<p>I'm wondering what colleges have a reputation of being homeschool friendly. I'm a liberal, eclectic homeschooler. To give an idea of what I'm looking at, Hampshire College is high on my list. </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>There is an actual homeschool forum here; you might have better luck if you post in it. [Home</a> Schooling and College - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/home-schooling-college/]Home”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/home-schooling-college/) There are all flavors of homeschoolers there (though, unfortunately, not very many).</p>
<p>Many / most colleges are getting more and more friendly, and the schools like Hampshire are bound to be totally homeschool friendly because that’s the students they’re most likely to get. From personal experience, my son (who had lots of community college credits, so not the same background as you) was accepted to Rice, Caltech, Harvey Mudd, Case Western, Rose Hulman, Colorado College, and Colorado School of Mines. He was rejected <em>after waitlisting</em> at Wash U, and that’s all he applied to. You might want to talk to danas about her kids’s experiences - they’re pretty unschooley.</p>
<p>Stanford is known to be home-school friendly.</p>
<p>We homeschooled our D1 who was accepted ED at her first choice, Haverford, a highly selective LAC. Only school she applied to (well, she had two other apps in by the time she was accepted at Haverford, but she withdrew them before decision time).</p>
<p>I’d say most colleges and universities are pretty homeschool-friendly these days, because by now they’ve all had experience with homeschoolers who did very well at their school. I’d say the feedback we got from the schools when we talked to them reflects several common themes. First, to the degree homeschoolers don’t have “objective” third-party evaluations of their academic achievements, standardized tests tend to count for even more in the admissions process, and some schools will require additional standardized testing beyond what’s required for other applicants. And even if it’s not required, it’s a good idea to submit a lot of test results, e.g., both ACT and SAT as well as SAT Subject Tests. Second, if it’s possible to get “objective” third-party evaluations, it helps enormously. Our D1, for example, had taken 11 classes at our local public flagship university by the time she finished HS under a state program that pays for qualified HS students to take college classes at state expense. Those grades were a perfectly adequate substitute for a conventional HS transcript; better, in some ways, because they showed she was prepared to do genuine college level work (and I don’t think HS AP classes are always at that level). Third, a number of schools raised specific concerns about math & science, saying they see a lot of homechoolers who are under-prepared in those areas; our D was able to present solid evidence of math and science achievement, including college classes as well as graded online classes through Northwestern University and standardized test scores. That certainly mattered at Haverford. Fourth, if your HS student is homeschooling, keep a list of every book they’ve read and every textbook they’ve ever used during their HS years, because many schools will want to see the whole list. It’s time-consuming to reconstruct the list retroactively, but when we did put all that information together it was a mighty impressive list, far more impressive than our local public HS would have been able to produce had the same been demanded of them.</p>
<p>By “homeschool friendly” do you mean in admissions only, or is there some aspect to campus life in which homeschooled students may be disadvantaged at one school compared to another?</p>
<p>gadad - </p>
<p>I guess I was referring to both admissions and the school itself. I would be especially interested in schools that let you create your own course of study to some degree (like Hampshire).</p>