Organizing a transcript and testing

Pre-College Issues Home Schooling and College
1

<p>During the second semester of ninth grade, my mom and I made a mutual decision that homeschooling was the best option for my education. She cut me loose and gave me complete reign over my learning. I'm now a sophomore with poor records and no real curriculum.</p>

<p>While I've barely touched Algebra II with a ten-foot pole, I have a hand in a plethora of baskets with no real structure except for the three APs I intend to take (Biology, Env. Sci., Comp. Govt.). My time has been spent reading whatever I can get my hands on (textbooks, browsing MIT OCW, literature) and pursuing what interests me; this means everything from pottery and creative writing classes to shadowing a vet at a petting zoo/safari to informal astronomy seminars to just watching the news. How should I concisely label and summarize what I've been doing? How would you discriminate between an independent interest and a class? Proving there's substance to my free-for-all attempt at educating myself is not the issue -- it's properly identifying the timeline and putting everything neatly into distinct subjects that's difficult.</p>

<p>From my understanding of the homeschooling requirements for my state (NC), I need to test for English 9, English 10, and Algebra II (doing it over the next four months). The dates of testing will be weird, such as English 9 in March of sophomore year. Will this affect me negatively at all? Do colleges even care about the NC standardized testing?</p>

<p>In short, I'm a jumbled mess who should practice better organizational and planning skills. Anyone have advice on how to assemble all the pieces to make a transcript? Next year is going to be a mix of dual-enrollment and graded online classes -- hopefully this will make it impossible for me to make the same mistakes twice.</p>

2

<p>It may be easier for you to go for a narrative transcript so you can have more broad titles like ‘English’ and ‘Math’ and put anything you’ve done that constitutes that under those catagories. I’d include anything from books you’ve read, field trips, textbooks, MIT OCW under them and include everything that doesn’t fit elsewhere under electives.</p>

<p>You sound like you’re motivated to take APs and if you can get past Algebra II, you could eventually take AP Calculus or Statistics.</p>

<p>Try your hardest to take challenging classes and get good grades in the next year so you can show that you are at the level you say you are. I shouldn’t think colleges will care too much about the NC tests but obviously the math on the SAT includes Algebra I, II and Geometry so it’s best to get them out of the way now! :D</p>

3

<p>You have not made any mistakes. You are learning and that is the point. You simply need to learn how to document what you have done. Go see if you library has any books on unschooling (as that is the kind of homeschooling that you are doing) and read about how other homeschoolers like yourself have documented their work. </p>

<p>You also need to find out if NC law requires homeschoolers to take the same standardized tests that public school students take. You may not be required to take them. In my state, homeschoolers are not required to take any of the standardized tests that the public school kids take.</p>

<p>If you’d like a school to come along side of you an assist you, then I’d recommend NARHS. I used them with my kids and found the academic advisers helpful to work with.
[NARHS</a> | Your diploma, your way.](<a href=“http://www.narhs.org/]NARHS”>http://www.narhs.org/)</p>

4

<p>Thank you both for your replies. Your reassurances have reduced my neuroses exponentially.</p>

<p>I just registered for ALEKS and am currently working my way through the volumes of unschooling information available online. A broad narrative transcript sounds doable. Posting was very helpful in organizing my thoughts and squelching the slight panic; I sifted through my things, found a vaguely decipherable calendar with notes on it, and arrived at a few tentative conclusions.</p>

<p>9th grade:
Public school: Honors World History, Honors Geometry, Art I, French I
Homeschooling: PE/Health, English, Environmental Science (I’m putting this here since I began a textbook in February of last year though I didn’t bother with the test – I’m assuming that’s fine), Creative Writing</p>

<p>10th grade:
Biology, English, Algebra II, Comparative Government & Politics, French II, Italian I&II, Sociology</p>

<p>Yep, I’m definitely motivated to test my heart out. I do have a change of testing plans, though. I don’t think I’ll be quite ready in time to take the AP Bio test, so I’ve decided to hold out for the subject test in June to give myself another month to freak out and study. I’m also considering the WH subject test.</p>

