Homeschool and college expectations

sbjdorlo
Mon, 06 Jul 2015 23:07:59 +0000

OP,

I can speak to a lot of what you’re saying, as I am a private homeschooler here in California, and have been one for 16 years.

There is absolutely a diverse set of homeschooler in California! And, even within a particular homeschool group, there is huge diversity of thought and purpose.

I am a Christian homeschooler, and yes, I can confirm that many Christian homeschoolers and secular homeschoolers in my area do end up either 1) not going to college (I see kids who work full time right after homeschooling, but I also see kids who go into missions work, try to become professional athletes, and so on), 2) go straight into community college (either early or after graduating, and we have some great community colleges here in California which are relatively inexpensive, so it makes sense to a lot of families), and 3) for the Christian families, I see many that only apply to private Christian colleges.

Now, having said that, I see many homeschooling families that don’t follow any of those paths! I know both Christian and secular homeschoolers that apply to UCs, Cal States, and private colleges, both here in California and out of state. I will say that in my area and circle (San Diego County), I don’t see as many kids doing this as say, the Bay Area or LA County, but it is done regularly in California.

As for us, my oldest son who was a very high achiever with no disabilities other than ADHD applied only to private schools and two safety OOS schools. He was fortunate to get into all the colleges to which he applied including several Ivies, and is now a rising senior at MIT.

My middle son who has/had a plethera of disabilities, applied to 23 (!) colleges (should have done less in retrospect) because he was an uneven candidate: high test scores, pretty weak course rigor and not straight As (both my sons were dual-enrolled students, so they had a lot of outside grades).

He was admitted to four Cal State schools and waitlisted at one; he was admitted to two UCs (UCI and UCSD) and waitlisted at UCLA; he was admitted to 16 out of 23 colleges, and he will be attending University of Pennsylvania after a gap year. We were totally amazed at the positive results and that he actually got into an Ivy League school.

My advice to you is to go ahead and do classes at this co-op, but be clear in your goals and politely ignore people when they advise you not to think about college. I also second the recommendation to join the HS2Coll Yahoo Group.