qualify themselves as a real school because they are accredited, but my principal believes that being homeschooled adds another diversity card and in her experience has allowed more students get into top-tier schools.
It’s absurd that they require a higher ACT… Of course, a 25 is not very high for scholarships, but for students in public schools having to get lesser ACT requirements is offensive.
I’m with austin on this one, the only thing they’re doing is losing my consideration of that school and I’m sure the consideration of many other home schooled students as well.
So basically what I’m hearing is there aren’t any scholarships for them, but there seems to be trend of higher acceptance rates for homeschool students from what I’ve seen online. It looks like colleges see homeschooling as a plus because it requires students to be more self-paced and learn at the rate they want which is similar to college.
It sounds like you are “homeschooled” in name only. Other than how your school chooses to classify its students, everything you describe is identical to a small private secondary school. I would think that any scholarships (if any exist) that are designated for homeschooled students would be intended for students who are, you know, actually homeschooled.
@BelknapPoint I know my school is weird haha. Its a private homeschool co-op basically. I’ve always thought of secondary school as more of a technical school. Such as a school after elementary that trains specifically for engineer, business, farming, ect.
No, a secondary school is a school between primary (elementary) school and college. It could offer technical, vocational or college preparatory instruction. Any high school in the U.S. would be a secondary school.
I agree with @BelknapPoint. Your state may classify you as homeschooled, but I doubt very seriously that many universities will see what you do as homeschooling or that it qualifies as “diversity.”
Even if there were such a thing as a homeschooled scholarship, which I have never heard of and I am in the process of helping my 5th homeschooled sr apply to colleges, this description
I doubt any homeschool scholarship committee would award it to someone with so little understanding of homeschooling. The “real teachers who went to school to teach” and “real school” comments ooze with an undercurrent of superiority over homeschooling parents providing their kids’ education at home.
A “why homeschool essay” written by my sr who has never stepped inside of a typical classroom would read 100% differently than a student who has attended a small private school. Thank goodness bc that is precisely why we homeschool. I suppose her complete lack of classroom instruction accompanied by significant national and international awards does bring diversity. But that diversity is based on something that does not reflect a traditional school education at all. Her transcripts reflect that atypical approach to academics. Her essays reflect her unique educational experiences. Her individual accomplishments reflect how she made the most of a non-tradional education to completely own her education and the direction it has taken. Your principal’s POV seems to ignore that homeschooling is not just a category. The application is the complete presentation of academic background.
“The “real teachers who went to school to teach” and “real school” comments ooze with an undercurrent of superiority over homeschooling parents providing their kids’ education at home.”
You have to admit most parents are completely unqualified to teach high school level courses to their children. Especially not most upperclassmen courses. The average parent is not going to have a good grasp of calculus, statistics, physics, etc.
@CourtneyThurston Being “qualified to teach high school level courses” is not how homeschooling works in our homeschool. I don’t have to be “qualified” and still have students who excel and excel at high levels (higher than most ps students.) It takes using great teaching resources. It isn’t as if books, videos,online lecture series (MIT opencourseware, Coursera, etc) are unavailable and the parent has to fabricate from thin air the subjects being studied.
My math skills beyond alg 2 stink. So do my chemistry and physics skills. But, all of my kids have graduated with at least calculus and are great math students. Some of my kids have taken AP chem and AP cal as 9th/10th graders and scored 5s. (There are great resources out there like AoPS.) My oldest ds is a chemE who graduated from college with honors. My current college jr has a 4.0 GPA with a double in physics and math, graduated from high school with 300 level physics and math credits, and has finished all of his UG physics courses and is currently taking grad level classes. (obviously my lack of being qualified did not hamper my kids. Being homeschooled allowed them to thrive and take classes they were ready to take when they were ready to take them. A 10 yr old taking algebra 1 is perfectly normal if it is normal for them.)
FWIW, all of my kids have walked through college doors more than prepared for their classes. They have all been near or at the top of their class. It has not taken me being “qualified to teach high school level classes” b/c by ps standards I am not. But, I am an expert on my kids. I know how they learn and think. (I have been their teacher for most of their subjects until they start taking college level courses.) I know how to teach them to think and learn. By the time they are in high school, they help me design their high school courses in order to achieve their personal educational objectives. They take ownership over their educations. They know how to find resources for any questions they have. They love learning and they want to learn. When they completely surpass any ability to study solely at home, we find professionals who are willing to work with them as tutors, or they DE at the local university.
Outsiders can be skeptical. But it works and works well for our family. But, our homeschool does not resemble a traditional school. If it did, I am not sure what the point would be of homeschooling. We homeschool bc we want our kids to have the freedom to study according to our educational philosophy. It is not replicating a ps classroom in our home.
Most homeschool parents I know aren’t “average.” The ones who aren’t comfortable teaching certain subjects can find a program, co-op, or tutor to help, or they can let their teens take advantage of dual enrollment classes at any of our local colleges.