Parents of the HS Class of 2020 (Part 1)

@milgymfam thanks for hopping back onto this thread. I’ve been lurking on the parents of the Class of 2019 thread for a while and have enjoyed reading your posts there. I have no advice (yet…I’m not too familiar with many colleges yet), but am glad you’re posting here.

@milgymfam Welcome back to the thread!

@milgymfam I don’t know much about yellow ribbon but have you looked at Pitzer or Whittier? Some of the CSUs are test optional/test blind.

@lkg4answers I haven’t looked into those schools, but I will! I thought Pitzer was exceptionally competitive? No UCs (nor Mills or Scripps) are tear optional for homeschoolers. I don’t think there is a single test optional college for homeschoolers in CA, NC, or FL.

@milgymfam it looks like Whittier might be test optional and yellow ribbon. I just don’t know where you find the info on home-schooled kids. I believe there is a home-school forum on CC. Have you asked there?

@silverpurple I don’t think TCNJ is ‘too below’ anyone’s stats. If it checks the boxes of you and your child’s priorities, then every school should be considered for the list.

Have you contacted College Board about this? If you have this medically documented, they might be able to work with you and allow accommodations. What will she do with test taking once she is in college?

@lkg4answers, our military doctors won’t go further than acknowledging her issues- no extra testing, reports, therapies etc. We hit a brick wall. My D19 has all the reports/diagnoses/etc for ADHD and anxiety and we got nowhere with accommodations. Not even bothering this time around. My girls were both in public schools until high school. D20 rarely got As on tests- Bs and Cs were the usual, but she was diligent in the rest of her work and had pretty good overall grades. I imagine college will be the same- DE is so far. She isn’t interested in grad school or terribly competitive fields of work, so being a B/C student in college is perfectly wonderful imo. She understands where she is- she originally wanted to be a social worker or librarian but moved on when she accepted that grad school was required.

ETA: it DOES appear that Whittier is truly test optional. They do not have a dance program at all though. Good to keep in the back of my mind. Pitzer requires tests from homeschoolers. My D is taking the SAT in May and the ACT in June, so I guess we will know exactly where we stand soon enough. The homeschool board on here is fairly dead.

Regarding the Harvard mailing: It must be working. They increased their number of applicants so they have a record low 4.5% admit rate this year. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2019/3/29/2023-admit-numbers/

And of course, considering what Harvard is going through, this is interesting

@silverpurple, absolutely every student needs a true safety and any/every school that checks the boxes, just as @bigmacbeth wisely said, is worth a look.

(The true safety boxes: The family can afford it. It offers what the student is looking for/needs. The student can imagine going there happily or at least with reasonable genuine enthusiasm, not just as a last resort. And the student can get in.)

@milgymfam, USFCA accepts yellow ribbon program, friendly to home schoolers, offers elementary education, majors in performing arts/social justice-dance majors and minors- very well known for this program. They are very liberal Jesuit mission and philosophy- big on social justice. Leans toward a holistic approach to admission.

@ECmotherx2 thank you! That looks like a perfect choice to add to the list! We lived just outside of San Fran for three years and it’s one of her favorite places to be!

@silverpurple What does your kid want to study? Do they have a good program for his/her major? I would suggest going to Niche and read the student review and comments about their college.

@silverpurple What does your kid want to study? Do they have a good program for his/her major? I would suggest going to Niche.com and read the student review and comments about their college.

@milgymfam : On ECmotherx2’s suggestion to look into USFCA…

What a really beautiful place I found that place to be. I absolutely loved it. Let us know how things go if you take a visit.

Sorry about the duplicate post, I had listed a website which is against the TOS.

She wants to study political science, history, education, liberal arts. Thanks all for the comments. I think we will go check it out.

@milgymfam one of my extended family members graduated from Dominican University of California (San Rafael - bay area) and loved it there. It’s rather small school, but they are home school friendly, offer dance and education majors, and participate in the yellow ribbon program. It looks like they are not test optional for homeschoolers, though; however, their acceptance rate is rather high, so a lower test score might be ok. It might be worth a look.

@hgtvaddict that looks like a great option! They’re not test optional for homeschoolers, but their average scores aren’t oppressively high- we shall see where she lands with scores!

I have been checking on class of 2019 thread and am surprised to see how emotions were running high over there. It looks like the overall trend is kids are applying to more colleges, to more selective colleges, earlier, and the admission rates are down for many colleges.
Hopefully class of 2020 kids are not as stressed as their school seniors this year and our jonurney of the next 12 months exciting and fruitful.
We are learning to love safeties and repeating the mantra of “kiddo can thrive where he is planted”!