Anyone go to a selective prep school from a homeschool? We are stuck with few tolerable options for middle school, and are trying to ascertain what high school doors may be closed (or opened) with each possible choice.
Thanks for moving to appropriate forum 
We homeschooled our oldest from 5th grade through first semester of 7th grade. He started at a public magnet school second semester. He applied to prep schools in 8th grade and was accepted to Exeter. I found that our homeschool journey helped define who he was and gave him confidence to present himself authentically in the application process. It also gave him time to develop a variety of interests he would not have had time to investigate if we had not homeschooled.
Thanks! That helps.
We homeschooled for 3rd and 4th/5th (skipped “into” 6th), and again for 8th, after middle school wasn’t enough for her needs. GG was admitted to several excellent schools including Exeter. She chose Emma Willard, which turned out to be an excellent fit. A search on the prep school forums should turn up several threads on this issue. Best of luck in your search!
We homeschooled our son throughout middle school, and he’s been accepted at Exeter. He is an unusually social kid, and has been deeply involved in sports and many outside activities, so I don’t think his fitting in to a school environment presented any problems to to the admissions folks. For homeschool kids the test scores and interview are especially important, I think–the interview in order to assure prospective schools that your child is socially ready for prep school, and the test scores in order to provide an objective measurement of your child’s readiness to take on prep school work.
I’m pretty sure that @mountainhiker homeschooled her son who was then admitted to Thacher, and who has flourished beyond belief. You might want to PM her.
Thanks all. Everyone thinks I am crazy for worrying about all of this while DS is in elementary school, but time goes fast and I would rather have some idea of options/consequences before I have to make decisions.
@Mama2Drama – A few months ago on the cover story of Boston Magazine was a home schooler that is going to Harvard. Never too early to be prepared.
Yes, lots of homeschoolers get into excellent colleges. I am less worried about that than I am meeting his emotional, artistic, and educational needs now and through high school. Homeschooling is actually not the best fit for him, but for middle school at least it is the better of our limited options.
So where I live I find the artistic and educational needs very easy to fulfill. For example, our MFA has home school c Next month I got my son into a glass blowing studio. etc
Educational – we have access to dual enrollment where a child takes college courses on the cheap.
Sports – in HS age there are several serious clubs that span the HS sports season like rowing and XC skiing.
For my son the draw back is the social, specifically, it is the lack of girls that is really bumming him out
We have very little here. Doing what we can.
@Mama2Drama we were in the same boat.
Hang in there!
We actually homeschooled all 4 of our kids for a 3 year period. I referenced our older son earlier in the thread- but all went on to attend Exeter. As far as meeting their educational needs- that is why we homeschooled. We actually used a public funded virtual school. This allowed us access to educational plans and resources and I didn’t have to design my own curriculum. The school offered field trips, standardized testing etc.
We actually let the older kids attend the public middle school for a few classes as well. We just met with the counsellors and explained what we needed and they accommodated us. Our son took algebra and lab science (he was grade skipped for these) and our daughter took lab science and choir. This allowed us the best of both worlds.
We also joined a bunch of homeschool groups for really great class and field trip opportunities. In addition we visited museums and historical sites through travel and off peak times.
Overall it was a great experience. The kids went back to a magnet school to finish middle school as we finally found a school that could meet their needs. Good luck making your decisions. Our educational philosophy has always been to meet their needs today, first. Some people cautioned us about grade skipping, subject acceleration homeschooling etc - but we always beleived if you loose their passion for learning young- none of it matters in the future.
We tried many types of school to get our kids the education they deserved. Parochial, public, magnet, virtual, and prep. Our 3rd child likes to remind us he has never been at one school for more than 2 years. This is not due to moving multiple times. We hope he that will change with his high school as it really meets his needs. But if his needs change, so will we.
I recall that a friend’s child at NMH had a roommate who had been home-schooled. NMH has always a strong tie to the Foreign Service, so a lot of diplomats’ kids have ended up there over the years. Given the way their postings work, those kids rarely long more than 2-3 years at any one school, and while I have no data, I’d suspect that some were also home-schooled for some time as well.
I have homeschooled my daughter for 8 years. But her M10 wasn’t exemplary so I am afraid of giving not so useful opinions.
But here are what I think especially important for homeschoolers. They are unverified personal feelings form a not-so-successful applicant. So please take them with many grains of salt. I think these are somewhat obvious, but how really important they are might not be obvious, at least they were not to me until the M10.
- I would build the application around group activities with same aged kids. If I don't have it, I would start making some. Summer residential camp. Group Classes. Team sports - not individual sports that practices as a team but team vs team competing sports at any skill level.
- If academics and an EC are exemplary, they will be obvious from the stats. I will still build the case around the above #1 with essays, recommendations, etc. Baring a real hook, academics and a major EC (unless it is a team sport) will only add certain maximum amount. If they are so good then just listing them may already meet the maximum so it's better to use the essays and recommendations for above #1.
- Forget about what you know about college admissions: Colleges are large and they can afford a better diversity and well rounded class. BS are small and they want a coherent and interacting community first. Diversity may be a nice but not affordable luxury unless the candidate seems a obvious team player.
- Interviews, essays, parent essays, recommendations seem all more important than I thought.
Both of mine were homeschooled and both were accepted at “prestigious” boarding schools. Both chose “hidden gems” and are really happy.
In my lurking, I had the impression that SculptorKid was younger than her classmates and super gifted and accomplished in her art. I may be misremembering. If I am correct she was accepted at some schools. Perhaps the opportunities she has are better fits for her unique needs and contributions?
We would probably be going for less well known Southern schools rather than NE name brands. Can’t afford a lot of travel even if he were to be magically accepted with amazing FA.
DS is a theatre kid, so hopefully that fulfills team and group activities pretty well.
@Mama2Drama ScukptorKid is personally very lucky and happy for her admission. But as an example of successful admission effort, one hidden gem BS out of 15 BS applications is not a great example to learn from.
Actually, a really bad example because the one BS she was accepted is probably because she was very personally invited to apply by a very powerful person of the school to begin with.
A theatre kid sounds much better than a sculptor kid for this matter.
Maybe it’s just me. But I felt actual visiting has a lot less impact than one may think. She had only skype interviews at the accepted BS and one of her three waitlisted BS.
I found CC looking for how parents handle their kids at BS, as the one opportunity we have is an arts school where he would need to board. Through these forums I started to think that if boarding is on the table, a more well rounded experience might be better, as the arts school is like conservatory level commitment , and his academic and other interests would take a backseat. Most of the prep schools have awesome looking performing arts programs as an EC, classes, or clubs. That seems nice.