by Ilinca, Fall ‘23 Intern
“So, how will you get into college?” If you’re a homeschooling high schooler, you’ve heard that question. I did, and it worried me. Now that I've been accepted to college, I’ve learned the answer is: “Just like everyone else.” Homeschoolers have the same rate of acceptance as brick-and-mortar school students, and there generally aren’t any application requirement differences for homeschoolers. Nevertheless, the process will inevitably feel different sometimes.
Requirements
Many parts of the college application process are the same for homeschoolers and their public or private schooled peers. It was actually college essays which took the most time for me. Contrary to myth, colleges do not require homeschoolers to send in their high school diplomas or take the GED. The application forms I had to fill in were usually homeschooler-friendly. When they weren’t, articles on how to answer them abound on the internet. No college complained about my homeschool transcript or my parent-written counselor recommendation.
Deciding where to apply
The first step of college applications is choosing which colleges to apply to. First, I thought about what I wanted in a college: I wanted it to be close by, to have my major and a wide variety of others, to be co-ed, and not to be ridiculously expensive. I researched colleges (mostly through internet searches), consulted my parents, and took the opportunity to hear a variety of opinions when people asked me, “so, where will you apply to college?” (NB: Saint Emmelia’s has compiled a list of colleges that are Orthodox & homeschool-friendly. Check it out here!)
Standardized Tests
Even though most colleges are “test-optional” now, I took the SAT. It’s objective; no one could argue my score is the result of my adoring parents assigning me a good grade. Standardized tests also increase chances of getting admission or a scholarship. Finally, there was little risk involved: if I hadn’t scored well, I just wouldn’t have sent my scores. While the SAT is often given at a public school, it’s managed by the College Board, not the school system, so I had no trouble signing up as a homeschooler. I found practice tests online, and the time management I learned as a homeschooler helped me get through them. I chose the SAT over the ACT and CLT, the two other popular standardized tests options, because 1) all colleges accept it, which rules out the CLT and 2) it gives more time to answer each question than the ACT.
Letters of Recommendation
The prospect of finding letters of recommendation was concerning. How could I rival a public school kid’s arsenal of skilled recommendation writing teachers and guidance counselors? I learned that I had more wonderful teachers and other potential recommenders than I thought. My biggest trouble ended up being choosing between them! As for the guidance counselor recommendation, I found out that is technically my mom. I was definitely grateful that, throughout high school, I took classes and did activities outside my home, because that gave me the opportunity to meet the people that wrote my letters of recommendation. I would definitely recommend doing that, because it’s best if at least one of your letters of recommendation is written by someone outside your family: colleges will see that all the wonderful things your parent-counselor says are confirmed by other people.
Transcripts
While homeschoolers don’t need to hand colleges their homeschool diplomas or take the GED, they do need to send in their homeschool transcripts. Unfortunately, we didn’t realize how long this step would take, so, while we had always kept track of my classes, we procrastinated putting my transcript together until a month or two before the deadline. First, we checked state laws for transcripts on HSLDA. Because I follow a curriculum, all my classes were named and described. But when it came to actual organization, my family didn’t have experience there (I’m the oldest child), so we used Academicrecords.net, a transcript-making website. While we didn’t end up using the transcript it generated because it was rather rigid and couldn’t accommodate the high school classes I took in Middle School, it was very helpful. It brought our attention to grading scales, GPA (weighted or unweighted), class levels, and other important elements of transcript formality. We ended up using a SEM transcript template. GPA calculations turned out easier than we thought. As for choosing between a weighted or unweighted GPA, after doing our research and calling colleges to ask which they prefer, we decided to go with a weighted GPA because 1) it could highlight the higher level classes I took and 2) the colleges and scholarships I was looking at preferred it.
The Counselor Recommendation and School Report
Finally, there was the counselor recommendation and school report my mom had to write. We didn’t realize how long this would take either. Among other things, it required a letter of recommendation written by my mom, a descriptive list of all classes taken outside the home, and an explanation of our educational philosophy and grading scale. My mom and I looked through our curriculum and brainstormed together before writing. We made it clear in the school report that we are Christian and I was educated in a Christian way, even to secular schools. If a school isn't willing to put up with that, we would rather they turned us down early. But, surprisingly, it did not give us any problems. For the grading philosophy, we used the grading scale we put on the transcript. For class descriptions, I copy-pasted from my syllabuses.
Conclusion
College applications as a homeschooler were easier than I had thought based on the amount of concern homeschoolers typically receive on the topic. If I could give my past self advice, that would be:
First, make yourself a schedule, and give each piece of the application a different due date, some well before the application’s official due date. Especially with college essays, it’s tempting to “just work on it one more day,” and procrastinate the rest of the application due to unnecessary perfectionism.
Second, don’t be afraid to answer people when they ask where you want to go to college. They can give you a lot of good advice, and if they don’t, you’re not obligated to obey.
Finally, don’t worry! I was afraid to press the submit button for each college. There was still so much room for improvement! And what if ten more minutes of work spells the difference between rejection and acceptance? But really, if you worked hard on it, and checked it two or three times, go ahead and send it! Don’t worry! Admissions officers don’t expect anyone, not even homeschoolers, to have perfect applications.
If you would like to ask Ilinca questions, email us at office@saintemmelia.com. Make sure to check out our “High School & Beyond” resources!