<p>I want to homeschool myself senior year, for several reasons that aren't relevant. It's not because of bullying or anything, so would it look bad for colleges?</p>
<p>I would register for 4-6 AP courses & take the tests at a school by me. Piano lessons, guitar lessons, half marathons & 5ks, community service - I'd still do all my extracurriculars.</p>
<p>So, bad for college admissions or not?
Stats or experience instead of an unfounded opinion would be nice.</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>Keep your studies rigorous, and you should be fine. Check now into the colleges you are considering to be sure you will meet the requirements, re: number of math courses, foreign lang., etc. Also, consider who you will ask to write recommendations for you, since you usually need one or two from teachers. If you have not homeschooled before, I strongly recommend you get some good books on homeschooling for high school. There will be a lot of info about how to go about it to help your chances at college acceptances. Good luck!</p>
<p>Just an unfounded opinon, but I think it will raise questions. Your reasons for homeschooling my seem irrelevant to college admissions, but a senior year change to homeschooling is unusual enough that you should expect adcoms to wonder why you did it.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>As a homeschooling dad of one daughter who is now attending a top 10 LAC and a second daughter who is now a HS junior setting herself up nicely to follow in her older sister’s footsteps, I’d raise a “caution” flag. </p>
<p>Colleges will want to know your rationale for homeschooling, as well as your homeschooling philosophy. Those are just standard questions on the Common App homeschooling supplement, and many colleges want to dig deeper, e.g., with interviews. You’d better have darned good reasons. My general view is that college admissions officers tend to be people with finely attuned BS detectors, because they have so much BS thrown at them every admissions season, so they need to develop those skills. So you’d better have a pretty compelling and persuasive–and that means genuine–reason for the last-minute change in your approach to secondary education. It won’t be good enough to say that the reasons “aren’t relevant.” That’s pretty much an automatic rejection. Absent a compelling, coherent, and sincere reason why it makes sense educationally and/or in terms of your personal development to make this late change (while still taking, if I understand you correctly, 5-6 classes at what would otherwise be your HS???), I think it’s probably a bad idea. You may have such a reason, but if you don’t, you’d only be shooting yourself in the foot.</p>
<p>As someone who homeschooled her son (who is now a freshman at a LAC) and did a lot of information sessions on homeschooling, bclintonk is right about being cautious and having good reasons. The issue will come up in interviews and you will be doing interviews if you are interested in even mildly competitive schools.</p>
<p>There are lots of legitimate reasons to homeschool your senior year. Even something along the lines of your classes being to restrictive or test oriented will work if it is an authentic reason. </p>
<p>Make sure you consider who will provide academic recommendations and who will be writing your counselor letter. </p>
<p>I know some people who did homeschool only their senior year and go to college, some very good colleges. But they were all people who had very compelling reasons (for themselves which came across in interviews) to homeschool.</p>
<p>As a home schooled student, I think it’s a great idea as long as you have a good reason. I understand that you may not feel like outlining your circumstances on CC, but make sure that you have a good story to tell in an interview or on an application. Home schooling can afford you flexibility in the courses you take and the way you structure your life; if you take advantage of that freedom, it shows initiative.</p>
<p>Of course, it can also cause bureaucratic headaches during the admissions process, and you’ll have to explain your schooling situation constantly - so make sure it’s a story you like to tell!</p>
<p>Also keep in mind that some schools require homeschoolers to take additional standardized tests. Columbia, for example, requires homeschoolers to submit either the SAT or the ACT plus 4 SAT Subject Tests. It doesn’t matter how many school grades you already have on your transcript, if you’re a homeschooler when you apply, that’s the requirement. Very few colleges are that rigid about it, but some are, and for some reason Columbia seems to be particularly hostile toward homeschoolers. Bowdoin is another one; they’re test-optional for everyone but homeschoolers, who must submit the SAT and at least two SAT Subject Tests, including one math and one science, regardless of how many math and science grades from a standard HS or another college you have on your transcript. I’d urge you to carefully check out the requirements for schools you’re interested in before deciding. Our experience has been that there can be huge benefits to homeschooling, but there are also some additional obstacles.</p>