<p>Hello, I'm a homeschooled high school senior, applying to colleges this fall.</p>
<p>Some of the colleges I'm considering ask for a writing sample - usually meaning an analytical paper. They also specify that they "do not accept in-class essays." </p>
<p>This presents a challenge for me, due to the fact that I think my best analytical work has been done in in-class essays. </p>
<p>I'm not really sure what I should do. Should I contact the admissions offices about this?</p>
<p>I have a really heavy schedule this fall and, if these colleges won't accept one of my in-class essays, I probably won't apply to them simply because I doubt I'll have the time to write one specifically for this purpose.</p>
<p>I'm sorry if this seems like a stupid question.</p>
<p>Can you take one of the in-class essays you completed and do some serious editing and perhaps add to it? Putting in references and bibliography would probably also be a good idea.</p>
<p>I had thought of that, but I don’t think it would work because they want one with a grade and teacher comments, and I wouldn’t be able to have those if I edited…</p>
<p>Thanks for the help, though! I really appreciate any ideas.</p>
<p>It’s a reasonable request from the college. High school students in strong academic programs (and I know several such students) write the type of essays you describe starting in freshman year. Not untypically they have one such assignment in English, Foreign language literature (if they are at that level) and history/social studies. Such essays are often the core of certain humanities courses in college.</p>
<p>I’m unsure why you can’t adjust your homeschooling program to write one such essay. It seems unreasonable for you to conclude that it’s so much work that it can’t be done. That’s why I expect you’re not getting replies to your post.</p>