The various preconceptions floating around within my family has led to a whirlwind. My child currently is in public school (9th grade) but we will be switching to online school during winter break. However my family believes that homeschooling will lack an edge in terms of college admissions because of a lack of clubs and activities to ‘stand out.’ And that admissions will see my child as a hermit studying in her room, with little to offer outside of academics. While the external activity part is true, we’ve run dry in terms of finding a homeschool programming club to join and do projects with, there have been several online programming lessons and classes which I’m sure with proper structuring could allow my child to develop various projects to place on a portfolio. But the question then becomes, how do you prove your participation/activity in personal projects? For example, if a child took courses and developed an app and placed it on the app store, or a video game, could that be placed on admissions even if it was just at home outside of a conventional club or community? Basically the issue seems to be accreditation: do colleges look down on things you tinkered with at home that aren’t apart of a club or competition, and if so, where do you go to show that your project was legitimate? Where do you find an app contest, or a community to rate your app, or something giving external participation points for ‘getting out there’ as people phrase it? Any advice would be very helpful, thank you.
@Orange33 I’m not sure if this article will help answer your question, but it does seem to address key issues relating to home school applicants.
Depends on college targets. Top homeschool kids are involved outside home. Top colleges like to see stretch and peer engagement. It gives them an idea of the energies and how you’ll fit on campus.
That leaves lots of options. Some public districts will let HS kids join sports, there are national clubs like 4H in some communities.
Just being homeschooled isn’t a problem. It’s what you do with it. In general, apps aren’t a tip. Contests aren’t what it takes.