<p>I agree about the homeschooling support organization question. It’s a nosy question with either no purpose, or else a subtextual one.</p>
<p>Too bad about the primary textbook question too. On the homeschool supplement for the last admissions cycle (students entering as freshman in college this coming fall) there was just a more or less blank backside to the homeschool supplement where they wanted you to list courses done organized by subject. They only gave four lines per subject, and in some subjects my son had way more than 4 classes to list (partly because he did some summer classes and also the classes he took at the local college were on the quarter system, so they added up to pretty long list.) I ended up typing up the list myself on a separate page, but following their format. I could use a small font and make it all fit in. Then I did an old-fashioned cut&paste on a photocopy machine. It turned out looking really nice and gave them all the info they were looking for. </p>
<p>In addition to that I submitted my own transcript (organized chronologically) and course descriptions for all his work done independently or in non-traditional settings. In those descriptions I included the books and other materials used.</p>
<p>If there was something I wanted them to know more about, and it didn’t fit into the space they alloted, I just said “see attached description” or resume or letter or whatever was necessary.</p>
<p>We ended up sending in quite a bit more paper than a traditional student, but I tried to be concise, not repeat things (too much anyway – sometimes it’s necessary because of having to frame things coherently). The college he is going to in the fall also requested a writing sample from homeschoolers, so my son sent in a paper he’d written for a philosophy class he’d taken at the local college.</p>
<p>I remember when we visited Pomona College (son didn’t ultimately end up applying there) the admissions rep at the info session said the applications from homeschoolers are usually quite a bit “fatter.” I got the vague feeling he was being ever-so-slightly disparaging about that… but there’s no way to know for sure. He was just a snot in general to everyone there.</p>
<p>When possible, though, I tried to get all the information requested to fit on the form provided, because the amount of paper does tend to add up and I worried it could be a nuisance.</p>