Will admissions dismiss a high GPA if it's from a homeschool student?

Pre-College Issues Home Schooling and College
21

My advice is to make sure you meet the suggested coursework outlined on a range of college admission pages. Many colleges require (or strongly recommend 2-3 years of foreign language) and 4 years of math, science and English. Your comment about Latin I is a little worrisome depending on the colleges you wish to attend. Foreign language credits are often expected for college admissions.

You need to be prepared to show how you have met these suggested requirements. I am not a homeschooler, but I don’t think showing this type of info is difficult for homeschooled students. There are likely some experts on this forum who can advise you. GPAs are hard to compare within the same high school, so you don’t need to over worry about your GPA. The colleges will assess you according to their own standards.

You should start preparing for the SAT and/or ACT. Do not put this off until your senior year. Best wishes. And kudos for planning ahead.

22

I’m sure the OP’s registered classes, grades, and test scores will speak for themselves. (I assume with those straight As in mostly AP classes that the OP has very high test scores and mostly 5’s on the AP exams…) My objection was simply that the OP wanted to compare a GPA which counts an outside ungraded sports activity for credit but choosing not to include an unweighted grade for it on the GPA, to students who must receive an unweighted grade for filling their PE requirements. This is not a valid comparison of weighted grades, since the courses being chosen to include are different. Also, many schools do not offer honors language classes. Our school doesn’t consider any foreign language below level 4 to be “honors”. The same applies to art–students are usually required to have 2-3 years of unweighted art on their transcripts before they are allowed to enroll in AP. The OP asked " if a traditional student had that same GPA, would it be seen as more impressive? " and my answer, which I stand by, is that the questions is meaningless because most traditional students cannot attain that GPA because they cannot pick and choose what to include in their GPA.

23

Much of what I said above also applies to comparisons between schools. The main purpose of weighted GPA’s is to compare students within the same school to determine class rank. Once you change the rules about weighting, (and by the way OP, you are mistaken that everyone uses the same weighting system that you are using), and once you fiddle with how many credits are available (eg. 6 vs 7 vs 8 courses) and with whether classes are able to be taken pass/fail, and whether classes may be excluded from the GPA, and whether honors languages are available, and with the number of non-weighted required classes, it quickly becomes meaningless to compare weighted GPAs between schools and quite often even within schools.

I really would not worry about weighted GPA–since you aren’t in a school which ranks there is no purpose to it. I think your classes will be taken seriously because they are from outside sources and they will be well validated with the number of AP/college classes you are apparently taking. You should also be aware that grades in many high schools are pretty inflated. Straight As are not uncommon. Look at the GPAs of admitted students to some selective colleges.

24

@mathyone I agree with your last post. I also think that GPAs are often recalculated eliminating grades for PE, etc. I only give P/F grades for courses like that. But, I don’t weight.

25

This discussion is actually why I never really believe colleges who say that GPA is the most important criteria in assessing students, home schooled or not. Standardized test scores are in reality weighted more heavily at very selective schools because they can’t really compare GPAs across students.

26

With rampant grade inflation what else can they do? The kids in the top 10% of our graduating class basically all have straight As and the differences in their GPAs are due to whether they took study halls and how active they were in the arts and even which arts those were–for instance, kids in band take an additional GPA hit which other performers don’t because they get credit for marching.

27

We’ve gone through college application process twice and feel that the GPA (W or UW) is necessary, but useless. From feedback we’ve received from multiple schools, our kids’ ACT/SAT scores, personal essays, personal interviews, and recommendation letters have been more helpful.

Right now, our D2 is reaching for a few elite universities and we feel she submitted a strong application. Good enough? Don’t know, but we placed ourselves, as best we could, in the shoes of an admissions officer and tried to provide the information he or she would need to evaluate our D. In appropriate documents, we provided details about our curriculum and described our evaluation process. We also composed a narrative transcript, which some schools accept and others do not. (Always, always ask before submitting non-standard documentation.) This took hours and hours of our time, but it was the only way we could see that would give our D a chance against another student who is competing for the same spot but graduating from a high school with a known reputation for excellence.