<p>NC only cares that I take yearly achievement tests in “English grammar, reading, spelling, and math.” Doing so.</p>

<p>bookreader: I love what I’ve read so far about NARHS. My mom is very concerned about me not having an actual high school diploma, so this would certainly make everyone happy. Still reading the student handbook, but did you find the advisors’ standards flexible? I have a few essays lying around from corresponding with my mom’s teacher friend as well as a bit of the usual review-questiony bookwork, but that’s it.</p>

<p>My other concern is the cost. I’m on my own for finances, but next week I begin a paid internship so I could conceivably save up to afford it. The thing is I also have to factor in online classes and outside commitments. I planned to use Keystone next year for my humanities since I’m only allowed to dual-enroll in maths and sciences at the community college. Now looking at cheaper options K12 and U Missouri. Are these as highly regarded as Keystone? Other reputable and affordable alternatives, anyone?</p>

<p>I rambled. Sorry about that.</p>

5

<p>

Making everyone happy is certainly important, but it isn’t necessary to have an actual high school diploma to get into most colleges. My son did some blend of unschool, community college, internship, online classes, and Teaching Company throughout high school (not in “regular” school since fifth) and was accepted to Caltech, Harvey Mudd, Rice, Colorado College, and others. Browse some of the threads in this forum for reassurance and hints.

Opinions vary on this, but my opinion is that you can’t have too much outside verification in most cases. If you want to present yourself as a total free spirit, focus almost exclusively on butterfly evolution, or the like, then testing doesn’t work as well, but you don’t seem to be doing that. Since you are going to be competing with the non-butterfly-evolution experts, it is important that you be able to prove that what you claim on your transcript is true. You can prove that with tests (SAT II, AP, etc.), outside classes (if they produce transcripts), and letters of recommendation.

No, but they do care that you followed the homeschooling regulations for your state.

That was wonderful for my son.

That’s probably a good option since you have so much stuff that doesn’t fit a regular transcript (halfway between free-spirit and “standard”). You might <em>also</em> want a more standard-looking transcript that says essentially what you said in your last post about your classes; I’ve heard that admissions officers like to see something they can easily categorize. You could have the summary one first with the supporting details/narrative after it. If you email me, I can send you a sanitized copy of my son’s transcript. We didn’t do any narrative because he had so much outside verification, but it might be a nice starting point for a summary if you choose to have one.</p>

<p>You’re on a good path and you’ll be fine. The schools want someone who loves to learn and learns for fun.</p>

6

<p>GeekMom63, I emailed you. I think ~5+ AP tests, several subject tests, the usual (P)SAT, and online and community college classes are in the cards, so I should be set for outside verification. Just need to get what I’ve done thus far under wraps. I’m also digging through the forum and looking at old threads – tons and tons of great information here.</p>

<p>

I’m really liking it so far. It’s very user-friendly with clear instruction, something that was missing for me at public school.</p>

<p>Thank you for your advice and congratulations to your son!</p>

7

<p>I have a good feeling for your chances. You have a lot going for you. The fact that you will write your own narrative transcript is going to look great. You are clearly a very self motivated learner and the schools will love that.</p>

<p>I will back up what GeekMom has said - a diploma is not necessary for almost all situations. I think the service academies and some state systems do want to see them. My son got into Caltech, MIT, UCLA, UCB and UCSD. Since Caltech and MIT were EA schools, he did not apply to his other schools.</p>

<p>My daughter, who is currently applying has got into Willamette (with $$$), Colorado College (with $$), St Johns College. She is still waiting on Scripps (but probably in, because she was invited to the scholarship weekend) and Pomona.</p>

<p>We do tend to do a fair amount of testing. My son had 7 APs, 4 SAT II and the SAT. My daughter has 9 APs, SAT and 2 SATIIs. We also did some academic competitions. My son did very well on national and local math competitions. My daughter has also done well on math competitions(though not as well as her brother). She has done well on the National Latin Exam. None of this is necessary, because I know homeschoolers who have been accepted into some great schools without all this, but it does make it easier, I think. This is the language the adcoms understand.</p>

