Hello everyone,
I am a homeschooled junior and have a projected 3.83 gpa. I am so worried that I will not receive scholarships because I do not have AP or Honors courses. I am not aiming for Ivy League or top-tier schools, but at the schools I am looking at, I am hoping to get full tuition scholarships. I also do not have many ECs (I have 2 years of involvement with a choral group). Here are the classes I will have at the end of this year:
English- 4 years
Math- Algebra I&II, geometry, and PreCalculus
Science- Biology, Chemistry, A&P, and Physics
Social Studies- World Geography, World History, American History, US Government, Economics
Foreign language- Spanish I and ASL I&II (American sign language counts as a foreign language in my state)
+Electives
I am aiming for AT LEAST a 30 ACT when I take it in April. Will my lack of ECs/AP/Honors hurt my chances?
You’re helping me on my thread so I’ll help you out here 
! A lack of EC’s is tough. You can have the highest GPA at the most selective high school in your county and not get into a good college if you don’t have any EC’s. Since you spent 2 years with a choral group you shouldn’t be too bad. I would suggest getting a part time job, doing a sport, and/or volunteering somewhere. You are home schooled so they will take that into account. Since you aren’t aiming for a top tier college/universities AP/Honors classes aren’t as important. But having NO honors/ap classes is pretty tough. I would suggest taking an honors/ap or 2 over the summer, and having a slightly more challenging senior year. That, combined with a few EC’s and a high ACT should be pretty good, but I don’t know which colleges you’re looking at so I can’t be entirely sure.
Homeschooled (this post) or really small school (other post)?
Here’s the thing: “full tuition scholarships” are either: 1) financial aid from colleges that say they “meet full financial need” AND agree that you need full tuition (their evaluation of your finances, not yours) OR 2) merit aid from colleges that give full rides for meeting particular metrics- typically either like U Alabama Huntsville, which gives full tuition for certain SAT or ACT scores, or a small number of extremely competitive named scholarships for superstar high achievers (like UNC’s Robertson Scholarship). A 30 ACT (by the standards of scholarships) will hurt you more than not having APs or ‘Honors’ classes.
The reason for the question as to homeschooled or really small school is that colleges evaluate you in the context of your environment. If you are in a really small school that doesn’t offer APs or Honors classes, then they don’t hold that against you. If you are homeschooled you would want to address why no APs or DE when you are addressing why no ECs (which are often a particular strength of home-schooled students).
@collegemom3717 Well I’ve had a bit of a complicated situation when it comes to school lol. I’ve been homeschooled most of my life (through sophomore year) so I didn’t have the honors or AP during those years and that was making me worried (they just weren’t a big thing around most homeschoolers we knew because the classes were challenging (like honors level, but you couldn’t count them as honors…) Then this year, I went to a really small school (25ish kids in my graduating class and that was the largest class in the school), but I’m finishing this year homeschooled because it was not challenging me academically and again, did not really have hardly any honors/AP (I came back after midterms late January). I might go back next year to take some classes though (I’m still involved some at the school). But because I was at a school where I would not have been able to dual-enroll, I missed that opportunity this year. So would you suggest taking some honors/AP over the summer and dual enrolling/taking AP next year? And do you have any suggestions for how to get in some good ECs at this point?
Btw, I will edit the other post so that there won’t be any more confusion. Thanks!
Note: the colleges I’m considering are small colleges that are not very competitive at all; that’s why around a 30-32 ACT would suffice.
Why don’t you have AP and honors if you are homeschooled? Typically you’re free to choose your curriculum.
The answer to this question matters.
If you’re dual enrolled in a community college then that’s fine. DE counts as equivalent to AP in rigor.
ECs: they mostly matter at top tier schools and depending on the answer to the question above, you may not qualify. So you have a job in addition to the choral group? Are you active in a church/temple/mosque? Belong to the scouts? atxh an elderly relative or take care of siblings while parents are at work? What do you do when you’re not studying?
That being said, if you’re aiming for merit scholarships (such as UAH’s, UTD AES…) what matters is your ACT score. And for the rare full tuition scholarships there are, a 30 will often not cut it.
Talk with your parents: how much can they afford from income and savings? If the answer is ‘nothing’ is their EFC zero? (Look up FAFSA forecaster).
@MYOS1634 I wish I would have, but throughout middle school and the 1st half of high school I was in a homeschool group that had classes that were the equivalent of honors, but you can’t count them as honors on a transcript. And no homeschoolers I knew did “honors” or “AP”, so it wasn’t as much on my radar until I had already completed quite a few classes (I started receiving hs credit in 8th grade), so time got away from me. And the only way I could have done the higher levels (AP/honors) was if I did online classes, and they get expensive. With dual enrollment, I haven’t yet because of my circumstances this year (explained in previous comment).
I do a lot of babysitting and I’m involved in the choral group. I would do more ECs, but they get really expensive and I don’t have clubs or anything that I can join, so it all adds up. And I have to pay for all my ECs because my parents cannot afford it. Our EFC is most definitely zero.
My goal is definitely to get a higher ACT score than 30-32, but around there is the minimum for some of the scholarships to the schools I am looking at (they are NOT top tier and are very small–most people would not have heard of them). And some of them are just based on stats, but for the ones that aren’t I want to make sure I have at least a few ECs and things. So if I focus primarily on my ACT- for the merit based ones- and add on some higher level classes, will I be okay?
So the key focus is finding a way to pay for college, either through need-based aid and/or merit scholarships?
The college ‘scholarships’ that you are worried about (the straight stats ones you will either have the numbers or not) - can you give us an example or two?
If your homeschool classes were honors level, your parents can call them honors, as long as you have syllabi and reading list to back they up. Your parents are supposed to verify the transcript and have kept the materials used.
Is there a community college nearby that runs on quarters rather semesters? You may be able to enroll for a class or two there for Spring Quarter. Dual enrollment community college classes count as equivalent to AP in rigor.
In any case you should be able to take two such classes this summer.
An EC doesn’t have to be a group thing. It can be anything you spend time on outside of class.
If you spend a lot of time baby-sitting for instance they would count. Having a blog counts. Teaching yourself the guitar counts. Anything religious activity also counts.
Wrt the small colleges you’re referring to: you must have other universities on your list. Criteria for scholarships change all the time. You cannot count on these small schools and must look at others - other small colleges known for good need based aid and good merit scholarships (Ursinus, Muhlenberg, Beloit, Kalamazoo, Lewis and Clark…) plus state directionals.
@collegemom3717 Yes, that is the main goal. Because a lot of the colleges I would like to go to are insanely expensive–and don’t give hardly any aid– I’ve had to focus on scholarships at schools that are not as competitive. My stats/ECs are not good enough to get into good colleges that have really good need-based aid. One example would be Harding University’s Trustee’s scholarship. The requirement is a 31 on the ACT and interview. But it is given to a large number of incoming students, not just one or two like a lot of colleges. And even if I only got a 30 on the ACT, I still have a chance to get decent scholarships at other universities.
@MYOS1634 Okay cool, my parents have kept good track of my work, so that might be possible. And I guess I do have a few more ECs than I previously thought, but still not many.
I am not at all into the state school environment, so smaller colleges are the best option for me. I have considered larger, public universities too, and plan on applying to both types of colleges. And plus I still have several universities that are financially safe schools, even without aid. I am planning on applying to a lot of colleges so I have options, w/ or w/o aid
Thanks for all the help!! I really appreciate it