<p>This forum seems to have fallen into disuse (misuse?) lately, which seems unfortunate to me. </p>
<p>College Confidential was enormously helpful to our family as our homeschooled daughter navigated the college prep and application process. Does CC have any homeschooled readers in the application process right now? How is it going?</p>
<p>Hi Nan</p>
<p>Unfortunately CC has limited participation by the home school community. They usually use the Yahoo groups for their discourse.
If you have followed my posts for the last year you will know of my son's saga and his wonderful acceptances. Mini has been very helpful to many on this forum and others such as Northstarmom, Carolyn and Sybbie. I don't think that we could have made it through the process without CC:)</p>
<p>I am a home schooler planning on applying EA to Yale. I reallllllllllllllly hope it works out. My parents have been very uninvolved with the process (my dad recently suffered a traumatic brain injury and isn't speaking and my mom has been very busy caring for him) so I have very little guidance and it's been extremely stressful for me.</p>
<p>I think homeschoolers just use the other CC forums for topics that would apply to anyone. For issues specific to homeschoolers, the hs2coll and homeschool2college lists on Yahoogroups are both pretty high volume and a useful source of info. (gavroche - best wishes to your family. What a stressful thing!)</p>
<p>gavroche....If you need advice please feel free to ask:)</p>
<p>gavroche, best wishes for your dad's recovery! That's a terrible load for everyone in your family. It's also very tough on you to have to tackle the jobs of guidance counselor and registrar on your own.</p>
<p>I think it's wonderful that you're applying to Yale. I had a look at your other posts, and it certainly looks like you might have a chance. Colleges in general love to see outside grades for homeschoolers, and you certainly have that covered.</p>
<p>How are you doing with recommendations, essays, and EC's? Homeschoolers often have a great oportunities to pursue their passions, resulting in just the sort of "hook" colleges like to see. Are you prepared to take what you've done, and pitch it to them in an honest, enthusiastic, and confident way?</p>
<p>Different schools have very different requirements for homeschoolers, and you've probably already tracked down Yales requirements. If the Yale website didn't cover all your questions about applying as a homeschooler, I suggest you call the admissions office and ask if they have any special requirements or suggestions for you. It won't hurt to call. Other homeschoolers who have applied to Yale might have more specific suggestions for you. </p>
<p>My daughter recently applied ED to her dream school (not Yale), and was accepted. She submitted official transcripts for classes she'd taken, but she also submitted a comprehensive transcript that covered everything, including all graded distance courses, graded school courses, graded and ungraded classes taken in the community, and her ungraded home courses. </p>
<p>You might have a slight edge because admissions officers have to look at you a little differently than most applicants. However, be sure you don't abuse that advantage. The person reading your transcript will be overloaded, and will want to get a clear picture of who you are as quickly as possible.</p>
<p>Now, I covered all that first because I respect your dream and wish you all the best with it. You've probably heard what I'm going to say a million times, but you have one other extremely important job to do in this application process. You need to get excited about some other schools, and be ready to send those applications out just as soon as you finish your Yale application. </p>
<p>You might have a fantastic chance at Yale, but chance is the operative word. Yale will be turning away students who are outrageously qualified, and you might very well be one of them. </p>
<p>At this point, you don't have to love any other schools, but you need to be informed about your options, because things will move quickly. If Yale doesn't admit you, you won't feel like researching other schools but there will be no time to lick your wounds. You need to know which other schools you might be able to love, and you need to have those applications ready to send. </p>
<p>Well... enough lecturing. Feel free to send me a PM if you'd like!</p>
<p>Wow, thank you all for the support and help. </p>
<p>I have recommendations and transcripts and everything all covered and dealt with, my essays probably need some polishing, under normal circumstances I would go to my dad for them, but. :-/ </p>
<p>I do have a long sort of list of everything I have done for the past three years, and I'm sending that to colleges along with my grades and test scores and everything. I hope I don't overwhelm the admissions committee, I definitely don't want to bog them down with unnecessary supplementary information, but I figured that since I am a home schooler they probably want a lot of information on these things. It's just a very difficult process to be going through on my own, but thankfully I have some wonderful professors who have offered to write me recommendations and help with that. Thank you all.</p>
<p>If it wouldn't be a problem, I would definitely not mind sending someone my activities/classes list and get a bit of help or advice. :-[</p>
<p>I actually do have one more question that maybe you guys could help me with, though.</p>
<p>A lot of my time over the past few months has been spent caring for my dad, and it's definitely interfered with other activities. I don't want to seem like I am milking this or exploiting my father's illness, and I'm very hesitant to mention it on my college application, but it has occupied a significant chunk of my time that otherwise would have been spent on academic pursuits. It's a sort of tricky issue for me and I'm unsure what to say. :-/</p>
<p>gavroche....Do you have a list of the rest of the schools that you might apply to? To re-emphasize what has been said so many times before...</p>
<p>ESSAYS.....ESSAYS...ESSAYS.</p>
<p>With the competition the way it is now you have to stand out. You have to show them who you are. Try personalizing them, let them know about your circumstances. They want to read how students overcome adversities.