8

<p>I did find NARHS very easy to work with. Yes they have their standards, but they can assist you in finding many ways to meet those standards. </p>

<p>My 2 cents: if your Mom wants you to have a ‘real’ diploma from a ‘real’ school, then I think she should be willing to pay for it. NARHS isn’t terribly expensive, but it does cost. </p>

<p>If you opt not to take the AP classes this year, but you have spent a good amount of time studying for them, then you may want to consider taking CLEP exams to validate your work and to get college credit. They are done by the same company that does the AP exams - College Board. You go to your local community college to take CLEP exams. You can buy a book that has practice exams for each of the CLEP exams so you can know if you are ready to take one.</p>

9

<p>anotherparent: Thanks so much for the encouragement. It’s wonderful to hear that I’m on the right track from people with so much experience!</p>

<p>The UNC system seems pretty kind to homeschoolers, so I’m in luck. Congratulations to your daughter (and son!) on her acceptances! They both sound like they deserve them and then some. I’m tentatively planning to throw my hat in with the Scholastic writing competitions, so we’ll see how that pans out. :P</p>

<p>bookreader: I read through the student handbook and liked what I saw. We’re stretched very tightly financially and one of the conditions of my homeschooling was my mom wanted to be as uninvolved as possible (this sort of thing apparently gives her migraines). I think NARHS will be a more feasible option in a few months, so I’ll definitely keep it in mind.</p>

<h2>I considered the CLEP exams, but decided to opt for the APs and subject tests instead. Thank you for your input!</h2>

<p>New development, although I’m not sure it’s entirely relevant: I’m going to make the twenty minute longer ride to another CC so I can take classes other than math and science (up to two courses a semester). I’m feeling pretty good about next year’s plans.</p>

10

<p>I echo anotherparents’s sentiments. Schools love self-motivation. Begin to compose your narrative transcript for the first two years of high school. Taking a couple of courses at the CC in your area during your junior year will prove helpful when you need letters of recommendation for college admissions. Good luck!</p>

11

<p>I was homeschooled from birth through high school, with my last years being solely dual enrollment. Honestly, I wrote my own transcript because my parents didn’t know how to make one. I schooled myself up on my district’s high school requirements and then made a commitment to do something roughly equivalent to it. I had three sciences (Physical, Bio, and Chem), threeish maths (Alg I, Alg II, Geometry + Trig), two languages, and more than enough history and English. I only had real textbooks for math and science, but the rest was really an eclectic mix of things. I got books from the library, read a lot, and wrote a lot, but it was pretty unstructured. When I got to writing my transcript, it was hard to fit things into normal sounding classes, so I did end up with a few oddball ones like “The Novels of Jane Austen” and “Medieval History.” No one ever questioned these, but I made a narrative transcript to go along with my regular one just in case that listed all the books I read and the things I did to “get credit.” </p>

<p>For non lit and history classes, I took tests to “prove” that I had learned enough. I took tests (including CLEP) for science, Latin, and Spanish. Dual enrollment is what really helped a lot, though. I took 20+ courses in the areas of literature, writing, science, math, music, and psychology and then just put them on my homeschool transcript with a note next to them as to which college they were taken at. Of course, I had to send college transcripts to every college I applied to as well. After taking so many college courses, no one questioned my high school “classes” because they weren’t all that important anymore. I had demonstrated my ability to handle difficult subject matter both through CLEPs and through college classes. </p>

<p>As far as format, it’s usually fairly straightforward to stick your info into an excel spreadsheet. It also makes it very professional looking. If you are interested in seeing my transcript, let me know and I can send it to you in a pm. </p>

<p>(On a side note, even if you’re going to go to college for something like English of history, don’t let Algebra II slide. It’s important for the ACT and SAT, and it’s just good stuff to know).</p>