With my son graduating this year and my daughter graduating next, the end of my years as a homeschool mom are fast approaching.
But people keep asking me "What are you going to do when the kids are gone?".... in a response, I do a little dance.
Aren't you sad, they say... NO I reply.
Showing posts with label college preparation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label college preparation. Show all posts
Bombarded with College Recruiting (homeschool friendly)
It is April. My son graduates in 4 weeks and we are getting bombarded with college emails and postcards...NOW.
I would have loved these back in September, when we were visiting schools and making decisions. But these correspondences at this late date are a little unfortunate. I do realize that there are some kids who have not made their first choice colleges, or who STILL have not applied at all and need to get on it now, but I feel like colleges that send recruitment material this late in the game are missing out.
So.. I guess if your homeschooled kid is still looking, I have a list of schools to consider. The solicitations we get are mostly from schools with strong Graphic Design and Art programs and/or strong Christian
I would have loved these back in September, when we were visiting schools and making decisions. But these correspondences at this late date are a little unfortunate. I do realize that there are some kids who have not made their first choice colleges, or who STILL have not applied at all and need to get on it now, but I feel like colleges that send recruitment material this late in the game are missing out.
So.. I guess if your homeschooled kid is still looking, I have a list of schools to consider. The solicitations we get are mostly from schools with strong Graphic Design and Art programs and/or strong Christian
So Here's where we are at in the whole homeschool college search
College #1 application is almost complete. He loves this college so much that we went to an open house day and they told us to apply last September, so his application has been in process for a year now. All he needs to do is submit his art portfolio to increase his scholarship chances. This college has rolling admissions, so an acceptance letter will not mean he HAS to go to THIS school if he is accepted. Our feedback so far is that his homeschool portfolio is awesome.
College #2 application is ready to go out... just waiting for the early application deadline to pass so he is not considered early enrollment as they are not his first choice, just a comparison point. While is best friend is at the school, he says that will not sway him... it will probably come down to dollars and cents.
There are a couple of other colleges that are pretty much ruled out, but he may apply to one or two of them for grins and giggles... especially the one that already sent a scholarship letter... followed by a letter inviting him to apply, no charge. It's a nice offer, but they offer NO art.... and very little graphic design. It is more of a bible college than anything else. That's great, but you'd think they would have a program for people who wanted to work in Christian media.. Christian TV, Christian websites for kids.... that sort of thing. We are going to ask about the options for filling electives at other colleges before ruling them out completely. The recruiter is kind of cracking me up. His last letter was all like.... "Yeah, we know we don't offer what you're interested in, but we're Christian and you'll get to use your camera." That's not very convincing.
As a homeschooling mom, of course I have some worries and insecurities. Have I educated him enough to be ready for college? Our experience with online public schools tells me that is ready to work on someone else's timetable. That is good. Plus he also took and passed a language arts CLEP exam worth 6 credits. So that's good. However, his ACT score was median. Period. He didn't rock the test. He didn't blow it out of the water. He did well enough to meet the median ACT score for his first choice college. His scores are very considered pretty good for the second choice and most of the other colleges too. Still, as a homeschooler, you kind of want to SHOW THEM... the doubters, you know.
A final statement and point of pride... That boy writes a mean essay. I had him ready a book about college entry essays, then write his own. It was so good I wanted to cry. sniff... very proud.
Hoping to get results soon. I don't want to be dealing with this all year.
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College #2 application is ready to go out... just waiting for the early application deadline to pass so he is not considered early enrollment as they are not his first choice, just a comparison point. While is best friend is at the school, he says that will not sway him... it will probably come down to dollars and cents.
There are a couple of other colleges that are pretty much ruled out, but he may apply to one or two of them for grins and giggles... especially the one that already sent a scholarship letter... followed by a letter inviting him to apply, no charge. It's a nice offer, but they offer NO art.... and very little graphic design. It is more of a bible college than anything else. That's great, but you'd think they would have a program for people who wanted to work in Christian media.. Christian TV, Christian websites for kids.... that sort of thing. We are going to ask about the options for filling electives at other colleges before ruling them out completely. The recruiter is kind of cracking me up. His last letter was all like.... "Yeah, we know we don't offer what you're interested in, but we're Christian and you'll get to use your camera." That's not very convincing.
