<p>Over the years, we have taken just about every available educational path to meet our kids educational needs: (in no particular order) full-time homeschooling, full-time public school, part-time homeschooling/part-time public school, and next - boarding school! (Private day school was not an option for us - we live in a small, rural mountain community, and the closest private school is an hours drive away down a mountain pass.)</p>
<p>Over the past 10 years, Ive received an enormous amount of information and support from other homeschooling parents, and I feel like its time to pay it forward. Many applicants have unfortunately found themselves without boarding school options as the admission cycle for next year winds down. If your local school options are not great, and homeschooling is something youd like to consider, Id be glad to serve as a resource.</p>
<p>Hi, Can you please describe how the homeschooling process for high school works? Do you have to get approval from your local public high school? Do you just buy books and study or are there online class options? What are the expenses like? How is the testing done, Who grades and How do colleges interpret the grades? Thanks.</p>
<p>@Analyticall - I’ll try to break up your question into several parts.</p>
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<p>Homeschooling is legal in all 50 states, but the laws governing homeschooling vary widely. Some states have extreme oversight, and others have almost none. </p>
<p>Here’s state by state information, from the Home School Legal Defense Association’s website:</p>
<p>There are as many options as there are students! Much depends on your state’s homeschooling law, and that’s the first thing you should check. Here are options at each end of the spectrum of “turn-key” vs. “do-it-yourself."</p>
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<li>You can “outsource” everything to an online, accredited school. There are quite a few online schools, with a range of rigor and cost. I’ve known several students who attended Stanford’s OHS (Online High School), which is very well regarded for it’s academic rigor, but is also expensive (relative to other homeschooling options) at $15,800/year. Many states also have Virtual Academies, which are in effect charter schools, and are usually free since they are publicly-funded institutions.</li>
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<p>And at the other end of the spectrum:</p>
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<li>You can put together your own course of study using a wide range of resources. You can take a community college course for high school credit, you can “self-study” for an AP exam using textbooks and outside readings, you can learn a language from a native speaker, you can find tutors and mentors to guide and teach you in your areas of interest, and you can take individual online courses in just about any subject you can think of. The cost can range from minimal (utilize your free public library!) to expensive (tuition at community college, tutor salaries, online courses, textbooks). But compared to boarding school tuition, the cost of homeschooling will probably be much, much less.</li>
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<p>There are lots of resources out there to help guide you. Although College Confidential has a “Homeschooling High School” forum, it is a tiny fraction of the size of the Prep School forum (about 1/20th the number of posts to date.) The most helpful forum I have found is the yahoo group, hs2coll. Here’s a description of the group:</p>
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<p>The group currently has almost 2000 members, and is very active (400-500 posts a month on average). The archives are searchable, and you can find answers to just about any question on homeschooling you can imagine. The group has been active since 2004, and there is loads of BTDT advice and information. </p>
<p>Do you think that colleges look favorably on homeschooling (to be specific, online high school), compared to regular high school, from an admissions angle? I’d appreciate it if you could share any thoughts/experiences regarding college admissions as a homeschooler, especially to the most selective ones.</p>
<p>From an admissions point of view - where there was skepticism years ago, there is growing acceptance. MIT now accepts, for instance, a number of home-schooled students and I don’t make note of it in my interview reports unless the student appears unprepared (academically or socially).</p>
<p>One caveat - I have, on occasion, seen parents focus so much on academics, that come time for the application, the students have only socialized with other homeschool kids and lack a broader reference point. In some cases I’ve seen students prepped for college (even enrolled in community college courses) but have few other attributes or EC’s to distinguish themselves. So the “well rounded, fully functional” model colleges look for in a traditionally schooled applicant goes for the one that is homeschooled as well.</p>
<p>It’s easy for homeschooled kids to be well rounded. Many state allow homeschooled kids to participate in high school sports and clubs (check state law if your school says you can’t; in my state they MUST allow it. There is Scouts, volunteering (often easier when you’re not in school all day), club sports, 4-H, etc. My kids were actually much more involved in ec’s when they were homeschoolers than they are now–it was much easier to fit into the day without feeling like an overload and a good way to get in that socialization thing everyone who hasn’t homeschooled worries about. </p>
<p>To mountainhiker’s excellent posts, I’ll just add that the Well Trained Mind’s high school discussion board is also excellent.</p>
<p>The yahoo group she mentions can be downright intimidating…it’s jaw-dropping what some homeschooling families do, and the kids whose parents post regularly get into amazing colleges, often with great scholarships. As she says, it’s THE spot for learning the ins and outs of homeschooling high school, particularly when you’re aiming toward a high tier college. </p>
<p>Cherry Rose: If you go to the websites of good colleges, you’ll notice that nearly all of them have a spot dedicated to homeschool applicants. I’d argue that, particularly if you come from a town with a weak public school, a homeschooled applicant can shine much brighter than one from traditional school.</p>