<p>This thoughtprovoking article describes both MIT alums who homeschool their children and current MIT applicants & recent grads who were themselves homeschooled.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/02/issue/news_feature_school.asp?p=1%5B/url%5D">http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/02/issue/news_feature_school.asp?p=1</a></p>
<p>The numbers are small (article says 50 homeschooled applicants a year; MIT gets about 10,000 applications a year total), but they are admitted at roughly the same rate as other applicants.</p>
<p>And according to MIT dean of admissions Marilee Jones, the homeschooled students are absolutely extraordinary or not even close. Those who are admitted have the same characteristics as most other MIT students, says Jones: theyre emotionally flexible, take risks, are not easily shaken, pursue their interests (not their parents), and yearn to go out on their own.</p>
<p>This is a great article; thanks for posting it. I always have this reaction that I wish there were some reliable national numbers on homeschoolers, and the results for college-bound homeschoolers in particular.</p>
<p>reasonabledad wrote, about the interesting article link that homeschoolmom shared, "I always have this reaction that I wish there were some reliable national numbers on homeschoolers, and the results for college-bound homeschoolers in particular." </p>
<p>There have been various forms of research on both of those issues. One Web site I know has posted some data on each issue, although it has not been updated recently. </p>
<p><a href="http://learninfreedom.org/colleges_4_hmsc.html%5B/url%5D">http://learninfreedom.org/colleges_4_hmsc.html</a> </p>
<p><a href="http://learninfreedom.org/homeschool_growth.html%5B/url%5D">http://learninfreedom.org/homeschool_growth.html</a> </p>
<p>There are many other wild guesses on the Web about the number of homeschoolers and about the admittance rate of homeschooled applicants, but the general picture from the best research sources is that homeschoolers make up a small, and no longer rapidly growing, portion of the school-age population, and homeschoolers who get admitted to the most selective schools PREPARE and work hard to get in just like applicants from more conventional schools. </p>
<p>Thanks to homeschoolmom for sharing the very interesting link.</p>
<p>I found the entire article interesting, but particularly the point made by Marlee Jones that homeschoolers tend to be either extraordinary, or really not competitive at all. An MIT adcom had said essentially the same thing to me in an info session (only he described it as "a bimodal distribution"). Interesting that they would not be spread out over a Bell curve more like the school kids.</p>