Homeschooling and the Transition to College

It seems ludicrous now, but when I first began homeschooling, one question that arose was, "What about college?" My oldest child at the time was barely seven years old, and college seemed a long way off to me. Besides, I had other things to worry about, such as how I was going to manage to teach anything—never mind college-preparatory academics—to my precocious second grader when I also had an inquisitive four-year-old and a rambunctious one-year-old (not yet weaned) who were constantly vying for my attention.

I decided early on that we'd just have to take it one day at a time. We'd think about college "later." Still, the question of "What about college?" nagged me, especially when well-meaning friends or family members asked it.

So, when I had a spare moment to myself, I researched the topic. I started by reading Homeschooling for Excellence by David and Micki Colfax (1988). The book came to me highly recommended, and the authors wrote—without seeming to brag—about how three out of four of their children were accepted into Harvard after being homeschooled. (Not just accepted: I found out they went on to become doctors and lawyers. One of them is even a doctor and a lawyer.)

While the book reassured many who had doubted whether homeschooling could ever lead to college, personally I was overwhelmed and intimidated by it. It gave me an inferiority complex the size of the moon. The Colfaxes were incredibly industrious homesteaders: they built their own home from scratch, wired the power lines to it, grew their own food, and cleverly incorporated math and science lessons into practically everything they did.

Are you kidding me? No wonder their kids were accepted into Harvard!

It's time for me to confess: the closest our family ever came to building a house was banging a pile of boards together to create a modest tree fort (with heartfelt thanks to my husband for making that happen). On a good day, we were able to sprout beans between two paper towels, or keep a few "sea monkeys" alive, but we weren't exactly capable of self-sufficiency.

If our family had had to rely on our meager garden for food, we definitely would have starved to death.

Luckily for us, the ability to transition from homeschooling to college depends on more than "life skills." While my kids might be glad they learned how to knit, sew, cook and do their own laundry, it's unlikely those skills are what helped them get into college. As far as I can tell, the acceptance process seems to be all about extraordinary achievements and academic credentials, sprinkled with a little luck and storytelling ability.

In a recent article about "Highly Selective College Admissions for Homeschoolers" (from HomeschoolSuccess.com), homeschoolers are reminded that "competition is fierce" and "the fact that homeschooling is great and your kid is homeschooled isn’t enough." If your student is aiming for a top college, the article insists, there are a few things to keep in mind:

• College applicants, whether they are homeschooled or not, need a well-documented academic record with challenging courses. As the article points out, "A basic expectation for students who wish to be competitive in highly selective admissions is that they have a rigorous high school education with strong development in all of the core areas: math, English, social science, science, and foreign language."

• For homeschoolers who don't have an official transcript from an accredited high school to submit—as was the case for two of my three kids—the "documentation" can get complicated. Selective colleges typically want records that have been validated or provided by an outside source: letters of recommendation from teachers, mentors and coaches; community college or other formal course transcripts; evidence of awards won, especially at the national level; and various test scores. 

• And about those test scores . . . although some colleges are now "test optional," meaning they do not require SAT or ACT scores, "test optional policies may exclude homeschoolers." In other words, homeschooled students sometimes need to submit test scores that schooled students are not required to submit. For example, my son learned too late that Northeastern University (as of 2013–2014) requires applicants to the College of Engineering to submit scores for the SAT or ACT plus two SAT subject tests, one in mathematics (which he had taken) and one in physics (which he hadn't). These are in addition to: the required list of all textbooks used; the School Report portion of The Common Application (which includes a special set of questions required only for homeschooled students); and a transcript of high school courses, prepared by the parent or an outside agency.

• "Most [homeschoolers accepted to selective colleges] also have used the flexibility afforded by homeschooling to develop some special area of talent or extracurricular interest." For the Colfaxes, it was homesteading. Other homeschoolers have built robots, started a business, or excelled as artists, musicians or athletes. MIT, Yale, and Princeton all emphasize the importance of doing something extraordinary as a homeschooler, rather than simply assuming your homeschooling will serve as a Golden Ticket (Willy Wonka style) for admission. 

In spite of all these hurdles, it's certainly possible for a homeschooled student to be admitted and to excel in a selective college. Although the data is sparse on exactly how many and where homeschooled students attend college, there's this list of Colleges That Admit Homeschoolers as well as my own, anecdotal evidence: my kids were offered admission as well as merit scholarships to several colleges, including Simon's Rock College of Bard, UC Berkeley, Northeastern University, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute (in a year when only 10% of applicants were accepted). Their friends got into Vassar College, Bennington College, Berklee College of Music, and many other schools. Did these kids also receive rejection letters? Yes, just as their schooled peers did.

