Interesting post! I also have a homeschooled high stats son interested in a dual degree. (BS/BM) He also did dual enrollment the last two years of highschool to make things easier in this regard. And unlike some others indicated, he did not have to jump through extra hoops in his college applications because of being homeschooled. I think the dual enrollment lends credibility to the mom generated transcript as does the SAT.
I’m curious to know actually how doable the dual degree is in reality? It seems very intense, especially with science.
My son is currently weighing whether to commit to a well known dual degree program at a top public university or attend another one for just the academics with good musical ensembles on the side. This particular school made him exempt from gen Ed’s with priority registration so he could potentially take a lot of music on the side without being a major.
I keep meaning to get back to this post, as a fellow homeschooling parent whose kid just finished the music school application process. I wasn’t sure how much to emphasize academics for him, either; it was fairly clear from 9th grade that he was headed for a BM, but there was, of course, always a chance he would change his mind (he got a late start playing, too; he didn’t start clarinet until 9th grade, so it was unclear how competitive he would be for auditioned programs until later on). We knew that whether he stuck with music or not, he would need to be in the running for substantial FA, so he either needed to have a shot at a school that meets full need or be very competitive for tons of merit at schools that don’t. In the end, he definitely stuck with music, but he only applied to music schools within colleges or universities, no stand alone conservatories where academics are less of an issue (partly out of preference and partly because the need based aid at stand alone conservatories is generally pretty lackluster, from what we could tell).
So, in the end, we probably took an overly cautious approach and made sure he was prepared for pretty much anything academically; he’ll graduate with 8 APs, 3 dual enrollment classes, and, after going back and forth, he retook his 1400 in 10th grade SAT and got it up to 1530.
Re: Oberlin wanting so much from homeschoolers…wanting course descriptions and reading lists is pretty standard for homeschooled students at most any selective college. I’ve only dealt with one school that didn’t want them (my music kid is my 2nd, so we dealt with a lot of college applications with my oldest, too); even the state university where my kids do DE wants course descriptions. Oberlin seems to be asking for less from homeschoolers now than they did when my oldest applied to the college (not con); I remember him submitting a portfolio with a bunch of samples of academic work…now they just ask for “evidence of science laboratory experience” and an optional academic paper (which can be a lab report to cover both things at once). Oberlin, Hamilton, and Bard are the only places I’ve encountered wanting more than course descriptions. And, worth noting, Oberlin Conservatory didn’t want an academic paper and omitted the evidence of laboratory experience language. The course descriptions can feel overwhelming, but you can find lots of examples online that help; my advice is to keep up with them as you go along and don’t wait for application time!
Okay–now that we’re on the other side, here’s my take on how important the academic stuff actually seemed to be in the end. For admissions I don’t know that it mattered very much. If he had been clearly unprepared for college work it would have since these were all music programs within larger colleges, but it certainly doesn’t sound like that’s the case for your son.
The only possible exception is Blair/Vanderbilt (where he’s going); Vanderbilt’s the main reason we had him retake the SAT (although he could have applied test optional). I don’t think a 1400 or a lackluster track record of AP classes would have kept him out, but Vanderbilt as a whole is very stat-conscious, so who knows? His private teacher has a friend who teaches at Blair, and he told us a few times that said friend has expressed frustration at not being able to take kids he wants to don’t pass muster academically. I don’t think there’s anywhere else he applied where a solid but unremarkable academic record would have been a problem.
But the other issues are scholarships and coming in with substantial academic credit vs. not. This mattered more. At Baldwin Wallace, as one example, there’s much more money for academic scholarships than music scholarships, and academic scholarships are based entirely on GPA right now, since they’re test optional (not TO for homeschoolers, but scholarships are still based on GPA for them). And right now I’m really glad he’ll be coming in with a lot of AP credit to give him more flexibility with a very demanding major. Vanderbilt is very generous with AP/DE credit, and there doesn’t appear to be a cap on how many they’ll accept. If he does okay on AP lit tomorrow (knock wood!) then I believe he’ll have all of his liberal arts core requirements taken care of already, leaving more time for doing a minor or concentration in the music school or just not being overwhelmed (and, of course, it would be hugely helpful if he wanted to double major, but he doesn’t think he does). I just went back and read, though, and see that he’s looking at DE classes instead of APs…so they might work just as well as APs for coming in with credit (Vanderbilt has a place where you can look up transfer equivalency and see).
So, anecdotally, my S is not homeschooled, but he goes to a progressive school where the coursework is not ‘taught to the test’. He did not take the SAT or ACT, applied everywhere test optional, but has a 3.98UW GPA which I think factors in for some schools. His school limits the AP availability to only one in 10th, one in 11th, and two in 12th, so not a lot of AP coursework.
He was accepted to CMU, Oberlin and Ithaca (plus Brown, non BM and waitlisted at Weslyan, non BM) with those stats and no standardized test scores, so I think you can count on the audition being weighed the heaviest at most if not all these schools. The one exception I know of is Northwestern where the academics are weighed equally (he did not apply there). I do think the essays and their ability to write is a factor as well, just not to the extent that the audition is.
Hope this helps.