<p>Well, in all honesty -- though I know that what I chose was the right decision for the person I was THEN -- it's no longer the right decision for the person I am NOW. I'm glad I did it, but if I (as I am now) could go back in time, I'd do things differently. First of all, I'd get into foster care a lot sooner, but that's beside the point. As far as schooling goes, I'd take an avalanche of AP tests and SAT stuff and then just apply to colleges early. There's no way I'd stay in high school all four years no matter what because that would be like welcoming some serious stagnation in comparison to What Could Be. </p>
<p>Drawbacks: There's just so much red tape. People are skeptical. You have to do even more to prove yourself than you would in a regular school environment. It's difficult to do science labs unless you take courses at a community college or find a homeschool group. Unless you actively seek people out, you'll be missing in group discussion of the things you're learning, which I do think is extremely important.</p>
<p>If any of you are still reading or are still curious, I decided to take APs. I'm taking the following:</p>
<p>American Government and Politics
Calc BC
English Literature
U.S. History
Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism
Psychology
English Language
Chemistry</p>
<p>(I just figured sharing this info. would be good since we all learn from each other's experiences, so the more people share, the better...)</p>
<p>Now I'm going to go study and pray so I don't bomb. ;p</p>
<p>I have heard from an interviewer at Yale that the people they admit belong to one of the three categories: Future scholars of the generation to come.</p>
<p>Outstanding at something apart from stellar academic performance (say, a nationally renowned violinist, and so on and so forth)</p>
<p>Great (but not stellar) at everything (great ecs, great SATs, great recs)
*
according to the interviewer the largest portion belongs to the third category. I think the poster belongs to the second one-self-motivated, working a *lot**, excellent scores that reflect her intellect and self-motivation, and her background is more than underprivileged...so i say you are in. The only thing you can do to ensure that you do get in is incorporate all these things that convey your background (foster care, home schooled-sort of) into your essays and describe your experience-how was it that you had to cope with all that stuff all alone...you know, show your unique nature through that. On the whole, i applaud you for your self-motivation.</p>
<p>I've heard that too. I always hope they'll see my application and think, "This girl will change the world," but I know that's extremely unlikely. So having them go, "This girl sure has worked her ass off," instead is certainly nothing to sneeze at. :)</p>
<p>to the OP I'd suggest you ask this same question in the home schooling forum. Your background and achievements sounds terrific. The concern I have, and it may just be lack of information, is how your unschooled background meets the college prep requirements of Harvard (or other schools). A lot of the home-schoolers follow recognized programs so colleges can be pretty confident the student has checked off the required courses; albeit in a different way. The folks on that forum will be much more knowledgable about how your specific approach plays with schools.</p>
<p>I know that a lot of colleges scratch the course requirements for homeschoolers if the student can show that they've learned an equivalent amount anyway. If I get good scores on all the APs I'm taking, it should show pretty high proficiency... I did call a few admissions offices, and they don't really expect standard course fulfillments so much as test scores, community college transcripts, supplementary material, etc. I did decide to take some comm. college courses this summer, btw.</p>
<p>And this may be bad of me, but I feel like, if a college can't make exceptions when they're merited/judge by context, I don't want to be there anyway. I don't expect special treatment, but I do expect people to judge by what's sensible rather than sticking to standards that are, considering my choice of going about things, somewhat arbitrary.</p>
<p>Hard to say, background is good...you may be a sure admit</p>
<p>OR</p>
<p>Harvard may say: This girl spent her entire time studying FOR tests, rather than actually learning because your scores are so good at many SAT IIs, and want nothing to do with you</p>
<p>But still -- studying for tests IS learning. There's enough material that may be covered on APs that you actually have to learn the subject well in order to score well... of course, I haven't taken them yet, so we'll see. :/</p>
<p>Well, don't worry. You have a year to plan and show that you have been working rather than doing nothing, and this **will **be imparted through your AP achievements.</p>