All of the courses I’ve mentioned are dual enrollment courses, including the 2 English courses. Neither of my parents have gone through this process before (I’m first-gen), so I haven’t had much advice.
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I am taking another fall semester, which will probably be my last semester of high school.
How old are you? Could you enroll in a local HS for a year or two to get counseling and the requirements you would need? @kokotg is this possible in Georgia?
I wouldn’t do this until you talk to a college counselor and UGA admissions, at the very least. You will eliminate many college options without two years of foreign language, no bio and physics and only two years English.
How old are you? Please advise on the college budget too.
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I will be 17 soon.
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Thanks. And ideally you would be looking to enroll in college in Fall 2025? Will you have an associates degree when you are done with DE classes?
I know posters have thrown a lot of information at you. Does it all make sense, specifically about the kind of course preparedness that colleges are looking for?
Can you stay in homeschool DE courses long enough so you can take FL, Eng, Bio and physics? If you can’t get the Spanish classes, you can take those online thru many providers that give HS credit for these classes (Indiana U, Language Bird and BYU, are a few, but there are more.)
Do you have an advisor where you are taking the DE classes that you can talk with about all of this?
I also know it can be difficult to look at things from the financial angle, but it would be helpful if we knew if your family has limited income, and what they might be able to contribute to college costs.
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It’s definitely a low regulation state, but a lot of states are like that. You’re required to cover core subject areas (language other than English is not one of those, though) and do a certain number of hours a day/days per year, but the homeschooling parent determines graduation requirements and issues the diploma. Pretty much any college is going to want a transcript and not a diploma, though, to show a student is prepared.
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You have at least two excellent universities in-state. UGA and GT are both excellent for many subjects, including math.
I think that you should be talking to counselors at whatever college you are taking classes, and admissions at UGA and GT, about whether or not you are taking the complete set of classes that they want to see for applicants.
If you have taken two college level English classes, then you might be okay in this area (?).
Regarding foreign language, do you speak any language at all other than English?
One wild idea that occurs to me might be to take an intensive immersion language course or two. Some would be available in the US. French immersion courses are also available only very slightly outside of the contiguous US in Canada. One daughter for example took a five week course in New Brunswick at Universite de Moncton. For us at least it was very reasonably priced. First they give you the rules in English, then you speak nothing but French for the rest of the five weeks. In the morning you have French lessons, and in the afternoon you have activities in French. For example, when you play le soccer, if you are open you should call “ici!” rather than “here!” if you do not want the referee to be malheureuse (ie, unhappy). After five weeks my daughter and I were able to just sit and have a very simple conversation in French. There are also French immersion classes in Montreal, Quebec City, and Nova Scotia (at Universite Ste. Anne), and probably elsewhere. Some are available over the summer and there might (?) still be time to sign up for one. Whether this will satisfy university admissions is something that you might want to ask them.
With regard to ECs, tutoring, or a job in general, is a good EC.
With regards to cost constraints, you might want your parents to run the Net Price Calculator at a few universities that are known for math, such as MIT (high reach) or Wisconsin (not quite as high of a reach), or Williams College (smaller, also very good for math, still a reach). However, given how excellent your in-state public options are, I do not see much point in going out of state for your bachelor’s degree. Graduate admissions at MIT and Stanford and other universities that are very good for math will know how strong UGA and GT are.
Applied math is useful in a wide range of subjects. I knew one person who got their bachelor’s degree in math at MIT and went on to get a master’s degree in acoustics. At one point he showed me what he did day to day and there is a LOT of mathematics involved in keeping your car quiet or creating consistently good sound quality in all of the seats in an auditorium. Another MIT math major I knew then went to Harvard to get a law degree. As a graduate student I took a course in econometrics. Even as a math major econometrics includes enough math to have me spending a Saturday afternoon revisiting everything that I had learned in my linear algebra class. Similarly in physics there can be quite a bit of math required to keep a beam of protons focused, or to figure out where electrons are going when they are getting lost from one of your sensors, or in analyzing data from a radio telescope. Computer science also overlaps quite a bit with mathematics.
As such I could see value in having a degree in math and a second bachelor’s degree, or master’s degree, in acoustics, or economics, or physics, or CS.
Which leads me to the observation that having not taken any course in physics is unfortunate. You are young. You might want to take a year to catch up in some non-math areas where you are lacking.
At one point when I was an undergraduate student I asked an art professor whether there was any point in getting a dual degree in math and art. His response was that there was no point. Anything that you could do with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and a second bachelor’s degree in art, you could also do with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and having just taken the art courses.
For homeschool classes are there some standard tests that you take to verify what you have learned?
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A couple of thoughts:
*Everything depends on what your goals are, but it sounds like you’re interested in selective colleges. The high school transcript is going to be super important for that. Even non-selective colleges are almost always going to want to see 4 English credits (and very selective colleges will prefer 4 credits in every core subject, including a language other than English).
