Hello, I’m hoping to hear from other homeschool parents and or homeschoolers who have successfully navigated boarding school admissions. We’re currently homeschooling to accommodate the rigorous demands of playing a sport that has extensive travel for training and competition. I’m looking for advice on how top NE boarding schools regard homeschoolers, especially those academically inclined (concurrent enrollment at community college as an 8th grader, multiple yr acceleration in math etc) and insight into some of the roadblocks we should anticipate if any. TIA
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@SculptorDad should be able to offer some advice.
I would be happy to discuss more specifics privately. One of my children applied to boarding school after homeschooling and was quite accelerated. There was only one school, PEA, that seemed quite negative and suspicious about homeschooling but the others were fine.
Wouldn’t the SSAT serve as an indicator of readiness & ability ?
A friend of mine homeschooled, then used a private counselor when the child was applying to private HS. It was a neutral third party who could approach the school and figure out what they needed (some schools spell it out explicitly on their website/application process) and how they felt about homeschool candidates.
Hello!
I had homeschooled my 10th grader daughter K-8 before moving to her boarding school. with great achievement including “multiple accelerations” in both academics and extra curricular areas. Homeschooling allowed me to individualize her education without worrying about jumping hoops and grade. Not only you don’t need to listen to boring lectures or do repetitive assignments, but also you can stay and repeat as long as you need, or even go back with challenging materials.
But you can’t do that any longer. A boarding school, however small classed and accommodating, still has fixed curriculum, rules, and grade. My daughter had more difficult time to adjusting to boarding school than I expected. In hinder sight, boarding schools she applied knew the possibility. Transition to a boarding high school is a challenge for everyone, but it can be more so if it is also from a home school.
To answer your question: I believe that top NE boarding schools regard homeschoolers, even those with high achievement, as a risk. It may not be a huge risk to take one such if all else are right. But it could be just the reason to instead take another candidate who are not as strong but good enough, and with out the risk, especially if you need financial aid.
I would heed all the advises from experienced BS parents. But that might not be enough for homeschoolers. I would also put some heavy focus on how to convince BS that the applicant will be able to handle workload and class expectations, which is not the same as achievement and test scores, and also that the applicant will be contributing socially to the community. How you do it would depends on your specific situation.
My daughter had many college credits both in academics and EC. But in hind sight, she could have taken a few classes and/or group sports/activities at a local brick and mortar school (that’s how we homeschoolers call non-homeschools), of something in that ldea. Not only it might have helped her application, but also it would have helped her transition to BS.
Also, she did a 3 weeks residential Summer camp right after 7th grade year, and I think it had a very positive impact on her application during the following year. BUT, I think now, should her essays had incorporated that experience more heavily, the admission result would have turned out better.
P.S. I also highly recommend using a private counselor if you can. You could benefit even more from it than non-homeschoolers would.
Good luck!
Maybe. But it won’t show if a student would be able to handle heavy load of assignment everyday. A student might have never worked hard, or worked hard but not in high school style, and still achieve a high SSAT score. Without GPA from a regular school, I think homeschools should figure out a way to minimize the uncertainty that admissions might feel from it.
Thank you to all who replied. Gungablue, I’ll pm you to get your personal perspective. I’d be very interested to hear more about your experience applying to PEA, as it is on our short list to apply to in the fall.
SculptorDad, thank you for your thoughtful reply. This is our first year homeschooling; prior to 7th grade, DS had been attending private school K-6. We’re “accidental” homeschoolers in that we made the decision to join a more competitive travel team this year which necessitated extensive travel—almost every weekend for training and games. So our homeschool profile likely differs a great deal from your daughter’s.
One of the primary reasons why we’re looking at BS is to combine academics with athletics so the travel won’t be such a toll on our family. With the longer term goal of returning to a brick and mortar school in mind, we’ve tried to take as many classes where he’s not assessed by a parent. For example, AoPS and community college classes for math, Well Trained Mind/Online G3 and other vendors for Humanities. He’s also taken the SAT for academic talent searches and qualified for all of them. Is this the right approach? Seeking outside validation of DS’s academic work? Or do BS have a more open and accepting approach to homeschoolers as independent learners who pave their own path?
Anecdotally I know someone who did online school for a year so they could focus on their sport. They were admitted to a couple HADES. Oddly enough, had pretty poor SSATs too, I think around 30%. But that child was VERY good at their sport. Ranking #1nationally. Smart kid, bad standardized test taker.
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We did not applied to boarding school, but my child applied to local day schools after being homeschooled for a few years. My child went to public school for many years prior to homeschooling, so a path more like the OP’s child.
Although homeschooling is more common now and people homeschool for many reasons, we found that almost all admissions officers had some degree of suspicion about homeschooling. AOs generally seemed to be concerned that homeschooling was inadequate academic preparation. Most AOs we met were not familiar with the rigor of online classes like AOPS. This may be different for boarding schools. Standardized tests and recommendations from teachers who are not the child’s parents may help with some of that. In your situation, AOs may be concerned that you chose athletics over academics in your decision to homeschool.
AOs also seemed to be concerned about how a homeschooled child would fit into a school community, having the idea, I think, that homeschooled children are much more likely to be isolated and socially inept, and may relate better to adults than to peers. If your child’s sport is a team sport, there may be less concern about that than if your child’s sport is more of an individual sport, where much of the training might be done one-on-one with an adult coach and not necessarily involve a lot of peers.
I think you should expect to address your reasons for deciding to homeschool and your reasons for now deciding to apply to schools, and show that you’ve thought about the transition.
