Homeschooled Teen Gets into Top Ivies, etc.

[shawbridge]

DSC, I think that those who live and die on college admissions knowledge may not be surprised, but the rest of the world probably is. We received flak for partially homeschooling our son for the last few years because people felt it would hurt his chances for elite schools. Even some of the college counselor types I interviewed were circumspect about how likely getting in would be as a result of homeschooling. So, to much of the world, that is news.

I'm impressed with what she and her parents did and how she took advantage of it. Frankly, I'd guess that they spent less than private school tuitions and probably have a lot more to show for it.

[ellemenope]

>>True, she had nailed perfect scores on the SAT and ACT, is the reigning world Irish harp champion, aced all her AP exams and enjoys nothing more than kicking back with the latest copy of Scientific American.<<

Holy schmoly! This sounds like a parody of what some on the board will tell you is required to get into HYP...except she's a REAL person! Maybe those posters were right...

Congrats to her and her family!

[citygirlsmom]

just don't get why this is news- a privileged family (as it really appears by the article- who has a music room with a grand piano?) was able to give their D the best advantages and she took them

It is nice and all, but in a way rubs me the wrong way- that we are supposed to be uber impressed because someone with so many advantages gets into some amazing schools

[ellemenope]

I don't think the hoopla is about homeschooling, since the super bright prodigy kids that I've read about (we had one from San Diego in the last 5 years, I think) really can't be serviced by the public schools. They're almost all "homeschooled"--although not homeschooled in the normal sense of mom/dad doing the teaching. The examples I've seen have either had grad student tutors, college prof mentors, etc. or have attended college classes while quite young.

[broetchen]

I don't quite get why citygirlsmom has such an issue with the family's perceived financial status. This family obviously did a wonderful job nurturing this girl's special talents -- kudos to them! I think that in this age of "media rooms" dedicated to watching movies and playing video games, it is wonderful to see a "music room". Why all the negativity?

[citygirlsmom]

of course this is all about homeschooling, the article is dedicated to that

and it just seems disingenous to go, look at this amazing girl (which she is) and to not point out the money that was needed to get her there

ten years of private french tutoring? Give that to any number of kids and you would get some amazing french speakers

The financial status is of importance- of course it is

The "negativity" comes from the idea of "oh look, she was homeschooled and is really smart" and you see she had private tutors, etc, Yes she is bright and sccomplished, but many kids would be able to excel if their families had the $$ to do what this family appears to have done

The article talks about homeschooling enmeshed with private lessons, extensive travel, etc,

And to brag about that, eh, just rubs me the wrong way

And I bet I am not the only one who read that piece and said, well, if I could have afforded tutors, and private lessons, and all that,my kid could have excelled as well

[ellemenope]

>>To make that coup even more impressive, Link received the good news via phone in late February, even though the official letter did not arrive for another month. Only 10 non-athletes nationwide received one of these "heads-up" calls.
<<

The article was talking about Harvard. Interesting to know that H gives "likely" phone calls for non-athletic prowess...a whole 10 of them!!!

[unregistered]

citygirlsmom, have you ever had a positive thought about a fellow human being?

I think the girl seems incredible. Yes, obviously very privileged, but still incredible.

[Youdon'tsay]

cgm, yes, it's obvious this family has a lot of advantages, but I know plenty of rich people who are raising losers. I still think the family has a lot to be proud of and should be congratulated.

[wjb]

well, if I could have afforded tutors, and private lessons, and all that,my kid could have excelled as well

Got a news flash for you, cgm. Many kids whose families have similar resources, or far greater resources, don't excel as Chelsea has.

[epiphany]

As to my own reaction, I do not resent the family for their privilege, although I will agree with cgm that the private advantages were exceptional & obvious. But that's never what grabs me in a story like this. After all, I have taught homeschoolers who are middle class, some even lower middle class. The middle class (non- "wealthy" students) excel about 3 x what they do in their local publics, as long as the parents have a basic education & functional literacy (& much more so with highly educated parents guiding the education). What strikes me is how students often have to *leave* the educational establishment in order to achieve academically. So to me, the moral of the story cited is that the girl undoubtedly could not have achieved to this level by going to the best possible public school. (A point that was also illustrated with the kindergarten anecdote.) It tells me that the public school system (wherever) is unnecessarily inefficient pretty much throughout the country -- more in some places than in others. (LOL, perhaps for purposes of college admission, that's a "good" thing --a relief.) We think that the Ivies have it tough selecting now. Can you imagine an entire applicant pool of Chelseas (& male equivalents)?

So a more "complete" story could have also featured homeschooled families with less money winning things like Spelling Bees & Geography Bees (which they also do). Still the same point, for all economic levels, i.m.o.

[merepoule]

sorry folks, the student in question has enough resources to book a private hotel room for harp(s) alone...it is wonderful when resources and genetics combine to create an exceptional human being but the struggling single parent who manages to keep child away from drugs and encourages them to become a good caring asset to society deserves just as many accolades, if not more. As to the very American fashion of homeschooling, fine...but realize (if you are homeschooling only because you think it is 'best for your child' and not because the child has serious needs which can't be met in school) that as you extract those nice role models out of classrooms the students left behind are deprived of having a variety of classmates to imitate....leaving the teachers with only the most difficult students in the classroom. Which is okay, America is where the needs of the individual are paramount after all, but do not expect applause from those who try hard to support public schools.

[Pizzagirl]

Congratulating this girl on her achievements doesn't take away from the accomplishments of the children of the struggling single parents, you know - it's not zero-sum. Yes, they gave her lots of advantages. Nonetheless, she also excelled with what she was given.

BTW, I am somewhat aware of the parents in a professional capacity, and I don't believe them to be "loaded," just upper-middle class. There are certainly far more loaded people in Evanston or elsewhere on Chicago's North Shore, who don't have their kids get into the caliber of schools this young lady did.

[epiphany]

Well, as a professional within the public school system for many years, & one who continues to support them in my current job functions, plural, I'm a little resentful of post #27, which implies that you have to love one, hate the other. I hardly think that families who depart to a homeschool model have some kind of social responsibility to be a role model in the classroom, sacrificing their own academic & personal needs. The schools had a responsibility to challenge them enough to keep them; they failed in that because they accepted, unrealistically, competing responsibilities, some of them not even related to education. This thread, or at least the underlying motivations for the family profiled, relates incidentally to the homogeneous/ heterogeneous thread, & the various existing (mostly failing) strategies, or lack thereof, with regard to heterogeneous classes.

[unregistered]

by the way DSC, statistically homeschoolers have about the same rate of acceptance to top schools as the population at large (about 8% or so at Harvard).