<p>I have a son who was in public school until his 8th grade, and has been homeschooled since then. He will go through college admissions process very soon. Sometimes I worry if my decision to homeschool him would hurt his opportunity to find right colleges at the right level. Do you know where I could find info regarding at what rate, homeschooled kids have been admitted to Harvard, Yale or Princeton recent years? I only remember hearing briefly that Harvard and Princeton admitted 3 and 4 homeschooled kids respectively last year. Were those 3 and 4 homeschooled kids among about 100 plus homeschooled applicants, or 1,000? Many thanks in advance.</p>
<p>I have never seen any stats from these schools about the number of homeschooled applicants.</p>
<p>MIT says that homeschooled students make up less than 1% of the student population. They also make up less than 1% of the applicant pool.</p>
<p>Homeschooled students tend to come from vastly different environments with varied levels of preparation, achievements, et cetera. A blanket statement of, “Harvard accepts 5% of all homeschooled applicants” would be meaningless.</p>
<p>More important than the number of homeschooled applicants is, how do your son’s stats on the SAT I and IIs stand up next to the 25th-75th percetile of Harvard admittees? Are his ECs outstanding on the state/regional/national level?</p>
<p>PVmusicmom, HYPSM each admit a few homeschoolers each year, out of about 100-200 homeschooled applicants on average. Those admitted typically have truly superb academic credentials (often including national/international awards), impressive extracurriculars (national/international music awards are not uncommon, e.g.), and some college coursework on their high school transcripts, plus strong recommendations from professors in those courses.</p>
<p>HYP’s acceptance rate for homeschooled, 3 to5 yearly, from a pool of 150-200 homeschooled applicants, is quite lower to me. With such lower rate, is there any chances for a homeschooled Asian? Has any Asian been admitted to HYP as a homeschooler?</p>
<p>bump I am wondering all of these things, :(</p>
<p>I don’t think the homeschooling in itself will make too much of a difference - i.e. if his stats are right he will stand a similar chance as if he had been in normal schooling.</p>
<p>IMO</p>
<p>o’dorney is basically homeschooled (he uses this [Venture</a> Independent Study: Home Page](<a href=“http://www.venture.srvusd.net/]Venture”>http://www.venture.srvusd.net/)) and he got a likely letter.</p>
<p>Of course, he also got 2nd at IMO and won Intel.</p>
<p>Evan O’Dorney is very exceptional, and I wonder about “gifted” but not in the national headlines type of students. Between 2 students with similar stats, the schooled one would have higher chance since his social contacts are a plus imo.</p>
<p>I remember reading that standardized testing is a much bigger factor for home-schooled students. So if your son has top test scores, perhaps the extra weight could be an advantage.</p>
<p>Anecdotal: I haven’t met anyone who has been homeschooled in my year here. </p>
<p>What is the reason for your son’s homeschooling? Medical? Prodigy? Or is it a difference-of-view issue with the educational system? Is your son taking online courses? APs? Going to a local community college? What is he doing outside of his studies? As in every case, things do need to be particularly exceptional for a student to be admitted. It’s hard to judge whether being Asian will have a direct effect – it again depends on the circumstances of your son’s homeschooling. Care to supply a bit more detail?</p>
<p>This is an interesting thread. I am the mom of 3 “homeschooled” boys, my oldest is the rising senior. Harvard may be on the list but I don’t know. I’ve been encouraged to have him apply but he won’t have a chance to visit Cambridge before he applies in the fall. I currently know two homeschooled students at Harvard. Both are very renowned musicians.</p>
<p>Yes, Evan O’Dorney is exceptional, isn’t he?! I actually do know a number of homeschoolers who are, in their own way, equally amazing, and are getting admitted into other highly selective schools. There is a small but growing population of gifted homeschoolers-parents whose kids have been in public or private gifted programs are pulling their kids out to homeschool. There are big hubs such as the Bay area that support quite a large population of such students.</p>
<p>My son has test scores in the right vicinity (2320 SAT I 800M, 790CR, 3 subject tests ranging from 730-800 and will take at least 1 more) and some national honors. He is 1/2 Hispanic but neither he nor I have researched Harvard enough to know what they look for, what it’s like, and whether it would be a good fit or not. He’s a math/physics/music kid and the math courses seem incredibly interesting sounding. He’s had a lot of college math and physics but he’s not blowing anyone out of the water winning big competitions and was recently rejected by RSI.</p>
<p>Our reasons for homeschooling are varied. We have always homeschooled and we set out on that path because my son was quite advanced in math yet so wiggly that I knew he wouldn’t fit into the local school at all and we certainly don’t have money for private school.</p>
<p>My son is <em>extremely</em> social and has been involved heavily in the broad community for his whole homeschooling career. He’s not really “home” schooled, either. I haven’t taught him since he was about 11, I guess. He began part time at the community college at 12 and he began auditing courses at a university at 13. He’s participated in the local math circle, a university symphony, the local chess club, done competitions with one of the private schools (kids from the math circle invited him to join their team competitions), and so on. He’s taken 5 AP exams, takes some online classes, works with both a math tutor and a chess mentor online, takes a great honors homeschooled class taught by a wonderful teacher, and has done science co-ops in earlier years. He’s participated in USPho semi-finals twice, AIME twice, and plays a boatload of music for a variety of groups, both unpaid and paid.</p>
<p>“Home” schooling has worked for us because we pull from a variety of sources. Because we live in a neighborhood that has pretty poor schools and is pretty lower middle class, we have worked hard to design an appropriate education for our kids given our financial constraints. We also have had the privilege of helping our kids develop their Christian faith and we have had some financial help from a certain organization. </p>
<p>Homeschooling isn’t a perfect solution. There are things I wish my son had access to, things that I wish I knew more about (like science competitions), places I wish we were better connected to (like the better university), but we’ve done the best we can.</p>
<p>Sorry to hijack this thread but I thought it might be good to hear from another homeschooler that is considering applying to Harvard.</p>
<p>I’ve seen some homeschoolers and non-homeschoolers being admitted to Harvard. Seems to me all of them have participated in Spelling Bee.</p>