My advice to a parent of a homeschooler looking to apply to boarding schoool would be to be very aware that even if the AO doesn’t directly express doubt about homeschooling, they probably have some concerns about a homeschooled applicant. I would recommend being proactive in addressing those potential concerns in the application and the interview. Boarding school interviews are usually done before you submit your application, so the AO will not know your child’s stats until you tell them.
I think the application for a homeschooler has to emphasize academic rigor and achievement, but maybe even more important than that is for the application to showcase the child’s ability to work well with both peers and adults in a school community, both in and out of the classroom. If your child’s homeschool education is primarily online and community college classes, which typically don’t have many in-real-life peers for a middle school student, a summer boarding academic experience like CTY/TIP, since you mentioned talent searches, might be a way to do that.
Basically, I think that the application will have to demonstrate that the homeschooled applicant will successfully fit into the boarding school community.
We applied in the 2017-2018 cycle, and I do think homeschooling negatively affected my daughter’s results. We cast a wide net and she was accepted to 3, waitlisted at 5, rejected at 4. She has only been homeschooled for 8th grade, due to limitations at the local junior high discovered during 7th grade (for example, our district no longer allows geometry in 8th; they require all students to take it in high school). During the interviews, the AOs seemed mostly interested in why the homeschool choice, her motivation while being homeschooled, and what, exactly, she was doing academically. They all encouraged me to send more information but I can only remember one giving specifics of what they were looking for. I feel that the information we gave them was perhaps not specific enough or strong enough to allay their fears…I’m really not sure. One AO in particular seemed very curious about her motivation & what keeps her going during the homeschooling days, and whatever she answered he seemed to like, because he sent her an email afterward saying “xyz school would be fortunate to have you.” (She ended up being waitlisted.)
My daughter had a lot of other factors that perhaps went against her as well (and it looks like you won’t have the struggle we had with some of these): geography, race, mid-high 80’s on SSAT, lack of sport (dance only), and lack of any standout extracurriculars. I view the whole thing as a learning opportunity and know if we did it again, we’d do a better job with the process. Hindsight… BUT she did get into three excellent schools and is in the process of deciding which one to attend in the fall.
Good luck to you!
Boardingdreams, congrats to your daughter on her acceptances. Many families in our local area decide to homeschool after they’ve exhausted public school options for acceleration. Some schools are absolutely inflexible on grade skips or subject acceleration, so I fully understand your need to homeschool in 8th grade. There’s always an option to supplement after school, which many families do, but with sports commitments, it’s not realistic to expect my son to learn on his own time when he should be getting his academic needs met at a brick and mortar school. Thank you for your insights and we’ll definitely keep in mind to expand on our motivation to homeschool and our philosophy when we apply.
I think if you explain what you did a few posts above - about homeschooling due to the travel sport - and taking many outside classes, this will work well for you.
Our oldest son was homeschooled for 5th, 6th and half of 7th. (actually all 4 were during the same timeframe)- all went on to attend PEA. He started in a public magnet school the January before he applied to BS. Our reasons for homeschooling were to get their academic needs met as they are all considered PG. Honestly, it was never really a focus for PEA at any point in the application process. I don’t remember even discussing the reasons he was homeschooled with any BS during interviews. Maybe because they all had traditional school records to review as well. We used a virtual state sponsored school that provided grades and testing- similar to a traditional school for our homeschool journey.
Has your child done talent search testing? My oldest had strong scores on talent search testing while homeschooling and regularly got recruiting from east coast boarding schools including Exeter. I think having good documentation both in standardized testing and in your own resources and homeschooling process, work samples, documentation and references from extra curricular activities, etc can help quite a bit. We’ve never been enrolled with an umbrella or online charter, etc. I do know a couple homeschool families who’ve been through the process successfully. The acceptance rate at somewhere like Exeter is 17%, so I don’t think it’s super surprising to have mixed results for any student.
Every year my kid has homeschooled, I’ve created a binder of work samples, resources, activities, extra curricular stuff, etc. I always thought if we needed to go back to school or they wanted to, this would be easy to pull out and share with a school. My kids have always had at least some group extracurriculars and classes. Homeschooling has allowed them to embrace this stuff more than many kids. Having teacher references for group classes would be good. Anyway - I’m putting this out there for those who may be just starting the process not to the OP specifically. Collect documentation as you go. I know more than one family who has been burned by not being on top of this.
My oldest kid is also PG. I suspect younger too but she hasn’t as much testing. Oldest tried school for a couple years (K and 1st). My oldest is graduating next year and has homeschoooled/dual enrolled through high school. It’s been a great fit for him and all the colleges we’ve talked to have been welcoming and positive. But he has fantastic test scores, a dual enrollment transcript, and great references. And a ridiculous number of quite focused extra curricular activities.
Added - I got to this thread through the homeschool board, hence the more homeschool focused response.
Completely off topic - What is talent search testing?
Academic talent searches provide opportunities for students to take above grade level tests, typically the SAT and ACT starting in the 7th grade. Qualifying scores let your student become eligible for summer residential programs held at different universities nationwide. There’s a lot of variance and options in terms of programs, but for the purposes of the original post, I was referring to Northwestern’s NUMATS, John’s Hopkins CTY, and Duke University’s DUKE TIP. Also, depending on how well your student performs on the exam, he/she can qualify for state honors or grand honors. Every program has its own recognition ceremony it seems. It’s a great way to meet like-minded peers, especially during the summer programs.
Thank you!
Duke TIP = Duke Talent Identification Program
Johns Hopkins CTY = Center For Talented Youth
Northwestern University NUMATS = Northwestern University Midwest Academic Talent Search