<p>I just read on one of my listservs that homeschool students are ineligible for merit aid at the University of Connecticut because they don't have an official class rank and an accredited program. I'd wondered about that, if some of the automatic GPA-and-test-score merit scholarships would be problematic for homeschoolers. We were planning on having a few of those as safeties, so it's a concern. Any info appreciated.</p>
<p>My son didn’t try for any of the automatic ones, but got many of the others, and in large amounts in some places. Of course, he didn’t get any at his chosen school. 
All the scholarships he got were standard merit aid from colleges; although he applied for outside ones, he didn’t get any.</p>
<p>OP,</p>
<p>I don’t know about U Conn, sorry, but if you’re asking generally if homeschoolers can get merit aid the answer is yes. My son got merit aid from the following schools:</p>
<p>Harvey Mudd, U Pitt, Baylor, and Vanderbilt. The rest of his schools were all need-based aid. </p>
<p>He also got a number of outside scholarships including a National Merit Corporate Scholarship.</p>
<p>For the record, he was a private homeschooler (read: unaccredited). He also had 55 units of community college classes. I made my own transcripts and put all grades-mommy grades, community college grades, online classes, local homeschool classes, etc.-on those transcripts. In addition, each school my son applied to also received his community college transcripts.</p>
<p>FYI, National Merit requires that all classes on transcripts have grades, even the mommy classes (mommy classes meaning any self-study or home taught/learned subjects).</p>
<p>Hope that helps!</p>
<p>My two homeschooled through high school guys (unaccredited, but with some DE classes and 2 APs for middle) both got merit aid at a variety of schools - every school they applied to (they didn’t apply to any that didn’t offer merit aid). They both had high stats. Homeschooling was never an issue. UConn wasn’t one we even considered though. They could be different. I’d suggest calling them and talking with a homeschool admissions rep.</p>
<p>Thanks, all! I hadn’t heard that about National Merit and grades; good to know. My d has lots of grades already from CCs and online courses, but there are a bunch on her current transcript without grades. She’ll be applying mostly to very selective LACs and universities, and I know there wont’ be a problem there. UConn isn’t on our list - it’s just the one about which I heard the cautionary tale. The two I was concerned about are Miami Ohio has very generous ‘automatic’ merit scholarships, even for OOS, and the University of Kansas has one for alumni families that has a test score/GPA threshold. I’ll just go ahead and contact admissions reps there.</p>
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<p>Truthfully, that’s almost always the best advice for school specific info. Occasionally, the people you contact don’t know about differences when it comes to homeschoolers, so try to be sure you’re talking with a homeschool rep and not necessarily a regional rep (unless they tell you they also do homeschoolers). Most schools have one.</p>
<p>Good to know. I was aware that some schools have homeschool reps; didn’t realize that it’s most.</p>
<p>There are programs where grades can be generated by tracking. I don’t know for how long a school will require that there be grades. I had a neighbor who started this when her kids hit junior year, just to have some kind of transcript for the schools. Most schools are receptive to homeschoolers and are happy to to come up with some sort of accommodation on the grades situation. Test scores do count more for homeschoolers, and having a good slate of SAT2 and AP exams can be very important when applying to highly selective schools.</p>
<p>We’re working on accumulating test scores 
Three APs and one SAT II freshman year, same for this (sophomore) year, and thinking of five for next year. Then we’re thinking we’ll have made enough sacrifices to the AP gods and she can just take cool college courses senior year,</p>
<p>I think each student is unique and not all homeschoolers need a lot of APs. My son took one in 8th, 4 in 9th, retook 2 in 10th (cause he got 3s and I felt he needed to get 5s), and then one more senior year. So, he had 6 APs 3 SAT IIs, and took the SAT once junior year. That was enough when combined with his national awards, research, LORs, and everything else to get him into all his colleges including Princeton, MIT, Caltech, Penn, and others. </p>
<p>I think schools really want to see what makes each student “tick”, what makes then unique, and what they can bring to their college.</p>
<p>Re. NM and grades: I had one friend who did two transcripts, one for NM and one for colleges. I decided it was just easiest to assign grades for everything and have one transcript.</p>
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<p>I agree. Middle was accepted to his colleges with no SAT 2 scores and just 2 APs (only one with a score by acceptance time). Our local school where he’d have gone if we didn’t choose to homeschool has no APs. Middle son did have 3 DE As (those are common around here) and well into top 1% ACT.</p>
<p>Oldest had no APs nor SAT 2s, but he didn’t want a super selective school, so that’s not really a factor. He had a high ACT, but again, not really a factor except it helped him get great merit aid. He’s doing well going into senior year.</p>
<p>There is no “one size fits all” especially for homeschoolers. One doesn’t have to join the rat race if they choose not to do so. They do need to prove themselves in some fashion.</p>