Preparing for college can be intimidating when your education has been unconventional. Homeschoolers are regularly admitted to and thrive in colleges and universities across the US. Here are some resources that will help you prepare your student for both the application process and college life.
7 Key Questions to Ask a College Admissions Officer - You've heard, endlessly, about the high level of competition for plum spots at state universities and big name colleges alike. Increasingly, being selected for admission is about standing out. How can you “shine” at those upcoming college fairs, college nights, and college interviews?
A Project for Your Homeschooled Teen - Here’s an interesting project to try with your teenager. Look up the career field he or she is most interested in right now (yes, this is likely to change, but let’s go with the current choice). Find out how much on average that field is likely to pay your teen, and how likely it is that your teen will be able to find work in that field.
Enjoy It While You Have It! - Writing my book Life Prep for Homeschooled Teenagers four years ago helped me through a difficult time of my life: letting go of our two oldest children. Over the course of three weeks, our daughter moved to the city and our son left for college. After homeschooling them all of their lives, it was a tough transition for me.
Helping Colleges to Choose YOU - I realize that many of you reading this letter may not have high school age children or maybe even college bound students. My hope is that the information that is included in these college information articles will be helpful to all our students. The ideas included could apply to most jobs as well. After all, a college is a student's job for a few years!
Will Secular College Undo What You Have Done? - One of our purposes in homeschooling is to prepare our children for "their futures stations in life" - whatever those may be, and which will obviously involve many different kinds of "preparation," depending on what the specific "future station" will be. This may or may not include college - Christian or secular. Any way you look at it, they will be going out into "the world" which is full of ungodly influences.
In a Class by Themselves - Article in Stanford's alumni magazine about several homeschool students at the university as well as some details about Stanford's homeschool admissions policy.
Accredited Online Degrees -
If your students are interested in obtaining a college degree but will not be "going away" to school, this list of online colleges offering accredited degrees will be of interest to you. The site explains how online degree programs work as well as lists
And What About College? : How Homeschooling Can Lead to Admissions to the Best Colleges & Universities - Book by Cafi Cohen, Patrick Farenga (Editor)
Homeschool-friendly Colleges - Listings of colleges and universities that are homeschool-friendly; schools are listed by state. Not as complete as the listing at Learn in Freedom.
Homeschool2College Group - If you have a child that will be making the transition from homeschool to college in the near future, this very active Yahoo Group may help with some of your questions. "This is a group for homeschool parents to freely discuss issues related to preparing
Homeschoolers' College Admissions Handbook: Preparing Your 12- to 18-Year-Old for a Smooth Transition - Book by by Cafi Cohen, Linda Dobson (Editor)
List of diploma mills and unaccredited colleges - Although this page is geared toward Oregon, its list of unaccredited colleges and diploma mills is useful no matter what state you are from.
National Junior Scholarship College Fair - "Each year NCSAA hosts three online Christian college fairs... Our spring event is specifically designed for high school juniors, and we’ll award one valuable scholarship to the Christian college of the junior’s choice. The timing of this fair coincides nicely with the time when most juniors begin to more seriously begin investigating and considering their options for college. Participating students in this fair can access easy-to-use tools to learn about and receive registration materials for college visitation days. These online college fairs are FREE for students and schools; there is no cost or obligation involved in participating in the events."
Selective Colleges That Have Accepted Homeschoolers - "More than 1,000 schools of higher education appear on this FAQ and its subpages, and links to over 980 college Web sites appear on these pages."
Senior High: A Home-Designed Form+u+la - Book by Barb Shelton of Homeschool Oasis; great for preparing your child for life after high school