hello,
I am a homeschooled high school sophomore. I am worried about college admission in a couple of years because although I am enrolled in a homeschool correspondence program that is accredited and known to be challenging, it does not offer many honors courses and no APs. How will this look on my transcripts sent to colleges? I am fulfilling requirements for core courses, [ history, science, English, math, etc.] plus electives [ Logic and Spanish ] this year, but how will I compare to students from other schools applying to a competitive college with lots of APs on their transcripts? Will a high GPA help, or will my chances be lowered due to no college-level courses?
I would enroll in some online AP courses, but I can’t find any that fit my parents’ budget, and the school I’m in doesn’t like a lot of substitutions to their curriculum anyway. I do plan on taking some SAT Subject Tests next spring and two CLEPs for history and literature. I also was thinking about taking a free AP Enviromental Science course online I found, and while Enviromental Science is cool, it’s not really an passion of mine. How will I stand with colleges compared to other students? Thanks so much for any tips or advice you could give me!
Subject tests & CLEPs are just fine.
Also, you don’t have to take a class called “AP” to take the test. If you are doing rigorous courses you can just get study guides from the library and self study / do practice tests and take the tests. Our girls found / find that reviewing from mid-spring is plenty of time.
Also also, as a home-school student you have lots of ways of standing out. Some standardized testing is helpful, b/c it gives you an objective measure of where you are academically, but the things that will make you stand out won’t be APs- it will be the cool stuff you have done in your areas of interest.
Thank you very much! That’s encouraging, and I will remember that, perhaps I will self study for some APs. Thank you a lot!
Why not take some classes at your local community college? Admissions officers like to see that homeschoolers can do college level work (which is what AP is supposed to be i think) and you’ll have the transcripts to submit as external validation.
We went the dual credit/junior college route instead of AP classes/tests because we wanted our homeschoolers to have the campus classroom experience and academic coursework. (We felt actual classroom experience was more useful than more test scores since our homeschoolers early on scored very high on ACT/SAT.) However, we have many hsing friends who are doing the AP and/or CLEP route, which is working well for them.
Our local junior college, fortunately, has a good reputation for solid coursework. (Not all community/junior colleges do.) This was very helpful for D1 who was admitted to a competitive state school. D2 wants to attend an elite private school and we are waiting to see if she gets accepted. (We specifically designed her at-home & co-op homeschooling to end junior year, so she could go full time on campus. She is also maximizing the homeschooling experience to explain her achievements in traditionally published writing with significant work experience. Who knows if her application will be strong enough, but she ran hard with the not-your-run-of-the-mill candidate.)
If you have your eye on certain universities, then find out as much as you can about what they want to see on your application. Do they favor AP scores? Are they all about top SAT/ACT scores? SAT II’s? Leadership? Personal essays? Volunteer hours? Recommendation letters? (Finding non-parent teacher who can describe and recommend you from a classroom experience can be tricky for homeschoolers.)
As mentioned I would encourage you to take some dual enrollment courses at college or JR. college that is nearby.
Even 1 or two might net you a letter of recommendation from an outside teacher. Those are extremely valuable as validation of your college level ability to function in a regular classroom. I really would do my best to get at least 2 outside teachers to contribute to your references. Your parent can still contribute the counselor recommendation and will have plenty other input.
Lots of homeschoolers self study for APs, you can probably just supplement one or more of your regular courses and score well on a couple exams.
Alternatively you could take SATIIs as soon as you are ready. My son has found that tackling them one at a time (and preparing) yielded the best scores, which works if you have the tests spread out.
He is finishing his last SATII’s this Saturday and he is a senior.
This is different than the AP exams as they are only offered once a year and during an intense 2 month period. Remember that only AP exams taken by spring of junior year are useful for admissions.
One last thing, trying to replicate exactly what traditional students do is rather self defeating. A number of admissions officers have said that they want to see what unique or passion driven directions your home schooling has taken you. I think a core curriculum is great but if its TOO standard I think thats a net negative.
If you have the freedom that comes with homeschooling you should use it wisely but take some risks if you want to stand out.
We couldn’t afford for our son to take any AP exams and he’s only taken one online class. We were really fortunate this year to have someone sponsor him to take a class in his major at the local community college. He thrived and his professor is one of his non-parent teachers writing him letters of recommendation. He took the ACT w/Writing, SATs, and 3 SAT Subject tests. There’s a lot more to his homeschool education that’s not relevant to your situation, but we really think this helped him be a contender for a top tier school. Plus, as others have said, it helped both us and colleges see that he was perfectly capable of doing college level work. And the dedication and passion to his interests (educational and recreational) and career goals helped him stand out as unique. He also took advantage of every opportunity he could and that we could afford. (Wish we could have done more, but it wasn’t financially possible.)
Lastly, as PJackson said, look into the colleges you’re considering and see their requirements for homeschoolers. Most times, they’ll expect more from them.
Good luck. 
student 899, I wouldn’t worry about not being able to take AP courses. I homeschooled from 4th grade through high school and I didn’t take any AP courses. I think that in high school you should focus on challenging yourself intellectually, which is something that you don’t need AP courses to do. However, if the option is available, it certainly wouldn’t hurt to take them. Also, as collegemom3717 mentioned, I encourage you to pursue extra-curriculars that are interesting to you. For example, I did mock trial, music, Science Olympiad, and honor society, just to name a few. I would also focus on preparing for standardized tests, especially the PSAT/SAT. Becoming a National Merit Finalist or Commended scholar certainly can help your application. Also, I would work on writing skills as essays are a big part of the application process for selective schools.
You wanted to know about your chances in gaining admission to selective college. Since these schools are so “selective,” I don’t think there is any formula you can follow that will guarantee acceptance. However, I gained acceptances to UNC, Wake Forest, and Duke, so it’s definitely achievable.