Homeschooled students can go to college. They can do well once they get there (for example, see Exploring Academic Outcomes of Homeschooled Students, Journal of College Admission, 2010). The real risk is assuming that the doors to selective colleges will be held open, or kept closed, simply because a student is educated in an unconventional way. It's up to students and their families to work hard, keep good records, be aware of any special admission requirements, and prepare the best application they can when the time comes.

Writing for a Purpose—Not for the SAT

My kids are not pleased. My oldest took the SAT in 2005, the year the Writing Section was added. "This writing test is so stupid!" she complained, "Who writes like this in real life?" Her younger sister agreed, as she took the SAT a few years later and was equally frustrated by the arbitrariness of the scoring. My youngest, a senior in high school, just finished taking the SAT last year. He was as annoyed with the writing test as his sisters had been.

So, you can imagine their collective reaction when they heard the recent announcement:

"The SAT Writing Section will no longer be required."

"Seriously?" they asked. "Why did they ever add it in the first place?" 

Good question. Why had it taken nine long years for the College Board to realize that a high-stakes, time-pressured, standardized test is a terrible way to assess writing skills? In what other situation would anyone be asked to prepare a handwritten (no pens or typing allowed), five-paragraph essay in under 25 minutes—with no access to reference materials, no time for review or revisions—and perfect on the first try?  Such a contrived scenario goes against everything I have tried to teach my kids about writing as a way to learn and communicate. 

Ask any writer. Writing isn't about getting points; it's about discovering your voice and articulating your thoughts in a clear, compelling way. A first draft of prose hastily cobbled together might be interesting—it might even be grammatically correct—but it doesn't really tell you much about the writer. Competent writers need to care enough about their writing to persevere during the iterative process of investigation, discovery, drafting and revision. A writer without any mettle probably isn't going to be much of a writer, no matter how impressive her initial draft of a five-paragraph essay might seem. 

When it comes to writing with a purpose and caring enough about your writing to keep working at it, William Zinsser (On Writing Well, Writing to Learn, and others) is an extraordinary mentor. Zinsser truly understands the connection between thinking and writing, and how the two reinforce each other.

"Writing is how we think our way into a discipline, organize our thoughts about it and generate new ideas" (p. 202, Writing to Learn).

By clarifying our thoughts in writing, we come to understand them better. That's why I've recently asked a group of homeschooled high school students to create and maintain their own blogs. Their feelings about the assignment are mixed: some are enthusiastic, others are dreading it. In an effort to encourage and inspire them, I've asked them to examine other blogs of their own choosing to determine what qualities they might like to emulate—or avoid. What purpose would they like their blogs to serve?

I've also provided them with a set of blogging resources—a small collection of videos, articles and brief tutorials to help them get started.

My next step is to work with the students to define the criteria they'll use to evaluate the design and content of their blogs (most likely, we'll create a variation of this Rubric for Evaluating Student Blogs by Karen Franker). I'll be asking them to comment on each other's blogs, too.

Yes, I've heard that "Blogging Is Dead" (from Fast Company), so there's a chance these students will abandon their blogs not long after they begin them. And, certainly, one could argue that there are too many bloggers out there already (as Jeff Goins acknowledges in "Bad Writing Is Essential to Good Blogging"—the 100+ comments in response to his post are interesting).  But honestly? I'm not expecting my students to achieve fame or fortune as bloggers.

People blog for many different reasons, often quite personal ones, and my students can decide for themselves what they want to learn about through their writing. They can pick and choose what they want to release to the public. Of one thing I'm sure: their blogs will be a more meaningful assessment of their writing skills than the dreaded SAT Writing Section ever was.

The Testing Effect

Testing is a controversial subject. But, in spite of the controversy, kids who attend school are routinely tested and retested. They are quizzed, assessed, examined, graded and ranked in every grade and every subject. Given our cultural obsession with testing, it's almost inconceivable for teachers or administrators to think of education without also thinking of testing. It seems inescapable.

How did we ever become convinced that testing is the best way to ensure that learning takes place?

As a home educator, the idea of testing was foreign to me. I raised my kids from birth to age six without ever testing them, yet they learned to walk, talk, read, sing, dance, knit, bake, sew, write, and more. How is it possible that they could have mastered so many things without being tested on them? I don't know. They were curious; they learned. I tried not to interfere too much.