<p>Hi, I am in a dilemma of whether I should continue homeschooling or go back to a public high school for my senior year. I have only been homeschooling the a semester of my junior year because of family problems. Okay, so these are the advatanges and disadvantages of both views:
Homeschooling
- Advantages: more time to study for the sat and act (retaking them in fall), get to commit more on my nonprofit organization that I created with my friends, get to continue with my work/job, have the opportunity to self-write my transcript (good thing about this is that I don't need to follow the grading system rule of the school I used to go), can take more college classes, may get to work on a research
- Disadvantage: less time for socializing (no prom.), lower acceptance rate? to highly selective colleges such as Brown and Stanford, vague academic information, more weight on standardized test scores, I will only have one leadership position then (executive director of a nonprofit org), hard to get rec letters </p>
<p>Public High School
-Advantages: socializing (imp. for my nonprofit as well), get to have a CLASS RANK (I was ranked in the top 5 back when I attended high school. This is the main reason why I'm thinking to go back), better preparation for future AP exams, more rigorous academic schedule, don't need to pay for homeschooling programs anymore, may get more leadership positions, detailed counselor rec letter (she knows me VERY well. If I continue to homeschool, she won't be the one who will be in charge of my counselor rec), less weight on SAT and ACT
-Disadvantages: less time to study for SAT and ACT, have to reduce my shifts for work, less time to work on my college applications, have to take speech (a required regular class) through online</p>
<p>I'll appreciate your thoughts and sorry for making the post lengthy! Oh, another option I have is to go back to a public school for the first semester of my senior year and then homeschool the second semester so that I can work on a research! </p>
<p>Btw, these are some of the top tier schools that I will be applying to:
Brown (first choice)
Duke
Stanford
Johns Hopkins
UCLA
UC Berkeley
UChicago</p>
<p>Anyone? Just wanna hear your opinion.</p>
<p>I’d go back to Public if you really liked it.</p>
<p>did you post this in the homeschooling sub forum?</p>
<p>It looks like both options are good and solid. Some things you might want to consider: First, how does your public high school calculate GPA/class rank with regard to the time you were homeschooled. In our public school, they don’t consider the homeschool courses at all, even if they were AP courses and had someone else doing the grading for GPA/rank. In other words, any grades you earned while homeschooled, will they count for high school requirements, they do not count when calculating GPA/rank - at our public school. Second, I’m not convinced your opinion regarding AP courses being better in the public school. That may or may not be true. PA Homeschoolers has some EXCELLENT online courses. You might want to check their website to see what is offered. They have a VERY high rate of students scoring 5’s and 4’s. Furthermore, their teachers are most willing to write letters of recommendation for their students. Third, I have heard, I do NOT know if this is true, that Duke is loves homeschoolers. Perhaps someone on this site could confirm or deny. I’m not sure of the other schools you listed. Fourth, I would see if you can find out how important class rank is at the schools you are considering. Your class rank is a definite plus! Congrats! Fifth, we were told by several organizations that offered scholarships that they weren’t sure how to evaluate our homeschooled son’s application when comparing GPA’s. There are some people who aren’t comfortable believing the accuracy of of the grades of a homeschooler. This is understandable, so you are definitely right about your realization about the importance of test scores. If your scores are great, it shouldn’t be a problem. If they are good, it could be problematic. I’m not sure if this helps, but good luck as you make your decision!</p>
<p>@kypdurron- yes, I did. It seems like not a lot of people go into that forum. So I posted in this forum as well:)</p>
<p>@davenmame- Thank you so much! Your post is really helpful. But one question. The biggest reason why I am thinking to go back to high school is because of my class rank. My recent transcript from my “high school” says that I ranked in the top five. Even if that rank is from my first semester of my junior year, can I put that down as my class rank on the final transcript since I get to self-write my own transcript? Of course, I’ll put a note (saying “my junior class ranking; most recent”) next to my class rank. Is this possible?</p>
<p>You could definitely include your class rank on your transcript with a note explaining it. That being said, I think it’s important to explain it. One of my son’s was interviewing for a 4-H event. His resume mentioned homeschooling and taking AP classes. One of the judges didn’t ask him to clarify at the interview and the judge wrote on his evaluation that he contradicted himself saying he was homeschooled AND took AP classes. Don’t assume that the person reading your application knows the options available to homeschoolers. Regarding the class rank and applications, I would look at the specific applications of your interested schools AND scholarship apps you might be applying for. See if there is a way to include your class rank - again with an explanation. The fact that you were in the school system (that ranked you) much longer than you were homeschooled should carry more weight with your rank’s legitimacy. Last, the only other thing that would concern me about homeschooling is how much support would you have at home. A lot is involved in the application process, particularly for a student of your abilities. When you say you homeschooled because of family problems, you want to make sure that someone is able to help guide you and meet deadlines. For example, many schools require the common app. Your parent(s) would need to complete some of that. Make sure you talk about these things with them and verify that they would have the time to complete these forms. Again, I think you have 2 good choices here! :)</p>