Many colleges are opening their doors to homeschool students today. While they may not have the same stringent conditions from a decade ago, they still have a bunch of requirements that your homeschooled child will have to meet. Luckily these conditions are fairly easy to meet with some amount of ground work and preparation. Here are things to consider if you want your homeschooler to end up in the college he wants.
Customized Courses
The advantage of homeschooling is that you can pick and choose what your high school student needs to learn in order to get into the college course of his choice. For instance if the child has a tendency towards History, give him course in American History, World History, Ancient History and more. Should he have a desire to learn more about Science, give him more applied science projects besides teaching the basics of the theory involved. This will ensure that his transcripts show his field of interest clearly.
Organized Transcripts
Transcripts are merely a record of all the courses that your homeschool student has completed in high school studies. They will ideally include a GPA from testing that was conducted on the student by a neutral agency. There are a number of tests that are conducted by various educational agencies. Getting in touch with your state educational board will give you access to the venues and frequencies at which these tests are conducted. Have your child tested regularly to get a good idea about where he stands among his peers.
Accurate Record Keeping
In order to verify that the transcripts are in fact a true reflection of the learning of the child, the colleges may insist on receiving the academic records of the child. This includes everything from the course name, brief description, text books used, material studied, other resources referred to, and any projects completed. Needless to say, these records need to be maintained by the homeschool teacher all through the high school years to give an accurate picture of the educational system that the homeschool student has undergone.
Speak to the college authorities about what their specific requirements are well in advance. This will allow you a couple of years to prepare all the documents required.
