Unusual school situation

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

<p>Lately I have been worried realizing that my situation school-wise would sort of… completely destroy my chances at the Ivys. Notably Harvard, which I’ve looked into extensively.</p>

<p>To give a bit of background into what I’m talking about, I’ve been homeschooled since I was 12, in 2002. I always got good grades, but I was homeschooled for mostly religious reasons. My parents are Christians, have been for over thirty years, and they’ve put a lot of effort into this.</p>

<p>Well, I decided to check the Crimson to see what I could dig up on homeschoolers at H, and what I found was sort of interesting. First, an article from 1989 that is actually sort of famous: </p>

<p>[The</a> Harvard Crimson :: News :: Homeschoolers Are at Home at Harvard](<a href=“http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=132239]The”>http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=132239)</p>

<p>First thing to point out was the numbers in 1989: “adds that about five to 10 homeschooled students apply each year to Harvard.”</p>

<p>I found that interesting, especially since I read a 2006 article before that one on current numbers.</p>

<p>Next is the 2006 article: </p>

<p>[The</a> Harvard Crimson :: News :: Homeschoolers A Small But Growing Minority](<a href=“http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=512786]The”>http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=512786)</p>

<p>OK, so it’s up to 200 in 2006. That’s pretty big, and if 3 to 8 are accepted (let’s assume the middle grounds and go with five), that means there’s only 2.5% admission in homeschool as compared to the around 10% of Harvard as a whole. </p>

<p>I discussed this with a friend a while ago, and a lot of things were brought up between us in this.

  1. The article seems to purvey the stereotype of all homeschoolers being introverts and then makes note that it’s not true in every case.
  2. A prime thing to worry about would be the thought of students who are homeschooled due to religious reasons (like me, for example) would be less adjusted to the diversity one would experience at Harvard in terms of faiths and what-not.
  3. The independence of homeschoolers makes them more likely to be in the college mindset before college.</p>

<p>At least that’s how I take it.</p>

<p>But yeah, this does have a point to it.</p>

<p>I mentioned that my school situation has made me worried as of late, because I’ve not had the same opportunity as my once-peers in school. </p>

<p>I’m not sure how to say what I need to here, so pardon if I seem sort of jumbled. Let’s go step-by-step:</p>

<li>Was homeschooled in 2002 as a Christian.</li>
<li>Debated against evolution, big bang, etc. online.</li>
<li>Discovered I knew nothing about any of them when I figured myself to be the usual champion.</li>
<li>Researched the “controversial” subjects extensively.</li>
<li>Questioned my faith, and identified as atheistic. (this was in 2005)</li>
<li>Developed a passion for dispelling the ideals put forth by the intelligent design community.</li>
<li>Developed a passion for evolutionary biology.</li>
<li>Became an atheist leader of sorts, administrating a group on FaceBook started a month and a half ago with 750 members at present, made to be up to date on secular issues in the nation and such.</li>
</ol>

<p>My journey from ignorant Christian (meaning it in the purest way possible, I simply possessed a lack of knowledge, I’m not being antagonistic towards people of faith) to science enthusiast has been an interesting one, and I’m thinking that this journey (although in more detail, it’s presented very simple here) would be my only logical advantage in applying for Harvard.</p>

<p>I think at Harvard they’d look for those qualities; free thinking, extensive research capabilities, self-interest in controversial subjects, leadership, organization, etc.</p>

<p>…Nevermind that I come from Kentucky, at that!</p>

<p>What do you guys think?</p>

<p>(sorry if my speech appears jumbled and my overuse of these sections of text, I like to insert my thoughts as I write and it’s past 3 AM in my timezone)</p>

<p>Edit: pardon if this is the wrong area, but I figure it’s relevant since it’s completely about Harvard and my shot at it. :P</p>

2

<p>Well, tell us a bit about your ECs, test scores and just give it a shot!</p>

3

<p>I don't think I'm quite ready to tell that much yet. I will be when I apply, but that's not quite right now. ECs aren't so solid, though.</p>

4

<p>Well, it might be good to take some APs to back up your credentials.</p>

5

<p>It sounds like your "journey" from christian to atheist could make for a decent essay, since it highlights your choice to study evolutionary biology. You still need the scores, the grades, APs, ECs, etc to back it up, and I doubt Harvard will really care if you started a facebook group unless you really DO something with it. Also, I'd be REALLY careful how you present that "ignorant Christian" stuff, since chances are your admissions officer will identify with SOME faith or have a belief in a higher power. You don't want to go around insulting people -- and believe me, you will insult people by saying things like Christians are ignorant. Personally I'm a bit turned off by that. Harvard wants diversity, but they want people who are accepting of everyone.</p>