Watch the Amherst admissions video.
It might give you an idea what they look at.</p>
<p>"The Best and the Brightest"
<a href="http://pbs-newshour.virage.com/cgi-bin/visearch?user=pbs-newshour&template=template.html&squery=%2BVideoAsset:pbsnh062204%5B/url%5D">http://pbs-newshour.virage.com/cgi-bin/visearch?user=pbs-newshour&template=template.html&squery=%2BVideoAsset:pbsnh062204</a></p>
<p>Sadly, if I try to watch that video, this computer will surely crash. It's reallllllly bad.</p>
<p>Other schools I am considering:</p>
<p>Brown, Middlebury, Wesleyan, Duke, possibly Harvard or Princeton, Williams, Amherst, maaaaybe Bowdoin. I'm still unsure about my "safeties", but I'm thinking about Hampshire College and maybe one more.</p>
<p>Look at Lafayette as they are generous with aid and merit awards as well. Last year Williams accepted a girl with only a 1270 who wrote about some pretty difficult circumstances in her life.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.lafayette.edu%5B/url%5D">www.lafayette.edu</a></p>
<p>gavroche,
You may send me your activities/classes list to look over, if you like. Just let me know what you need to know about it.
I have graduated two homeschoolers who also took some outside classes and were accepted at good colleges (Indiana U and Stanford).</p>
<p>gavaroche it seems to me that if you've spent a significant amount of time caring for your dad in the last year, you need to mention it. I agree that an essay might be an excellent place to do that. Do any of the prompts provide a good opening? You can tell about it without milking the situation. If you're using it to get somebody to feel sorry for you, it won't fly, but if you're honestly telling what you've learned or how you've grown in surprising ways, it should be fine. I don't think you should make it the central feature of your application, but it deserves a good side note.</p>
<p>I'd be happy to have a look at your transcript.</p>
<p>Thank you all so much. I will be sure to PM you guys. :)</p>
<p>Susantm, I emailed you. nan, it is too large to be sent through PM and you don't accept emails. :-/ Sorry this is such a hassle.</p>
<p>Gavroche - could one of the people writing a rec letter for you explain about your dad?</p>
<p>I haven't talked to any of them about it, I usually keep these things private unless asked about it firsthand. I suppose one of them knows what is going on, but I don't think I could ask him to mention it. He may do it, though, I'm not sure. The thing is, ironically, the situation has actually brought my family much closer together, and definitely had a pretty profound impact on me, but I don't know of a way of letting people know in a manner that is respectful to my dad and does not seem at all expoitative or milking, which are definitely not ways that I would like to be at all. :-/</p>
<p>gavroche, have a look at the School Report Form on the Yale admissions page, and read about the evaluation they want. This form is normally filled out by the school's guidance counselor. I filled out my daughter's School Report Form. You could work with your mother to decide what should be included there. It seems like the perfect place for information about your family's situation.</p>
<p>Thank you, nan. I emailed you, also.</p>
<p>To make matters more complicated, I'm also off to volunteer at an orphanage in Thailand for the next month, leaving very soon. Man, this situation is just filled with an unreal level of stress. I suppose, worst case scenario, I simply won't apply early for Yale. Eh, :-/</p>
<p>Hi, I'm another homeschool mom going through the process. Just starting applications, looking at schools. My son is taking 4 classes at a public high school. He hasn't been in school since 2nd grade, so it has been an adjustment for him, but he's doing great. I'm glad he's getting used to "classes" and "schedules" and other "teachers" this year rather than next year. (He's also getting "socialized" with things like pep
assemblies and drug dealers). Advice about transcripts would be appreciated.</p>