For homeschoolers who want to win big scholarships (and who doesn't?!), one of the most important steps to success is to provide some outside documentation of your student's abilities. Colleges can be skeptical of grades from any school, not just from a home school. They are worried about grade inflation from public schools and private schools alike. They see the general quality of education decreasing while student's grade point averages seem to be going up. They see large numbers of students coming in as freshmen who don't know how to write!
Colleges want to know what students have learned before they come to college, and they want to know if students are likely to succeed academically before they invest scholarship money in a student. That's why it's helpful to provide some outside documentation, to substantiate your own credits and grades. Every school can benefit from fidelity that's backed up with some documentation, not just home schools.
One of the best ways to substantiate your student's academic abilities is through college admission tests, the SAT and the ACT, which is one of the reasons why colleges require these tests. Both tests measure reading, writing, and math, and the ACT also measures science, so these are great ways to provide outside documentation in those areas.
High school level tests are another good way to document your student's academic ability, such as the SAT 2 subject tests, or the college level tests, the AP and the CLEP. You can also include some outside documentation from college community courses if your child is enrolled there. Sometimes you'll get outside documentation from online classes, or if you child is enrolled in a co-op courses with other homeschool students. In addition, if your child is enrolled in any public school course work, make sure to submit that as well.
It's important to remember that outside documentation isn't always done through testing; sometimes your outside documentation can come from your letters of recommendation. I like to tell the story about my best friend's son, who is a very poor test taker and has always struggled with tests. His letters of recommendation were so strong that he was admitted to the university engineering school with an excellent scholarship, even though his grade point from the community college was quite low. Remember, letters of recommendation can be the outside documentation that you need if test taking is not your student's strength.
Colleges want to know what students have learned before they come to college, and they want to know if students are likely to succeed academically before they invest scholarship money in a student. That's why it's helpful to provide some outside documentation, to substantiate your own credits and grades. Every school can benefit from fidelity that's backed up with some documentation, not just home schools.
One of the best ways to substantiate your student's academic abilities is through college admission tests, the SAT and the ACT, which is one of the reasons why colleges require these tests. Both tests measure reading, writing, and math, and the ACT also measures science, so these are great ways to provide outside documentation in those areas.
High school level tests are another good way to document your student's academic ability, such as the SAT 2 subject tests, or the college level tests, the AP and the CLEP. You can also include some outside documentation from college community courses if your child is enrolled there. Sometimes you'll get outside documentation from online classes, or if you child is enrolled in a co-op courses with other homeschool students. In addition, if your child is enrolled in any public school course work, make sure to submit that as well.
It's important to remember that outside documentation isn't always done through testing; sometimes your outside documentation can come from your letters of recommendation. I like to tell the story about my best friend's son, who is a very poor test taker and has always struggled with tests. His letters of recommendation were so strong that he was admitted to the university engineering school with an excellent scholarship, even though his grade point from the community college was quite low. Remember, letters of recommendation can be the outside documentation that you need if test taking is not your student's strength.
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