I suggest researching the colleges you wish to attend and begin preparing to meet their expectations as a homeschooler. You also may want to visit some homeschooling forums (Well Trained Mind immediately comes to mind) where there are many examples from parents about how to showcase a homeschool for a college application. For example, you mentioned you are homeschooling because private is too expensive, but public school choices are poor. I’ve read of a few homeschoolers including this type of information in their community section of their School Profile.

You are in a good spot because you are asking these questions now. Good luck!

28

Thank you all for your input!

I understand that being homeschooled, standardized testing is important. Although they’re certainly in the minority, I’m sure that there are homeschoolers out there who /do/ take advantage of their status and manipulate their grades and applications. Standardized test scores are a way for me to basically “prove” my grades.

I see where you’re coming from @mathyone, one of the reasons I was pulled from public school was because my parents were disgusted that, in 8th grade, more than half of my school earned principal’s honor roll. So, I certainly understand when you say that straight A’s aren’t uncommon.

And @txstella, I am well aware of those requirements! I plan on taking at least one more year of foreign language before the end of my senior year. We are also trying to be very aware of what is expected of the colleges that I plan on applying to. (My state says high schoolers only have to take up to Pre-Calc, and as a future STEM major, most schools expect me to have taken higher level math courses)

I have been homeschooled for a lot of my life, and I admit that I’m not fully used to it yet! I’m only a year and a half away from (hopefully) attending university, so I’m really starting to feel the heat! I’m kind of a self-conscious person, and I compare myself to others a lot when it comes to education. It’s really kind of hard to do that when you come from a non-traditional situation! Even so, all that I can do is continue to work hard and hope for the best.

29

You need to look at foreign language expectations of colleges you like. 3 years is probably about the minimum.

“my parents were disgusted that, in 8th grade, more than half of my school earned principal’s honor roll” Hmm. I would have been happy that apparently more than half of the kids were doing their homework. I also wouldn’t judge a high school by the middle school. Most of our middle school classes are a waste of time but the high school is reasonably good.

30

Lots of interesting answers already.

My answer to OP’s question: No, admissions won’t dismiss a high GPA if you have other stuff to back it up. My oldest had a 4.0/4.84 GPA as a homeschooled, dual-enrolled student. He had plenty to back that GPA up.

Middle son, by mid-year of sophomore year, had a 3.84/4.41 GPA as a homeschooled, dual-enrolled student.

Both kids got into highly selective schools. Oldest was a much stronger candidate, but I guess middle son had enough “stuff” to be of interest to schools.

OP, sounds like you’ve got lots of strong qualities. You should be fine!

(And regarding foreign language: my oldest had two semesters of community college Arabic for his foreign language and my middle son had only one semester of community college Italian. Here in California, first semester foreign language at a community college is worth two years of high school. My boys were very weak in foreign language, particularly my middle son, but he did have a unilateral hearing loss for which he had surgery and a hearing aid fitting, so we put off foreign language until his senior year. He’d planned to take another semester of Italian, but he disliked it so much, he took Animation II at the college instead and took his chances)

31

OP, are you saying you only have one year of foreign language? Check the requirements for the colleges you’re interested in; many require three. So I’d definitely take that second year of Latin, and maybe see if there’s a way to sneak in a third before you graduate.

Not that those colleges would be completely off the table if you don’t get three years of foreign language, but you’d probably be at a disadvantage compared to the next applicant who has taken the FL requirement.

32

I don’t recommend the route my middle son took in regards to foreign language (taking only one semester of college Italian), but thankfully, it didn’t seem to hurt him in admissions. Northeastern Univ. requires three years, but my son got in anyways, so some colleges seem to have a little leeway on their requirements.

33

3 years of foreign language can be a college requirement (= 6 HS semesters, though I bet many colleges would accepts 3 semesters of college language).