As a homeschooling mom, of course I have some worries and insecurities. Have I educated him enough to be ready for college? Our experience with online public schools tells me that is ready to work on someone else's timetable. That is good. Plus he also took and passed a language arts CLEP exam worth 6 credits. So that's good. However, his ACT score was median. Period. He didn't rock the test. He didn't blow it out of the water. He did well enough to meet the median ACT score for his first choice college. His scores are very considered pretty good for the second choice and most of the other colleges too. Still, as a homeschooler, you kind of want to SHOW THEM... the doubters, you know.
A final statement and point of pride... That boy writes a mean essay. I had him ready a book about college entry essays, then write his own. It was so good I wanted to cry. sniff... very proud.
Hoping to get results soon. I don't want to be dealing with this all year.
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Homeschool Transcript Happy Dance
Just spoke to the people at my son's top choice college. They got his homeschool transcript and they like it. They really, really liked it.
Since they have rolling admissions, my son just needs to send a few more items and he will then know in 2 weeks time if he is accepted. It will feel great not to stress about college for an entire school year.
I will share more of the transcript process when I know that the process has been completely successful.
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Since they have rolling admissions, my son just needs to send a few more items and he will then know in 2 weeks time if he is accepted. It will feel great not to stress about college for an entire school year.
I will share more of the transcript process when I know that the process has been completely successful.
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Online options for high school students
I don't know if my son will get accepted for dual enrollment for fall due to his late ACT Date and the later score release date. For that reason, I have been exploring my other options for his senior year. I have found two great possibilities.
The first is Georgia Virtual School: http://www.gavirtualschool.org/
Not to be confused with Georgia Virtual Academy, Georgia Virtual School provides a teacher led, virtual classroom environment. Apparently homeschooled students have now been approved by the state to take 6-half credits each semester for free. I don't know how I feel about it because it is public school at home, and I preferred a college course, but it will help my son get his last high school requirements out of the way in one semester.
The second is BYU independent study. Kids can take college and high school level credits and the cost is cheaper than most virtual schools. It is "a distance education program that offers almost 600 university, high school, junior high school and personal enrichment courses to people throughout the world. BYU is accredited as an institution by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU). The BYU Independent Study High School Program is accredited by the Northwest Accreditation Commission (NWAC) and by the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC)." I am really intrigued by this one. Since I found out about it, I am a lot less stressed about my son's senior year. If he gets dual enrollment, great. If not, he can do a combination of CLEP exams and online study.
Is any of this even necessary?, you might ask. Well the point of doing some dual enrollment in his Sr. year is to give him a taste of what college might be like. He has taken course with teachers all along, but the last 2 years have been primarily for arts related courses. I want him ready for an intensive college level class.
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Getting Ready for Summer College Experiences
Both kids have been accepted to spend a week in summer programs at their prospective college choices. They will be participating in "summer intensives" to get a taste of the colleges. I am hoping that the experience will get them excited about ending their homeschool journey and also let them know for sure that this is the
HOPE Scholarhip, Budget Cuts, and Homeschoolers
With serious budget cuts on the horizon, there are a lot of grumblings about how the HOPE Scholarship should be cut.
It seems that most Georgians want to return the scholarship to it's original intent and draw a top income line cutting off upper income families... (they seem to forget there was also a lower income cut off too as you could not get PELL and HOPE at one time.) As a homeschooler, whose children have different and more stringent set of rules of earning the HOPE scholarship, my family would just miss that upper cut off amount and my kids would not get the scholarship if this happens. But I am not fretting over it because I am not counting on it anyway, because homeschoolers have to be beyond exceptional to get the scholarship first year anyway. Beyond that first year, my kids could get HOPE if they don't place the income restrictions, unless they use the sliding scale (also suggested), in which case my kids would probably get 80%. But regardless, come hell or high water, as my mother used to say, if my kids want to stay in college, they will figure it out... I did. ... Although I might help them more than my parents helped me.
Anywhooo... my point is this. If homeschoolers need to score in the 85th percentile (SAT approx 1800, ACT 26) to qualify for the HOPE scholarship first year, why are public school kids getting the scholarships with "B" averages only? And then, if they get the "B" average, why do they need remedial math and writing classes. HMMMM... Homeschoolers have to jump through these extra hoops because there is a fear that homeschooling moms will inflate grades. Meanwhile there is no doubt that schools are inflating grades.
Fair is Fair.
In all fairness, I propose that anyone who can get into the 75th percentile on the ACT or SAT (SAT approx 1680, ACT 24) should be eligible for the HOPE scholarship. Period. This is less than what is expected of homeschoolers... it is what should be expected of ALL students including homeschoolers.
