Ages ago, when I homeschooled my kiddo (we did K-7 homeschool and public 8-12) I belonged to a forum of homeschool parents.
I have a net friend who is homeschooling her kids through high school… who is having difficulty getting colleges to accept her son’s home school lab science classes (Biology, Chem and Physics) because he is not doing documented collaborative labs with peers. They’re buying good kits, following an accepted curriculum, but are still not having credit recognized because the labs must be collaborative with peers.
Has anyone else run into colleges saying no to home school lab class credits?
That is not a problem I have ever run into. The only school I am aware of where this is an issue is ASU and they handle it by requiring this form to be filled out: https://students.asu.edu/affidavit
Who is telling her they won’t be accepted? I have learned over time that the only person to ask homeschool specific questions is the admission’s officer strictly responsible for reviewingvhomeschoolers’ applications. The info, otherwise, is often inaccurate. Traveling representatives are often very misinformed.
It really depends on the college. In Florida, UF is fairly infamous for the extra documentation required of homeschoolers. https://ufonline.ufl.edu/admissions/homeschooled-students/ Most who wish to attend UF start planning around their requirements before their homeschooled students starts high school.
One of my kids did lab science classes online but they were not collaborative. These were accepted by all the schools she applied to, including some very selective ones. Maybe things have changed…but it wasn’t a problem when she applied. Virtual High School and Aventa Learning (educere) were the online programs at the time.
I’ve been the moderator of a homeschool network in Downstate NY for nearly 20 years and am connected to several others throughout the state. Our kids have been accepted to colleges of all levels all across the country, and I’ve never heard of this problem.
I documented all of my kids’ labs (earth science, bio, chem, and physics) with pictures and/or video, and I have every lab report they’ve ever written, but the reason I kept a digital media log was so they wouldn’t have to repeat courses if we had to put them in public school. I also wanted documentation in case I needed it to get the NYS Letter of Substantial Equivalency (this certifies that my children have had the substantial equivalent of a NYS 4-year high school education).
We’ve homeschooled according to our state’s regulations and have the official documentation to prove it, so any college who outright rejected my state’s certification would be off our list. Colleges don’t write NYS education regulations, our Board of Regents does, and NYS doesn’t require collaborative labs. If we permit colleges to override our state laws, they are, in effect, making our laws for us. That’s not a power we’re willing to give them.
My two sons did all their sciences through enrichment co-ops for this reason. Even so, we had to submit additional documentation to ASU for my music major son. UMICH and UMD accepted his sciences without question, as did the 3 college conservatories he applied to. My other son was headed toward a science major so we ensured he completed dual enrollment college classes for upper level sciences. This was in the past 3 years.
We were surprised in our college search to find that a handful of schools in our initial list had entrance requirements that exceeded our own state’s standards for a high school diploma. Since our homeschool course of study also exceeded our state requirements (by far) this was not generally a problem, but there were a few outliers that we had to discard.
I wonder if, given the current emphasis on STEM education, situations like the OP’s friend encountered will be more prevalent in the near future.
This varies very much from college to college. Another school that’s picky about documented science labs is Arizona State.
But, the really picky ones are a minority of schools. Saying a student who did science only at home is having problems with colleges really means they aren’t looking very widely or the parent has very poor high school records.
I suggest they get a session with a homeschool to college consultant (there are several out there, but one from their home state would be great) to go over her records and college list.
This particular kid is applying to highly selective colleges and pursuing STEM. As it happens, his chem and bio are ok, because he took them dual enrollment at community college, but a couple of the schools are being sticky about his physics, which he did at home. He’s considering retaking it at a CC for this reason. The admissions counselor made a point of saying Bio, Chem and Physics are required to have collaborative labs, for them to recognize credit.
it seems to be more of an issue at more selective schools.
“If we permit colleges to override our state laws, they are, in effect, making our laws for us. That’s not a power we’re willing to give them.”
Private colleges can make any policy they want. They’re private institutions. Even schools that get some public funding can absolutely select for students they believe are better prepared. (particularly when they’re turning away tens of thousands of applicants)
“so any college who outright rejected my state’s certification would be off our list.” This is your right.
@MaryGJ Absolutely not true about the more highly selective colleges. I have friends whose kids have been accepted to Princeton, Stanford, Harvard, MIT etc with all their sciences completed at home with mom. My dd was accepted to Rochester with no outside classes at all except for stats, French, and Russian.
We’ll have to agree to disagree. That was not my friend’s experience with MIT and a couple of more selective state schools last week. Perhaps policy is changing?
When you think about it, it stands to reason that more schools would be concerned about this, given the collaborative nature of research. The myth of the lone researcher is dispelled pretty quickly in academia. Breakthroughs happen with collective effort. They really don’t happen independently.
Consider the cost of the equipment used in many labs. Sometimes, three labs will be sharing a very popular piece of equipment that costs a quarter of a million dollars. You need to be able to schedule time to use it with consideration for others… without being so much of a doormat that you hurt your own progress.
Interpersonal relationships are absolutely integral in lab settings. If you’re trying to publish a result, your authority goes up with sample size. You need to be able to share samples and data with other labs. If there’s a skill someone in your department has, you need to barter favors. Maybe you need a program written to analyse a certain data set…but writing code isn’t your specialty. Maybe the researcher in the next lab over will write your code for you in exchange for running a huge batch of DNA extractions (because your technique is known to be particularly flawless)
I can absolutely understand why more colleges are moving in this direction. Particularly, ones known for research.
If you child is interested in pursuing a field that has a strong research component, it’s worth checking out the current policy of your child’s target schools, so you’re not caught off guard and can plan accordingly.
I have seen more colleges moving in the opposite direction of fewer extra hoops for homeschoolers than towards adding new requirements. My own state flagship has reduced the number of outside certification requirements in the last couple years, removing old requirements around science and foreign language.
State schools can be a mixed bag. Most will have a pathway for homeschoolers from their own state, but may be more confused by applicants from states that regulate homeschools in a less familiar manner.
Many schools also won’t give credit for AP scores in lab sciences for majors for similar reasons. You can pass the AP Chem exam without ever having stepped foot in a lab. If you’re not a chem major that’s not a big deal. If you are a chem major, some schools wants to ensure everyone has the same grounding in laboratory safety and function, so they’ll require all majors to start with freshman chem regardless of AP score (chem just being my example, other lab sciences are often the same).
I have to wonder who your friend is talking to. Homeschoolers are accepted to top schools all of the time without those sorts of requirements. It does not “stand to reason” that they would increase those sorts of requirements for homeschoolers. Their homeschool specific requirements, if any, are clearly stated on their websites, typically subject tests.
Your friend’s information is not accurate. I suspect she spoke with representatives vs homeschool admission’s officers. Reps don’t always know and give out inaccurate info all the time.
She might want to consider joining the hs2coll yahoo group for support. It is a great place to ask questions and members have kids accepted to top schools like MIT and Stanford every yr.