6

<p>Strangely, I completely and utterly expected someone to not read the explanation and get offended. I wasn't calling people of faith ignorant, as I hold many to extreme heights. Ken Miller, for example, is definitely a top ten respect-wise, and he's a devout Roman Catholic.</p>

<p>What I was saying is that I perfectly fit the requirements for holier than thou but still know nothing Christian in those days. I didn't mean anything by it towards anyone else :P</p>

<p>Religious diversity is something I've been around my whole life. I know of young earthers (most) from the Christian faith, and newer converts are often old earthers. I know Wiccans, Buddhists, and Muslims. I accept them all with equality. No man is better than the next because of personal beliefs, unless they know they're wrong in those personal beliefs and are too stubborn to admit it for fear of social stigma or likewise, which I was.</p>

<p>I'd rather not spend my time on this issue, so I'll just say that overall I think I have scores, grades, and APs to back it up, just not so sure on the ECs. Either way, I've got a good bit to go before applying, even though it's dangerously close... So I'll save the more technical details.</p>

<p>I'm still on the 50/50 border of whether this is a decent subject to write on, though.</p>

<p>Edit: the FaceBook was for you guys -- not them -- to show that I'm dedicated to this premise. It's not easy to get that kind of numbers in such a short time. Haha. Ironically, we are doing things that one would expect from such things as lobbyist groups, though. Not sure if that's good or not, but hey...</p>

7

<p>You can present your views as long as you don't come right out and say "christians are idiots." There's a fine line between a daring yet successful essay and an outright stupid one.</p>

8

<p>This is an issue we think about a lot in our house. I actually have no idea whether or not any of my children will make an application to Harvard, but as any regular reader of College Confidential can see, I hang out a lot on this forum because I'm curious about the issue of admission policy and student life at what must be one of the most selective universities in the world. I have read both of those articles about homeschoolers at Harvard, although not recently. </p>

<p>One point is that Harvard's admission office apparently has an officer who handles the homeschooling docket, so that admission officer is familiar with homeschooling in general in all its manifestations and knows a lot of examples of homeschoolers and how they thrive once they arrive at Harvard. I'm told that that is generally true at most highly selective, high-quality universities: these days the admission committee has at least one officer who is a specialist in homeschooling admission cases, and knows how to evaluate those cases knowledgeably. So from that point of view, I'm not particularly worried about any of my children applying to any college of interest to them. They get to decide where to apply, and I am confident that their admission applications will be fairly evaluated wherever they apply. (They also get to decide where to enroll if they are admitted to more than one college.) What I do here is try to document what we are doing as homeschoolers, and do all the usual parental stuff like drive my younger children to activities and discuss with other parents how to find good K-12 educational opportunities for our children. </p>

<p>About your specific issue of a change of point of view on various important aspects of life, I'm sure that's ground that has been covered before in the application file of a homeschooled student. Harvard admits students without regard to their religious point of view and definitely has among its students the whole gamut of differing points of view on religion and scientific issues. If reconsidering your point of view is an important element of your personal life, that may be a very good topic to write about. Write about what you know is always good advice. </p>

<p>I'll look forward to further discussion in this thread. I learned about College Confidential from a homeschooling parent (whose son will soon finish a degree at MIT), and I've enjoyed interacting with the current high school students, current college students, college alumni, and parents I meet here, whatever their approach to K-12 education. If you would like to ask more general questions about homeschooling and college admission, not so tightly focused on Harvard, I'd be glad to see you post in CC's Homeschooling and College Forum </p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/home-schooling-college/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/home-schooling-college/&lt;/a> </p>

<p>where you'll meet a lot of students and parents from other homeschooling families. </p>

<p>Good luck in your college applications.</p>

9

<p>You will fit in very well at Harvard .</p>

10

<p>fencermother,</p>

<p>why do you think he/she will fit in well at Harvard? curious</p>

<p>My son is a very strong Christian and all of his essays expressed it. In his interview it also was a major topic. He's gone to secular public school all his life and has gotten along very well with people of all faiths. He did have great EC's, leadership, SAT's, grades and class rank and I feel that those things were what was looked at over his faith. He's excited about going to Harvard in the fall and being with kids of all faiths and religions.</p>

11

<p>Harvard is interested in having kids on all ends of the religious spectrum. I don't think on the surface you would have any particular problems with admissions, except the usual. Too many stellar candidates! You sound intelligent and thoughtful, I imagine you'll write a good essay. I'd probably get a few people to read it to make sure the tone is right. Assuming that you are a rising senior, you could probably do something this summer to help along the EC line if you feel that is a weak area. I don't mean starting something entirely new, but just augmenting what you are already doing, taking it to a higher level or expanding it.</p>

12

<p>Tip: don't use the term "ignorant Christian," even to describe yourself, even if you think you are using it in the "purest" way possible. Personally, I would not be too impressed with an essay that described how you figured out that your parents are ignorant.</p>