Here’s the thing: if you have the dedication and ability to homeschool your children, you have to address college readiness in 8th grade. Everything up to 8th grade is near meaningless, barring state or national level awards or college courses.

Have your homeschooled 8th grader pick out five colleges, and the parent picks five colleges. Have a project to review the requirements for entering freshmen. Then plan out four years of high school.

As for the OP, if she really is missing anything “vital”, it’s not too late to have a PG (post-graduate) year of homeschool high school and take whatever she needs in whatever way works for her. Honestly, at this point, if she is a senior, why not call some admissions offices and flat out ask if she meets their minimum requirements?

And the OP got something dreadfully incorrect, she said:

“We weigh my GPA just like everyone else does, adding a .5 to Honors classes and 1 to AP classes.”

THIS IS NOT CORRECT. Here are several examples I am aware of:

  • 4.0 for regular, 5.0 for honors, 6.0 for AP
  • 4.0 for regular, 5.0 for honors and AP (clearly different than the first)
  • 4.3 for regular, 5.0 for honors and AP (essentially penalizing honors and AP students)
  • 4.0 for regular, 4.5 for honors, 5.0 for AP (what the OP said)

I am also aware that some schools will not add weighting at all, and only have an unweighted GPA available.

OP should find out what each program she took “official” (non-self-study, non-parent-taught) high school courses with uses for their weighting. If they don’t recommend weighting, I would suggest only providing an unweighted GPA and making sure each course is clearly listed as honors or AP as appropriate.

Also - did OP take the AP exams for the AP courses she took? That matters too.

Good luck, and realize you still have some choices and information is key (not info from us, from college admissions offices).

All IMHO except the “NOT CORRECT” part - that’s all over CC and many other places, in addition to my own experience. And that, OP, is why so many colleges calculate their own GPAs for applicants, sometimes just to isolate academic GPA and sometimes to put in their own weighting.

(homeschooling is nothing to apologize for, I would do it if I could afford it, and we do a small amount of online homeschooling to supplement public school)

34

@rhandco Yes, saying “like everyone else does” was probably a bit of an overstatement – everyone weighs GPA differently. In my personal experience both on this website and in brick-and-mortar school, we do it in one of the most common ways. I’ve spoken with guidance counselors at these places and since I’m homeschooled, a lot of them don’t really feel comfortable telling me how to weigh my GPA. They say that as a homeschool student, my parents determine all of that for me. (For what it’s worth, many of them also suggested the 4.0, 4.5, 5.0 scale)

I have taken AP exams, and I’ve gotten at least a 4 on each one I’ve taken.

35

Personally, I do believe that admissions view home schooled grades as inferior, even if they are taken through reputable sources. Of course, try to get the best grades possible through real courses, but understand that you will probably need to “prove” your grades by taking additional standardized tests. I would highly recommend taking several SAT II tests in different areas because colleges will really want to see these scores from a home schooler. In fact, many colleges require SAT II scores from home schooled students. I would suggest taking the Math 2 subject test, any science, and then whichever subjects you feel comfortable with.

36

What might help in your case is to have standardized test scores and grades from community college to back up the grades on your transcript. I did not weight the grades for my kids because when I talked to the universities, they said that they unweight the scores. My middle dd had a 4.0 GPA from me. She also had a 4.0 GPA from the 35 credit hours she took through dual enrollment at the community college. If I had weighted her grades, she would have had a weighted GPA as high as yours. She received a full tuition scholarship from her university. She is graduating in May, one full year early, with a double major in speech pathology and child learning and development and still has not received a grade lower than A-.

My youngest doesn’t have as impressive of a transcript due to dyslexia and a medical condition that causes her to be in pain all the time. However, she still has a 3.8 GPA at home and a 4.0 at the community college for dual credit. She just got notice that she got into her number one pick. Her number two and number three picks aren’t posting yet.

I do recommend taking dual credit classes if you can. In my area, they are very affordable because anybody who lives in the taxing district for the community college can take up to 12 dual credit classes at no charge starting at the end of 10th grade. I know that isn’t true in all areas.