Homeschool vs Public school - chances of getting into elite college?

Parents Forum
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Looking for advice. (If I didn’t provide enough info here, please feel free to ask follow up questions and I’ll do my best to answer.)

My daughter is currently in 5th grade and attends a charter school in central California. It’s basically homeschool as we choose the curriculum and go at our own pace. We check in with a licensed teacher every 20 days. Every fall and spring she takes standardized state tests. Her test results show she is many grade levels ahead.

Next year she will start middle school, but nothing will substantially change if we continue this path until high school.

In the charter’s high school, she has the option for dual enrollment with the local community college. Some other students from her charter school have graduated with an associate degree. Doing APs through the charter school is difficult. They only accept a few vendors to provide the curriculum and don’t provide testing, so we’d need to work with other local schools to see if our student could test with them.

I’m wondering if the community college transcripts would be sufficient for applying to elite colleges? Or is it better for her to attend a public school, compete with those student, and take APs to “prove it up”?

I asked our licensed teacher for stats about the charter school’s students’ admission to college. It seems about 5% are accepted into a four-year college. 24% meet A-G requirements which would make them eligible for CSU/UC schools. Most choose to community college.

She also was able to get a list of schools that they’ve been accepted into: Utah Tech, BYU, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, CSU Bakersfield, Master’s College, Westmont College, University of Michigan, UCLA, CSU Fullerton, CSU Long Beach, ArtCenter School of Design, Otis College of Art and Design, Pacific Northwest College of Art, Cal Lutheran University, University of Southern Oregon, UCSB, Northwestern, Northeastern, Pace, Emerson, UMass Amherst, Grand Canyon University, Oregon State, Montana State, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, Pepperdine, CSU Northridge, CSU Channel Islands, CSU Fresno, CSU Stanislaus, University of Michigan, University of South Florida, University of San Francisco.

The reason why this has become the big question now is because I’m wondering if I should spend the middle school years preparing my daughter for transitioning to public school or taking on community college course work. I understand there’s a lot of overlap in those skill sets, but it’s one thing to navigate public high school and another to navigate community college.

My daughter also is on a year-round club swim team. Right now she dreams of swimming on a college team one day. Homeschooling would make scheduling more flexible and easier to support those ambitions.

Other background info: I attended UC Santa Barbara for undergrad. Her dad attended UCLA undergrad and UC Berkeley Law. Her uncle attended Stanford undergrad, Harvard Law, and Notre Dame for PhD.

Thanks for your thoughts and feedback!

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Admission to an elite school is unlikely for anyone; choose whatever serves your kid’s best interest without that as a factor.

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Please know that almost everybody has a low chance of getting into an elite school.

A-G requirements - does this mean graduation requirements? Why is the number 24%?

Many public school students are on year round swim teams, so that should not prevent her from attending a public school. They swim before and after school and on the weekends.

Your daughter is in 5th grade and should be a kid. Let her do what she enjoys and attend the school where she thrives…as a kid.

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She should do her extracurriculars for fun, fulfillment, and to benefit her overall health. She should attend whichever middle and high schools provide her with what she needs to be a happy and healthy teenager (mentally, socially, physically).

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We have been very involved with an urban homeschool community. Both my kids homeschool and then dual enrolled in high school. Both were high achieving students. Both did great with admissions. We were mainly targeting schools with potential for merit money. But both were admitted to schools w/acceptance rates in the 20-30% range. We do know students who have been admitted to elite schools as homeschoolers. Both my kids did have deep pointy extracurriulars. And that was an upside of homeschooling for them and a big part of the reason they chose to continue as teens.

That said, given the state of admissions, I would follow the appopriate educational path for your child and family. As you get to ages 12,13+, kids should have more say and buy in on their educational and EC paths. I don’t think it will give you a leg up by any stretch. I felt our results were kind of average for average excellent high achieving middle class students in our area.

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I agree that elite college admission is unlikely for all students but the above part of your post is concerning to me. If you want your child to attend a 4 year college, especially within your state, you need to make 100% sure that she is meeting the A-G guidelines.

We have a year round competitive swimmer in our extended family. She was able to swim at a very high competitive level, all year round, in a traditional school environment.

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I’m concerned there is such low percentage of kids going to 4 year schools on your current path. If she thinks she wants a “true” college experience and possible swim team, I think public school is the way to go.

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If she is ready for college level courses, then community college courses could be a good transition from high school to college. In California, you can use University of California A-G Course List to check a-g requirement fulfillment and https://assist.org for credit transfer to UCs and CSUs.

Community colleges commonly have more variety of courses than there are AP courses (e.g. history of California, philosophy, sociology, etc.) and more advanced courses in some subjects (e.g. multivariable calculus).

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Your child is in 5th Grade. It is wayyyy too early to be asking about AP classes. As per CB website:
“The AP label cannot be affixed to courses and transcripts earlier than ninth grade. There is one exception to this policy: AP world language and culture courses. These courses focus on linguistic proficiency and cultural competency, so in rare situations these courses can be successfully offered earlier than ninth grade among students who can already speak, read, and write the language with fluency. In summary, the AP Course Audit will only renew or authorize courses that are offered exclusively in grades 9–12, with the exception of AP world language and culture courses.”

Please ask about AP classes in another couple of years.

Furthermore, there is absolutely no way for anyone here to give your 5th grade child chances of attending an elite college in 7 years or so.
Closing.

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