13

<p>great point hunt! good advise. Please watch what you say hit the lights. Sounds like you feel you have reached some kind of revelation, but that is just your opinion so be careful not to offend by passing judgment.</p>

14

<p>This is exactly the point I was making, but apparently thinking this is a bad idea means I was offended? That's not what I meant, what I meant is, catagorizing people like that makes YOU sound like the ignorant one.</p>

15

<p>@piccolojunior: Dragonball Z? I used to love that show... Anyway, I couldn't say that without being a huge liar. Ken Miller is one of the people I respect most in general, and he's a devout Roman Catholic, as I've stated prior. The only people of faith I have a hard time respecting is people like Ken Ham, Kent Hovind, Michael Behe, etc. who are intellectually dishonest and use very questionable arguments to prove points. But I still find myself respecting the intelligence of Michael Behe, the leadership skills of Ken Ham, and... not much about Kent Hovind.</p>

<p>However, there are also people like this who openly identify as atheist that I strongly disagree with. Some of them in biology even! Richard Dawkins is another person I respect highly, but I'll be damned if he isn't the most arrogant militant atheist I've ever seen. Stuff like that is sort of off-turning, you know?</p>

<p>@mathmom: I'm not sure whether the 20,000 normal applicants or the 200 homeschooled ones would be more problematic! My concerns fall along the lines of how much better that they are than me in certain areas, if they're superstars outside of the homeschool crowd, et. al. I like to think that I've got a fairly unique story, which was what this topic was about. They like personality right? I assume they also like people who strive to learn, people who have followed their own path of inquiry, and so on. That's me, but how many others in my class is it? Thus the worry.</p>

<p>@Hunt: It's a safe assumption to make that my parents are ignorant as they're the ones who did the decision making regarding religion and put a lot of scientific knowledge on the side lines... However, it's not that simple.</p>

<p>From helping out with my mother's class of first grade students (she's one of three siblings who went to college, two of them were very sucessful lawyers), I realize that in the beginning of my conversion to atheism I was disillusioned with my parents' stance on science and did think of them as ignorant as well... As I was saying, from helping with her class I discovered that she's very smart, just not in certain areas, because no one is good at everything.</p>

<p>Further, she spurred my career choice: I would like to be a college professor one day. K-12 students are required to be there, whereas college students don't have to be there and are often in certain classes to learn. I'd like to spread my passion to the willing, which is my whole drive.</p>

<p>As far as my father goes, he thinks that I think of him as... well... stupid. But I know he's not. He's a genius in politics (even though I think he's on the wrong side :P) and is very smart in certain areas of debate, discussion, and even philosophy.</p>

<p>Overall, I'd ascribe the term "ignorant" to very few people that I know. It just so happens that one of them was... me.</p>

<p>@guitars101: The only person I really judge is myself. Even the people I know a lot about I'm not overly willing to make a call on, just because I could be completely wrong about them. I keep my thoughts about others mostly to myself. There's no revelation, really. It's just that I've reached a point in my life that I like and think I'm doing the right thing personally. I can't make a call on anyone else...</p>

<p>@munchkin3590: It sounded like you were offended, which is why I responded how I did, but it may have been something that needed to be said anyway.</p>

<p>Again, I try not to be judgmental. Sometimes I can't help it, but the thoughts almost always stay to myself.</p>

<p>/hopes no one was offended :P</p>

16

<p>Why are you fixed on Harvard? Have you considered schools like Hampshire, Marlboro, or Bennington, where the academics resemble the independent work of homeschooling? There are many more to consider. Just curious, is this the only forum where you have posted? Do your parents mention Harvard?</p>

17

<p>I've considered many, many others... Harvard's still my top, though. Yeah, this is the only forum where I've posted, and nope, parents don't mention Harvard. My dad is sort of antagonistic towards Harvard for some reason. He never went to college, though.</p>

18

<p>Hit the Lights,</p>

<p>Please don't take this the wrong way, but you seem a little angry or resentful of your upbringing. I'm sure your parents did what they felt was the best for you. It is not easy to homeschool, it's a huge sacrifice. Giving you a faith that shows love can't be all bad. You sound like you have a good head on your shoulders and you sound very bright. Maybe you should thank your parents for this. I'm sure they had something to do with how you turned out.</p>

<p>Be grateful to have had loving parents who cared enough about you to sacrifice for you.</p>

19

<p>Man, you guys need to stop assuming so much! </p>

<p>I'm happy overall that I'm homeschooled regardless of reason because it's made me who I am. If I were in public school, I would probably have let my grades slip, wouldn't have developed a true lust for knowledge, and done a lot of things I would regret later in life.</p>

<p>I'm thankful, grateful, etc. I can't imagine how hard it would have been in public school for a variety of reasons...</p>