<p>I'm a homeschooled student applying to college this autumn, and, on the Homeschool Transcript, you need to list the level of each course you've taken (e.g. Honors, AP).</p>
<p>I'm not sure which categories my Biology and Chemistry courses would fall into; although I'm covering all the Zumdahl and Campbell books, which are usually used to prepare for APs, I'm not actually taking the AP exams - I'm doing the SATs instead. Also, I'm doing the SATs in World History and Literature, but no other tests in those subjects - again, what level would they be at?</p>
<p>Thanks :).</p>
<p>On my kids’ transcripts we did not identify any of their course work as “honors” or AP, with the exception of two actual AP classes my son did at the high school. In the descriptions of your classes (you can write this up as a separate document, not squish it into the Homeschool Supplement to the Common App) when you list the texts used, though, you can say something like, “Standard AP text: Chemistry, Zumdahl.” Or something like that. Or in the body of your course description write “high-school honors level course”… you can do it however you’d like. Personally I think it’s a little suspect to list homeschool course titles as “honors” since that’s a designation that distinguishes one traditional high school class from another in the same subject. And technically to use “AP” in your course titles, I believe you have to have the syllabus/curricuculum approved by the AP gods. But, in any case, it shouldn’t be necessary to use such school-ish titles. Just describe what you did, books you used, topics covered, and any objective assessments like the SAT subject tests.</p>
<p>Out of curiosity, why aren’t you taking the AP exams?</p>
<p>I didn’t have time to learn things like Chemistry and Biology before the APs this year, but I wanted some way of showing the colleges that I’d studied those subjects to a reasonable level, so I decided to take the SATs this autumn instead. However, I’m planning to take APs in such subjects as USH next year.</p>
<p>It’s OK, then, if I just use general course descriptions like “Chemistry” or “Biology” in the Homeschool Transcript and the more detailed document, as well as, in the more detailed document only, saying “Primary text used: Standard AP textbook:…”?</p>
<p>Also, how do I list courses in progress (I’ll already have started learning US History by that time?)</p>
<p>Sorry for all the questions btw, it’s just that I’m not sure how most homeschoolers tackle applying to college, and I don’t know anyone who I can ask.</p>
<p>On my kids’ transcripts the courses were identified by the time frame in which they studied them, e.g. “World Literature, 9/04-6/05.” For courses in progress we said, for example, “9/07-present”, and for courses that were not yet begun, “to be taken: winter quarter '08” (the last example was concerning a college class he was going to be taking at the local college.)</p>
<p>Feel free to ask any questions here. Homeschoolers do this in different ways, and you may be able to compare some options and figure out what works best for you. I can only say how we did it, but hopefully others will post their own methods.</p>
<p>By the way, assuming you’ll be a senior this upcoming year, it may not be worth it to take the APUSH test. It depends on what college you’re going to and whether or not that AP test will earn you some credits or displace a lower level class. By the time spring AP tests come around you will likely already have admissions decisions from some colleges, so if you’re thinking the AP tests might strengthen your application, it’ll be past that point.</p>
<p>The SAT Subject Tests in the early fall is a very good idea, though.</p>
<p>Describing a class as honors or AP without a external test, like a SAT subject test or AP test to back it up, will case doubt across your whole application. The best one could do is describe the course title, contact hours, text and syllabus. Let your test scores speak to the level of the course.</p>
<p>Just as an example of how differently people can do this, though, we never included any information about contact hours. (In our case there really wouldn’t have been any practical way to keep track of that information.) Only times frames of study, like I mentioned above. Nor did we include any lengthy syllabus information. Just a simple course description such as might have been written for a course catalog, and then texts or other instructional materials used. My kids both got accepted to very selective schools/programs with just that. My son had 3 SAT subject test scores (and 1 AP score from a class he took at the high school) and my daughter had 5 SAT subject test scores and no APs.</p>
<p>So the contact hours are just the amount of time one works/worked on a subject per day/week? I tend to study a set number of pages per subject per day, so I could list something like that (although the exact no. of hours I work depends on how hard the material is, etc.)</p>
<p>Which SAT subject tests did your daughter take? I’m in a similiar situation, since I have no APs (although I have 3 A-levels).</p>
<p>Personally, I wouldn’t get into contact hours and/or pages studied per day. Everyone has their own perspective on this, but to me it seems like too much unverifiable minutia. Nearly all of what you put down is unverifiable, so for the sake of simplicity I’d recommend just giving a brief description on the content of the “course” – what you studied, what text(s) you used. </p>
<p>And, depending on your learning style, it can be near impossible to determine when the learning starts and stops. In our case, we never ever kept track of hours or pages. A “course” was completed when the topic was covered, the text was finished, the reading list was accomplished, or it was time to move on to the next level.</p>
