by Juliana, Summer ‘24 Intern
For many homeschooled students, the prospect of college after high school is one shrouded in doubt, anxiety, and very realistic financial concerns. The potential culture shock inherent in going from being a teenager on the somewhat-sheltered scale to becoming a college student is a bit scary. But more important is the knowledge that most four-year universities will require you to shell out ridiculous amounts of money for basic courses like English and Biology, even if they haven’t got any direct relevance to your major. In this article, I will expound upon the possibilities open to homeschoolers for obtaining college credit while still in high school and give some advice based on my personal college-in-highschool experience.
Let me start with AP courses. They are probably the best-known of all the options out there, due to their popularity. The end-of-year exams have both free-response and multiple-choice questions (the language exams often have speaking and listening portions, and the computer science exams, naturally, have a programming portion, but those are in the minority). In order to obtain credit, you will need to 1) take and pass the course at an accredited school (online or brick-and-mortar), 2) sign up for your exam on time (usually by October; if you call your local public school, they will often allow you to take the exam there. If no students there are taking it, you can offer to pay the proctoring fee), 3) show up for and take the exam, and 4) pass with a 3 or higher.
A 3 is generally considered a passing score, although some colleges will only accept a 4 or 5 for credit purposes. Regardless of your score (or whether you even took the exam!), having an AP course on your high school transcript is indicative of high performance and motivation, as the entire course is college-level material (usually, one college semester spread out over two high school semesters). It also is an example of how Exams. Are. Your. Best. Friend. (I say this a lot, so prepare to read it many, many more times!) There is absolutely no way for a doting parent to give you an A and a passing score of 4 on your AP Biology exam just because they felt like you “put in lots of effort,” or “deserved the credit.” It simply cannot happen. When a college (or anyone you want to impress, for that matter) sees that A and a 4, they know that it represents the willingness to put in hours of hard work, as well as a strong work ethic and good test-taking skills. There’s no way to fake it. Homeschoolers’ achievements are often doubted. Yes, it’s gotten better since the ‘80s, when my mom and her sister were asked basic math questions in public, but many people are still very skeptical. Having a solid grade in literally anything from a trusted institution (whether it’s an accredited school, the College Board, or any university) cannot be made up and will help you tremendously.
But I digress – can you tell I’m very passionate about this subject?
The next set of exams I want to tackle are the CLEP exams. These are mostly multiple choice (a few also include an essay portion) exams that, like the APs, are offered by the College Board. Most public schools do not offer them, but because you can study at home (at your own pace!) and take the exam itself at your local community college, they are amazing for homeschoolers. For no money, you can obtain an exam prep book and a video course from Modern States Alliance, a nonprofit that helps college students finish their freshman year for free. If you finish all the videos and exercises with a high enough grade, Modern States will cover the testing fee (tip: there are 5 options for each question and you get 5 attempts, so you should be good! Just, you know, remember what your previous answers were). You will have to pay a proctoring fee, though: in my experience, it’s usually between $15 and $40. CLEP exams are great because you can treat them like the final exam for a course that you did entirely at home. For instance, when I was doing US History, my parents were really the only instructors. They picked out a textbook, had me take notes & answer comprehension questions, and picked out supplemental reading. Once I neared the end of the school year, I worked with the Modern States Alliance book to fill in any gaps in my knowledge, took practice tests, and was able to walk into the testing center and pass the exam. It’s awesome if you want to make your history / biology / psychology course fun and interesting with an added layer of credibility (and, of course, avoid harmful and/or radical moral ideas that might be pushed in some classrooms). Plus, you might get some gen-ed courses out of the way! Win win.
I should note here that many four-year colleges do not accept CLEP exams; I think this might be in part due to the fact that they are mostly just multiple choice, and thus, without the free response portion, are inherently easier. However, most community colleges (more on those later!) do accept them. And, even if a college won’t accept your, say, CLEP Biology exam, it’s a great thing to have on your transcript, and says a lot about you that you passed that exam in high school. Like I said: Exams are your friend.
The third method for obtaining college credit in high school is DE, or Dual Enrollment. This is a fancy way of saying that you take a class through a university that counts as a high school class as well. So basically – double the credit!
There are two main ways to do this. The first is to enroll in an online class from a school that has a partnership with an accredited university. Online schools like the CLRC, the Potter’s School, and Veritas Press will sometimes team up with a college so that a class you take through them also counts as a college level class through that specific university. For instance, I took an English class through Veritas Press, which collaborates with Cairn University. Once I’d finished, I had, for all intents and purposes, completed 1) a high school English course, and 2) an junior-level English class at Cairn University.
The second way to obtain dual enrollment credit is to enroll in a class directly through a university. Yes, that’s right, you’ll be going to a real classroom, with a real teacher, and classmates in real life! I know it sounds scary, but honestly, take it from me: You’ll be fine. Some states have programs where homeschooled students are allowed to take courses at local universities, but this is not universal; check to see what is available in your area. However, many community colleges allow homeschooled students to take classes there – often for free or a discounted price. This is a really nice deal if you want to get the credit, but don’t want to do every single course at home.
All of the on-ground community college classes I have taken so far have followed the format of 1-2 days on campus per week. This means that you have your lecture/lab/exam/ whatever else you’re doing, receive your assignments for the following meeting, and disperse. If you were homeschooled for all or much of your academic life, this probably sounds rather familiar. As I had self-studied and done online classes for all of high school, the academic transition to community college was not too difficult.
The following link leads to a list of all the resources I’ve mentioned in this article, information on several online schools based on my personal experience, and some other resources you might find useful. Please do note that this is anecdotal evidence; it might not hold true for you, but then again, it might be helpful. Also – please be aware that I haven’t personally checked all of the content on these websites, so if you come across anything inappropriate or blasphemous, I don’t condone it – do avoid it!
I will update this list as I have time and come across more potential resources.