<p>Hey- a friend of mine is clearly a bit worried about college and I was wondering if someone here could answer a few things...</p>
<p>So her story is this- she's a junior now, never went to a formal high school because she (successfully) pursued an equestrian career- instead, she takes online classes through the University of Indiana's high school honors program (online)- Indiana</a> University High School: Indiana University Bloomington. She's done really well in school, takes tons of AP classes, and has straight A's through high school. Now, she's really moved on from the equestrian career and is very focused on academics and is worried that she can't get into college given the uniqueness of her situation. </p>
<p>She's clearly very bright, speaks 2 foreign languages fluently (German and French), and has lots of working experience overseas and in the United States. I know it's not much to go on really, but is it still possible for her to get into a top tier university (Georgetown is her dream school) or will most respectable colleges disregard her because of this different arrangement?</p>
<p>I imagine that homeschooling wouldn’t hold her back at all; it might even be an asset. She especially benefits from taking an accredited program with the stamp of approval of a major university. Most colleges will probably consider that the equivalent of “real” school.</p>
<p>Basically, the main issues your friend has to worry about are things like teacher and guidance counselor recs. I don’t know how your friend’s situation is with teachers, if she has them. If she doesn’t have teachers or has only had contact with them through online/phone, she should try and take a classroom course at a local college or something to get a rec proving she can be in a classroom. If she doesn’t have a guidance counselor, she’ll need to fill out the homeschool supplement to the common app and explain why she chose homeschooling and how she has been evaluated. She’ll also have to keep on top of deadlines by herself and find some good college admissions handbooks, since she won’t have the help of a guidance counselor.</p>
<p>For the record, at many schools homeschoolers are more likely to get in.</p>
<p>Her situation is not that unique among homeschoolers. In her case, many homeschoolers would actually have the parent fill out the guidance counselor forms since she was the person who “supervised” the overall education plan. She (or he) would be able to address and special issues that the online school wouldn’t be likely to know about. She should try to get a recommendation from one of the teachers and start interacting with them as much as possible now. If that’s not possible, she should try to take a class at the community college to get a teacher recommendation. If that’s not possible (because of her competition schedule) she might try establishing a relationship with a tutor for a specific subject whether she needs it or not for the recommendation. The second recommendation can be from just about anyone as long as it isn’t family. My son used his piano teacher who had known him for eight years. </p>
<p>She also needs to contact each college and ask what, if any, special requirements they have for homeschoolers. I know that Georgetown used to ask for an unreasonable number of subject tests from homeschoolers but that may not longer be the case. There are lots of online support groups for homeschoolers applying to college that probably have someone facing the same situation.</p>