Recently, while looking for information to satisfy my own curiosity and help a friend, I learned a few things about applying to college as a homeschool parent that make sense upon hearing, but which never occurred to me. I hope this information helps some of you. Most of what I'm sharing applies to state/secular colleges, but you can ask the Christian schools your student is applying to as well just to be sure (mainly about the weighted GPA). Often college websites will say what they want, but it is ok to call if it isn't readily findable or to double check. Websites aren't always updated promptly.
Take heart, we didn't do all of these things and the Lord worked it out wonderfully. My youngest plans to attend a Christian school, but if not, this may come in handy. If nothing else it helps explain some of the extremely high GPA's college websites report.
Let's get started!!
First things first--keep good records starting at the beginning of 9th grade. Make a binder with dividers, put the course syllabi in, and keep a few samples of course work throughout the year. Track volunteer hours (make sure to do some), music lessons, and if you are ambitious, keep a book list. This is also a great place to keep awards or a list of them (if they take the National Latin Exam, jot it down and have them input their Medal). At the end of the year, add in your grade sheets or those you printed from online schools or co-ops. This is helpful should anyone question what your student really did and for your own peace of mind. It may help them with applying for scholarships. If your student works, keep a record of when they started and how often in that notebook. It is rather silly how much time we spent, more than once, configuring the year/month my girls started working at my friend's farm! Not so for my youngest, he is keeping track sooner!
1. Contact your local high school (s) to find out how they structure their transcripts. You can do this when your student is in 9th grade and work from there, or just keep good records and call in a later year so you can arrange yours the same way. This way your transcript is competitive on the same grounds. Find out what the public school is calling their courses and adjust accordingly so it is clear what your student has taken (ie my kids did English 1 in 9th but some gov't schools call it Eng 9...so call it Eng 9). You can also rearrange the order of the classes so it is easy for colleges to see your student has done all of the same work, or more.
2. Honors classes---this has come up for many who are suddenly homeschooling because of COVID. People want their kids to continue on the same 'track' they had in public school.... If you have an academically gifted student and they are being challenged with how you are teaching, it is an honors level course most likely. The rigor of the class is what determines if it is honors. There are online schools who designate their classes in that way, which is also helpful. The bottom line is this though, if you've got a 4.0 student who did extremely well on the ACT or SAT, they've been doing honors level work for at least a few things. You are the teacher and make that determination. Just make sure their SAT/ACT reflects what you say. Don't say a student with an 950 SAT did all honors level work. Something won't add up there.
3. The GPA brings us to the next topic--weighted or unweighted. Talk to the college admissions department of the schools your student is applying to and inquire if they prefer one over the other. What do most of the applicants do? Likewise, check in with your local high schools and see what THEY are doing. If they weight the GPA's, unless a college says not to, you probably want to do that, too.
4. Not only will you want to weigh your student's GPA, but ask the local high school what CLASSES they are using to determine the GPA. Apparently the schools don't necessarily use all of the classes taken, depending on region, so it is worth asking. You want your student evaluated on the same playing field. Create different transcripts to suit what the colleges you are applying to want: weigh the GPA and then don't weigh it. That is fine to do. What can really hurt your student is to not weigh their GPA and the rest of the applicants do...so others have 4.59 and your child has a 4.0...given same SAT score: guess who is getting the bigger money?? I had never heard of this manipulation with GPA. Had I not been told this was a reality by a mom now working professionally, whose 4 kids got full tuition at a state school, I would have a hard time believing it. (college websites often post their scholarships and the average scores previous year's recipients have had. it will change from year to year, but helps give you an idea what your student can obtain.)
5. Apparently The Common Application isn't as clear as it was a few years ago. There seems to be disagreement over how much detail to include with the course descriptions. It used to be uploaded as a detailed document outlining credit hours, a summary of the classes, and where the classes were taken. Each college will access what they want, so give the Admissions Depts a call and ask what they want. Some people are now just giving a list of all the classes, some people are submitting details only for dual-enrolled classes....A larger state school in my state just wants a list of classes, but a smaller state school near that institution wants all that I just listed as well as how many hours were spent on each class. It is worth a few phone calls to ensure you are supplying what they schools want. You can also ask if what they want is different for homeschoolers than public school counterparts.
**I take note of which colleges are easier to work with and how friendly they are. For each of my students, it has not taken long to see a definitive trend with each of their 'pool' of schools. This doesn't have to reflect on the college, but over time and more than several interactions, it does leave an impression of how organized they are as an institution and the general culture. Is it a friendly place? I don't know that we'd decide against a school that was a pain for me to work with, but it is something that aids in how I feel if I send my kid to that place for 3 or 4 years.**
This is installment one of two on getting your transcript together and filling out The Common Application. Part 2 on Dual enrollment and ensuring transferability is here.
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