Home School student chances

<p>I'm a home school student who was briefly enrolled in a private correspondence school for my freshman year only. My GPA was 4.0 for that grade. I then continued home school and started community college work full time during my sophomore year. Here are my stats</p>

<p>16 years old (will be applying during my "junior year," even though I don't go to high school)
living in FL, White
SAT I: 630M, 660V (taken when I was 15)
SAT II: Writing 720, World History 750, Math IIC 650 (retaking), Biology (to be taken)
College GPA 3.83
College President's List twice
Dean's List three times
4.0 GPA for first two college semesters
Enrolled in the college's Honors Program, currently taking Honors courses
I have 53 college credits, after this semester: 65
College Courses: Fine Arts, Freshman Seminar, Philosophy, English Composition, Algebra, Precalc, Trig, Bio I, Bio II, Anthropology, Psych, World History Honors, Music Lit Honors, Statistics, Pursuit of Knowledge Honors
Currently enrolled in: Calculus, College Physics I, General Chemistry I
Member of Phi Theta Kappa, International Honors Society of the Two Year College
I was in my comm. college's Brain Bowl Competition Top 10
Math Club, Science Club, Philosophy Club, Honors Club
9 years playing piano, been on local radio twice
5 years guitar, viola
2 years Karate
3 years oil painting
Employed at my father's business
planned majors: Philosophy, Biology
I could conceivably graduate this year with an Associate's Degree</p>

<p>I figure my stats are pretty decent considering it's all college work. I guess my "hook" would be the fact that I'm relatively untraditional, unconventional; my essays reflect on that.</p>

<p>My schools(applying as freshman):
UF
Miami
Stanford
Columbia
Cornell
Berkeley</p>

<p>What do you guys think? Any other suggestions?</p>

<p>Sounds... interesting. I'd call some colleges and ask how they deal with home schoolers- all are different.</p>

<p>I'm not sure how they'd look at your college GPA(would they consider that a difficult HS type course load and use that as your GPA) and your SATs aren't that high(good, but not great). I know many home schoolers who have done this but they all had the correspondance thing which added a little more structure. I really don't have any advice for you but wish you good luck.</p>

<p>Also, 16 isn't that abnormal. I'm 16(and will be until I graduate) and I'm a senior. I know plenty of 16 y/o seniors.</p>

<p>I wish I knew how these applications will turn out for you, but I don't know. My guess, and it is just a guess, is that you will be accepted at 1-3 of your schools and rejected at the others, with your current stats. Your plan to re-take the Math IIC exam is a good one, as is re-taking the SAT I. I think your situation would be improved a lot if you could get your SAT I to about 1400 or so, in which case your non-traditional background might work to your advantage. </p>

<p>My take is that you have a lot of plusses, but your standardized scores are low for most of the schools you have selected.</p>

<p>Many of the top universities openly tell you (including Stanford) that test scores count more heavily for home-schoolers because they don't have an easy handle on what the grades mean. But in your case, with a lot of CC grades (and a 4.0 which deserves a real congratulations! But what happened after the first 2 semesters?), your grades may be viewed as the grades of a competitive high school as anovice suggested.</p>

<p>Whatever happens, please post your outcomes! The rest of the home-schoolers out there need all of the real-world data they can find. Good luck.</p>

<p>Yeah, 16 y/o seniors aren't that rare. I just thought that my hook would be my age/college thing. Who knows? After my first couple semesters, I got 2 Bs. It only brought me down a little though. </p>

<p>I talked with the vice dean of admissions at Cornell, and he was really enthusiastic about my applying. He said to talk about my "nontraditional" education in my essays, and said that they would take my lower SAT I score into account because I took it when I was younger (if only I could retake it, argh).</p>

<p>Technically, I'm not <em>really</em> a high school student. I know some schools want me apply as a transfer since I'll have more than 60 college credits. So, they're not just going on standardized test scores. Hopefully, they'll look at my college transcript with a lot of weight. Who knows. I'll find out soon enough.</p>

<p>and you meant 1-3 of the colleges for Stanford, Berkeley, Cornell, Columbia, right?</p>

<p>i dont know if the homeschool will help or hurt you but either way stanford is a huge reach with your sat score </p>

<p>Good luck i hope it works out well for you!</p>

<p>As everyone has pointed out, your scores are very low for all but the Fl schools. Why don't you wait until you have enough credits and college grade history to apply as a transfer? I agree that they would want high scores from someone who was home schooled. I'm afraid my guess is that the top schools will not accept you now.</p>

<p>Oh yeah. I realize that four of them are reaches. Apparently, I'm "guaranteed" acceptance to UF and UM because I'll be graduating from the honors program. Whatever that means. I'm just gonna give it a try; it certainly can't hurt. My test scores are lowish, but if I retake the IIC and take the Bio (I'm pretty confident I can do well on it), perhaps that'll increase my chances (Columbia wants four of my SAT IIs; they waived the fifth one when I explained my situation). I really love NY since that's where I'm from, etc... Do you think I might have a better chance at NYU? But, no matter. I always have my safeties... Thanks.</p>

<p>Also, I am considering just continuing at the community college level, getting my high graduation equivalency certificate, improving my SAT I, etc, and applying next year as a freshman (or transfer, whatever they prefer). I'd probably have a better shot then, with three years of college, better scores, more ec's, right?</p>

<p>My daughter...also homeschooled is in a similar situation. However she is 18. She will graduate from highshool this year with 53 college credits (actually, she isn't here and I'm not sure of the amount). </p>

<p>We have basically just considered all the college credits as high school credits. She may transfer some and may not transfer others depending on the college she gets into. We did find out that the courses at the community college were not as challenging as the ones at the University. She has attended both. </p>

<p>I think you will have a good shot at getting into the schools. Figure on a 30% chance at each except the Florida ones. However, it is worth applying and push the fact that you are an unconvential student.</p>

<p>If they consider my credits transferrable is up to them; I really don't care. If I get into the school of my choice and have to give up some community colege credits, then good times, I say. </p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

<p>If you get into Stanford or any of the other reaches, you will find that your community college classes will be a good introduction to the classes you will have at that college. Just consider them high school classes in your mind and move on from there. </p>

<p>Usually the community colleges are a step above high school and a step below higher level colleges in difficulty and depth. Every community college is different of course, just like every high school is different. It has been our experience here that the community college is a step below the University. However, it is still a college and if you would have difficulty transfering them to some schools, others will take them straight across the board. </p>

<p>I would think that in your planned majors, the community college classes should not get you too far behind if you transferred straight across. If you try to transfer such subjects as math, physics or chemistry staight across and then use the class as a prerequisite for a higher level class in a higher level college you may find yourself woefully behind. It would be better to take the class again at that college and be well prepared for the upper level classes.</p>

<p>You said you could conceivably graduate this year. Does that mean you have the choice of graduating this year or waiting until next year. If that is true, you might want to get a little more preparation and take the SAT again to try for an excellent score. I don't know the ramifications of applying this year with the option of graduating from HS if you get in and if not, just continuing in HS another year and applying again next year...interesting possibility. You need to know if that may hurt you however, should you try that route.</p>

<p>Yeah, I'm just gonna give it a try. I can always apply again next year as you said.</p>

<p>bump......</p>

<p>ok, one last bump</p>

<p>bump... lol</p>