Ok, but there are arguments that the SAT and maybe even the ACT is culturally biased. So let's make an exception. If the student does not fall into the 75th percentile on the ACT or SAT, but is in the top 25 percentile in his class based on GPA then he should also be eligible for the HOPE scholarship. This exemption would leave homeschoolers out, but we are already used to waiting a year to qualify for the HOPE scholarship, and our kids still seem to manage to pay for that first year of college.
So either 75% or higher on the SAT or ACT OR top 25% in class rank and a student could get the HOPE scholarship. These simple guidelines would eliminate any extra administration on figuring out who gets the Scholarship, and would still cut out the possibility of student who are not ready for college getting the scholarship based on inflated grades. But to be fair to those students, if they can get a 3.0 average in their Freshman year, they should also be eligible for the grant.
Just saying...
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It seems that most Georgians want to return the scholarship to it's original intent and draw a top income line cutting off upper income families... (they seem to forget there was also a lower income cut off too as you could not get PELL and HOPE at one time.) As a homeschooler, whose children have different and more stringent set of rules of earning the HOPE scholarship, my family would just miss that upper cut off amount and my kids would not get the scholarship if this happens. But I am not fretting over it because I am not counting on it anyway, because homeschoolers have to be beyond exceptional to get the scholarship first year anyway. Beyond that first year, my kids could get HOPE if they don't place the income restrictions, unless they use the sliding scale (also suggested), in which case my kids would probably get 80%. But regardless, come hell or high water, as my mother used to say, if my kids want to stay in college, they will figure it out... I did. ... Although I might help them more than my parents helped me.
Anywhooo... my point is this. If homeschoolers need to score in the 85th percentile (SAT approx 1800, ACT 26) to qualify for the HOPE scholarship first year, why are public school kids getting the scholarships with "B" averages only? And then, if they get the "B" average, why do they need remedial math and writing classes. HMMMM... Homeschoolers have to jump through these extra hoops because there is a fear that homeschooling moms will inflate grades. Meanwhile there is no doubt that schools are inflating grades.
Fair is Fair.
In all fairness, I propose that anyone who can get into the 75th percentile on the ACT or SAT (SAT approx 1680, ACT 24) should be eligible for the HOPE scholarship. Period. This is less than what is expected of homeschoolers... it is what should be expected of ALL students including homeschoolers.
Ok, but there are arguments that the SAT and maybe even the ACT is culturally biased. So let's make an exception. If the student does not fall into the 75th percentile on the ACT or SAT, but is in the top 25 percentile in his class based on GPA then he should also be eligible for the HOPE scholarship. This exemption would leave homeschoolers out, but we are already used to waiting a year to qualify for the HOPE scholarship, and our kids still seem to manage to pay for that first year of college.
So either 75% or higher on the SAT or ACT OR top 25% in class rank and a student could get the HOPE scholarship. These simple guidelines would eliminate any extra administration on figuring out who gets the Scholarship, and would still cut out the possibility of student who are not ready for college getting the scholarship based on inflated grades. But to be fair to those students, if they can get a 3.0 average in their Freshman year, they should also be eligible for the grant.
Just saying...
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Scholarships for homeschoolers.
I am working on listing 2010 Scholarhips over at Examiner.com
That got me thinking about scholarships open to homeschoolers. Here is what I found.
Homeschool.com listing of homeschool scholarships. The full ride scholarships for Alfred State College in NY caught my eye.
College Scholarships.org has a list of scholarships for homeschoolers with advice for getting access to all scholarships.
Eclectic Homeschool online lists a few as well.
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Read more Notes From a Homeschooling Mom
Visit Me at the Families.com Homeschool Blog
Visit My Education Column at Examiner.com
Check out FREE HOME EDUCATION WEBSITE for free homeschool links and resources
That got me thinking about scholarships open to homeschoolers. Here is what I found.
Homeschool.com listing of homeschool scholarships. The full ride scholarships for Alfred State College in NY caught my eye.
College Scholarships.org has a list of scholarships for homeschoolers with advice for getting access to all scholarships.
Eclectic Homeschool online lists a few as well.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Read more Notes From a Homeschooling Mom
Visit Me at the Families.com Homeschool Blog
Visit My Education Column at Examiner.com
Check out FREE HOME EDUCATION WEBSITE for free homeschool links and resources
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12 grade year of homeschooling, Finishing Strong
We are almost done with my college prep series. There will still be a video on completing the transcript. Stay tuned... meanwhile, ...