*Is there any particular reason why you want to graduate after next semester? Being homeschooled gives you a great deal of flexibility with this; there’s no reason you can’t call this coming year your junior year, in fact, to give you plenty of time to get in all the courses you need (especially since you’re not even 17 yet).
*If you apply as a homeschooler, at least one of your parents is going to need to understand the basics of college admissions and how to make a transcript for you, write the counselor letter, etc. You can’t do it on your own. There ARE college admissions counselors who specialize in homeschooling, so if they can afford it that might be very helpful for your situation. There are also templates and examples available online.
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I mean, I think legally they have to let you enroll. But practically speaking it’s tricky to enroll after freshman year because (as I understand it from hearing other people’s experiences) getting credit for courses completed elsewhere and getting placed where you want can be very tough.
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Maybe OP’s parents can use some savings to hire a private counselor? I think that’s something that OP could gain a lot from.
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I’m a homeschool mom whose older is headed off to college in the fall. I’ve taught classes for homeschooled high schoolers for years and I’ve talked with parents and watched the students navigate moving towards their next steps. From my perspective, I see 2 things to consider. First, you need a transcript that has the classes that the colleges expect to see. You are fine for math, but need to work on some of the other subjects. Second, how are your skills in the subject areas that you don’t have classes for? I’m particularly concerned about English, since writing skills are critical.
To address the transcript issue, you say that you mostly read in your spare time. Have you read books such that some courses could be created using your booklist? Many homeschoolers design classes that don’t follow the ‘read the textbook and take tests’ model, and it’s common in the homeschool community to plan a class that is based on students reading an assortment of books and then writing or discussing them. For instance, a world history class in which a student read several books of the ‘Salt’, ‘Guns, Germs, and Steel’, ‘A History of the World in 6 Glasses’ genre, or history through the biographies of famous leaders, or military history… If you’ve read works of literature then your instructor of record (probably a parent) might be able to put together another English credit. My kid has a 1/2 credit lit elective based around reading 10 classic science fiction books (Asimov, etc). It is possible to do high school classes at home, or find online providers of homeschool classes, for almost any subject, and some are self-paced asynchronous classes. I’m not sure what the push to finish after fall is, but with a full year of DE classes you could fill many gaps in your transcript if you prefer DE courses - 2 semesters of English, foreign language, and science (1 each of physics and biology) plus some social science would take care of any missing credits in core classes. If your local college doesn’t have availability in everything, look at others, including some that offer online classes. My kid has classes from 2 different CCs on his transcript and, other than it being a pain to have to send both transcripts to colleges, there was no issue with it.
My second question is about having the skills that you need. English doesn’t just cover literature - it’s also where students learn to write good essays and research papers. Biology doesn’t just teach facts about cells - students also talk about how to design an experiment and practice writing lab reports (at least in the class that I teach…). It’s entirely possible to develop these skills elsewhere, but well-taught high school or DE classes will make college easier if these aren’t things that you’ve worked on.
If you’ll be applying to colleges in the fall, you can put in-progress and planned courses on your application. If you are applying in the fall, you won’t be able to start at most colleges until summer so unless you have a job or some other activity planned for spring there isn’t much advantage to graduating after fall semester and I can see a big upside to having the whole year to take classes.
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I do, but the ones I know were also active in math competitions, not just dual enrollment. I think the advice provided so far for this student, such as look at the requirements for GA and GT and Wisconsin and apply to them if possible, is good advice. Others to consider are Stony Brook and NYU.
Not saying that MIT is out of reach, but the homeschool kids I know that were admitted there excelled in math competitions, so it’s important to apply to a base of universities with solid math programs that are somewhat less selective.
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The other plus with Utah is that you can take their path to residency and pay in-state rates for years 2-4.
Since you’re used to being highly self-directed, Hampshire College might be worth a look. There’s plenty of traditional coursework available through UMass and the other consortium schools, but also the opportunity to work independently and 1:1 with faculty mentors. Mathematics | Hampshire College Your less-traditional high school background would likely be well-received there.
I hate to say this but I don’t know if you will get into many four year schools if you do not have four years of English and at least a year or two world language. Is your guardian making you a homeschool transcript? You said no high school classes so do you mean you don’t have a homeschool transcript and only have dual enrollment? Most colleges have a minimum of 4 years of English, 3 years of math, science (2 with lab), and social sciences and one to two years of world language. Lower acceptance schools have more requirements but that’s are minimums. If you don’t have. Homeschool transcript showing courses beyond dual enrollment you might have to enroll in community college to get those minimums.
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And having no extra curriculars will limit the options at the better colleges, they want involved kids so your best choice is to explain why you couldn’t do more in an essay but from what you wrote I don’t know if you have a compelling reason. And I am sorry these comments might be harsh, but from what I read there are a lot of red flags even though you sound extremely bright. I’m hoping there is more you are leaving out. I have a homeschooler who will start the application process next month.
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