<p>But you should, of course, do it the way you want to do it.</p>
<p>Some colleges will also want you or your parents to assign a grade. </p>
<p>My daughter took SAT Subject Tests in World History, American History, Math 1, Literature, and Latin. Along with tests of the student’s own choosing, the college she was shooting for required a math test (either level 1 or 2) for homeschoolers and also highly recommended taking a foreign language test, although it wasn’t exactly required.</p>
<p>She self-studied all those subjects except for Latin, which she did by a correspondence course.</p>
<p>She took Biology and Chemistry (not AP) at the local high school even though she was not a fully enrolled student there. Because of having external grades in those subjects she did not bother with the SAT Subject tests in them.</p>
<p>I’m going to take the Chinese AP next year, but I really don’t think I could prepare in time for the Subject Test this November. How much will it hurt my application not to have any verification (test-wise) of my level in the language? </p>
<p>I might get a recommendation from someone who’s taught me Chinese, but that won’t necessarily indicate how good I am at the subject, and this is the only foreign language I’m learning. I’d have learnt an easier language like French or even Malay (my mum’s native language), but I wanted to learn a foreign language for more reasons than just getting into college, despite how hard Chinese is said to be.</p>
<p>Well, you can only do what you can do. For schools that have a rigid foreign language requirement it might make a difference, but for others it will just be one piece of your overall transcript.</p>
<p>I think a letter from someone who has taught you is not a bad idea… even if it doesn’t give an objective score. It’s just a validation. Many students add one more recommendation to the one or two required by many colleges, kind of an extra that sheds some different light on the rest of their application. You might consider doing that – maybe not a letter that’s a full-on character recommendation, but just a letter verifying your continued (any continuing) study of Chinese.</p>
<p>Truthfully, any specific strength or deficiency you have in your transcript is going to have different weight at different schools. There is no way to say, “Not having 3 years of foreign language grades, or not having a test score, is going to hurt you by 30%, or something like that.” It varies by the school, it varies by the other elements of a student’s application.</p>
<p>The school my daughter’s going to has that language test recommendation for homeschoolers, but that’s not widely true at other colleges. And even at her college, it’s not a requirement. </p>
<p>You just can’t generalize about it, but since you also can’t change it, it’s not worth worrying about.</p>
<p>Also, taking the Chinese Subject Test is maybe a little problematic for non-nativce speakers. Since the VAST majority of students who take it are native speakers, the curve is brutal. If you look at the CollegeBoard website you’ll see that Chinese and Korean have the very highest average scores of any of the Subject Tests. (Interestingly, Lit and World History have the lowest.)</p>
<p>OK… what about my self-studying to take the APs in US History and English Language? Should I try to start studying for these as early as possible, so they don’t just look like courses that I might slack off on (I think the term is senioritis) as soon as I send in the applications or the admissions decisions come out? I won’t have taken any tests in either subject area till next year.</p>
<p>For admissions, studying AP level on your own senior year does not help too much. </p>
<p>For college credit, studying AP level on your own senior year could whack $25,000 off of your college bill.</p>
<p>It depends on the college. Many private colleges do not accept AP credits toward graduation.</p>
<p>Good point about APs senior year. My son took one AP class senior year, but didn’t bother to take the test. He’d already been accepted to his college by that point, and it didn’t accept AP credits… so there was no reason to take the test.</p>
<p>So I should check all the graduation/yearly (core curriculum) requirements at each college I’m applying to, see what credit they award for APs, and see how I can save doing courses?</p>
<p>There will likely be information on each college’s website about how they handle AP credits. Most public universities will grant credit for them. Most upper-tier private universities and LACs will not. Sometimes even those, however, they will let you place out of a lower level course based on a strong AP score. They’ll still want you to take the same number of credits to graduate as everyone else though.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if choosing a college just because they accept AP credits is a very good criterion in your case, though, because you won’t have enough to make much difference even if you do take a couple AP tests later next year. Why narrow your college search based on something with so little benefit for you? Not sure where that $25,000 dollar figure came from when you’re only talking about a maximum of 2 AP tests.</p>
<p>I’m going to choose the APs based on the colleges, not the other way around. I think I’ll end up wanting to take USH anyway, because it’s probably (though I’m really guessing here) a requirement at most colleges. I’m considering taking more than Chinese as well, though - I’m likely taking English Language and possibly taking European History and/or Psychology.</p>
<p>That makes sense. Good luck with your busy senior year!</p>