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College Application for Homeschoolers

© ML Arthur

So you've spent the last bunch of years being homeschooled -- learning at home with your family, or in small groups of like-minded families. You've honed your skills for individual inquiry, developed a passion you wish to pursue, and now you are ready for college. It is your chance to step out and shine in a bigger educational setting. What do you do?

Just like any other college applicant, you must decide where you want to apply. The same questions and concerns will drive you. Small or large? Rural, urban, or in a stereotypical college town? A school for jocks, artists, service workers, scholars, or party animals? Public or private? Near home or far away? The questions go on and on. But you have a special challenge. The transition from the type of education you have been receiving as a homeschooler to the college environment is more profound than the difference between the average highschooler's classes and the ones they experience upon coming to college. Do you want to minimize the shock and choose a small college filled with like-minded people (Patrick Henry College -- http://www.phc.edu, in Virginia, is a small Christian college geared at Christian homeschoolers, for example), or do you want to take the plunge and experience something as different as can be (like the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor -- http://www.umich.edu, with its 75,000+ students)?

Many colleges are exited to have homeschoolers apply. Admissions officers tend to see homeschoolers as self-directed people who really know what they want and who will get as much as possible out of the college experience. However, they are at the same time skeptical of individual homeschooled applicants. The admissions office does not know anything about the educational standards of your "high school" -- for regular public, private, and parochial school applicants they have much more information. Therefore, you can expect to do significantly more work on your application than the average applicant. Even if you apply to a college with an optional standardized test policy, you will likely be expected to take the SAT or ACT as well as at least 3-4 Subject Tests (in writing, math, a foreign language, and a science -- and sometimes even more!) You will have to submit a detailed description of your college preparatory curriculum, including the subjects you studied, for how long you studied them, and a bibliography of textbooks. Some colleges ask for additional essays, more samples of academic work, and supplementary letters of recommendation as well. It also may be especially important for you to have an in-person interview with an admissions officer or an alumni representative, as many people worry that homeschoolers will be less personable than other students.

The copyright of the article College Application for Homeschoolers in Higher Education is owned by ML Arthur. Permission to republish College Application for Homeschoolers in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.