Will this help/should this be noted?

Pre-College Issues Home Schooling and College
1

<p>I'm a homeschooler and I'm in a homeschool group that keeps records/transcripts. The homeschool group does not offer any academic classes - they offer a few elective classes that I haven't taken for years, as they're optional. However, the homeschool group is listed as a "private school." And while it is "private", it is not like the typical "private school" at all. As I said, there are no academic classes and most students aren't very high-achieving.</p>

<p>Basically:
-Very few people go to college/those that do mostly go to community college
-Students don't take AP classes</p>

<p>I'm:
-One of two students to take AP classes online (other being sister), and I took seven AP tests this year and will take several AP classes and tests next year
-Will be the second student to apply to Top 25 schools (one person will be attending a highish-ranked LAC, about tenth or so, I think, in the fall)</p>

<p>I doubt those things will matter too much, but is it something that I should request my guidance counselor note? I just don't want to make it look like I've gone to this rigorous private school where opportunities have been handed to me really easily. Everything I've done has been because I sought it out myself. The group actually let two seniors graduate who flunked Algebra I twice (and that's the highest level of math they got to). So the academic standards are...not high at all. Of course, the guidance counselor would never put that in a letter to colleges, but would it help to show colleges that I'm not surrounded by really high-achieving people? I just want to make sure that it's clear that it really is rare among my peers to apply to good schools, take AP classes, etc., and that it's not something a ton of people do, like at other "private schools."</p>

2

<p>There is a whole forum devoted to Home Schooling issues here. You may want to take a look at it. Click on “Discussion Home” in the upper left of this screen and then scroll down until you find it.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

3

<p>Your situation sounds somewhat like ours at one time. Unfortunately, our “private school” really messed up our first child’s transcript and application packet and really had no idea of how to work with admissions in selective colleges. We ended up withdrawing from the private school…was a real mess for our daughter who was in the middle of her college applications to very selective LAC’s. Classifying ourselves as homeschoolers for our second child this year was much smoother.</p>

<p>That said, and this is base on only our miserable experience, I would ask a few questions. Check your transcript now (if your school creates it) to make sure that your AP work is properly noted. If your courses are labeled as AP on your transcript, your private school should acknowledge the online institution that provided the coursework because of the need to have AP curriculum properly approved. (Ours absolutely refused to do this). </p>

<p>Since you are taking AP courses from another online institution, that institution should send a transcript with your AP coursework to verify your homeschool/private school transcript. Our online AP providers had transcripts and one had a school profile of its own. Our private school did not want us to even request these outside transcripts. Grrrr.</p>

<p>Does your private school have a school profile? Ours did not–didn’t even know what it was. A school profile would give a description of the school, show where other graduates were matriculating, typical test scores, availability of courses, etc. If they do have a school profile, your advanced coursework should be apparent to colleges. Your private school should acknowledge that your coursework can be derived from multiple sources, including other online high schools. Our private school was trying to be (and legally it was) equivalent to all other private scbhols in our state–even the top prep schools. Not having a school profile was a glaring omission from the guidance packet, as we learned from one top college.</p>

<p>Do you know your guidance counselor? When my kids had the umbrella school counselor, they never met her face to face. I sent in monthly reports to the school, but I don’t know if they were examined or not. In fact, she didn’t know what AP coursework was. Unfortunately, becuase the counselor was neither familiar with my kids and their coursework, or the kinds of schools they were applying to, she could not really write a decent letter. Ditto for the midyear reports, even though I personally created one for the school. She could check off boxes on the guidance forms provided with the common application, but she did not write a separate guidance letter. I know this happens in all kinds of schools, but we feel it was a real problem in my daughters case because the school itself is a complete unknown. </p>

<p>The bottom line for us was that our private school viewed itself as so private that it wanted to isolate itself and my children from the real world of college admissions. I’m sure we had a freak(y)! case and you will be okay, but definitely ask questions before you start applying as a private school applicant. I’d think it would be best that they openly emphasize everything you have done to exceed their expectations whether traditional (like the AP work) or non-traditional (homeschooling).</p>