I would love to see where homeschooled kids got in and what type of merit they received. If willing, please include your stats and ECs, if you applied with test scores, where you applied and the results.
I’ve seen so many of these types of posts but they are rarely for homeschooled students.
My oldest (graduated 2019) was accepted at Hendrix, Knox, UGA, Macalester, St. Olaf, Hamilton, Vassar, and Oberlin (and then later offered a spot off the waitlist at Emory’s Oxford campus). Was offered merit at most of the places that do merit (UGA was the exception, but we’re in state so Hope would have covered his tuition). 1550/4.0 UW/6 APs and I think 10 DE classes…solid but unremarkable ECs. He was also waitlisted a TON of places (and denied at Harvard and Williams). Ended up at Macalester and just graduated this past May.
Next kid (graduated in 2022) was applying to music schools, so it was a very different process. He was strong academically, too (1530/4.0 UW/lots of AP and DE, though not as many as first kid), main EC was of course music, but the audition was the main thing that mattered for him (and he didn’t apply to nearly as many schools). Accepted at Baldwin Wallace, Lawrence University, and Columbus State (in GA), waitlisted at Oberlin Con and Vanderbilt/Blair school of music. He was offered a spot off the waitlist at Vandy very early on (in April), accepted, and is very happy in his second year there now. He got merit everywhere he was admitted except Vanderbilt, but he gets very generous need based aid there.
On my third go round right now, so we’ll see! This kid got into UGA early action and is still waiting everywhere else.
My kid (graduated HS in 2022) got in to Hendrix and Grinnell with some merit money. Grinnell was ED, so all other applications were pulled and we don’t know how those decisions would have gone.
Stats included 35 ACT (one sitting), 4.0 GPA, 2 online AP courses (Calc BS and CS) and a few dual enrollment credits. Extracurriculars included piano, robotics (very successful team), and some fun quirky things.
My daughter graduated in 2022. She applied to Georgia Southern (local college), High Point University and SCAD. She took ACT and got required score needed for acceptance to GS and SCAD.
She chose High Point University which is test optional and did not submit scores. We used Abeka for high school, and opted for no dual enrollment classes. She did take honors courses! She graduated from hs with a 3.95 and tons of service and volunteer hours!
Out of the 3 colleges, she was offered the highest merit from High Point University through the Presidential Scholarship (interview required), and an arts fellowship.
High Point matched the academic and life approach my daughter had experienced for the previous 18 years! She is now a sophomore and has made Dean’s list each semester thus far!
My daughter (graduated 2020) was accepted by every school she applied to:
Tulane
Rose-Hulman w/merit
Purdue Engineering
UIUC - Grainger Engineering
University of Colorado- Boulder Engineering w/merit
U of Indiana Honors College w/merit
U of Kansas Honors College w/merit
Carthage College w/competitive M &S scholarship
She ended up at Carthage because they have a great physics program and she loved the professors and campus. Turned out to be a good choice, because she is graduating this year (in 3 years) with no loans and has already been accepted to a top 10 program for her fully funded PhD in physics.
33 ACT with 12 DE from Community College.
My homeschool senior (4.0 UW, 1570 SAT, NMSF, about 40 credits dual enrollment, no AP) received the following acceptances:
Reed
College of Wooster
Loyola Marymount
Willamette
Lewis & Clark
University of Puget Sound
University of Tulsa
St. Mary’s College of CA
University of New Mexico
University of Alabama
University of Arizona
University of Nevada Reno
Chico
Sonoma State
Still waiting on:
Oberlin
Kenyon
Grinnell
Cal Poly SLO
Merit aid has generally been the highest amount available. LMU is TBD. University of Tulsa is 100% covered plus $6K stipend for up to 5 years. Alabama also has a generous NMF package.
For S23 (memory a little fuzzy on stats, but I am pretty sure they are correct):
1490 SAT (760 Math/730 EBRW)
3.93 UW GPA at end of Junior year (one B)
2 AP Junior year (4 in US Gov; 5 in Calc AB)
7 DE Senior year
worked 30 hours/week
Other ECs were mid (as the kids say) — D&D DM, music composition and playing, youth group
Applied to 4 schools for Data Science:
UMass Lowell — half tuition scholarship (2nd highest award they give) & honors college
Clark University — one of their standard scholarships (mid $20k/year? Made COA about $42K/year)
WPI — again, one of their standard scholarships around the mid $20k/year, made COA around $55K/year
BU — admitted to CGS (That is the spring admit program where you spend the first summer in London and then are on track to graduate on time. It is a liberal arts type program the first 2 years with a class or 2 per semester in your major, and then automatically into the major you choose junior fall.) No merit, but fin aid made it mid/low $60K/ year, I think
Northeastern— waitlist
He is attending WPI & overall happy with it
Will post about S24 once his decisions all come in
When did you get the decision from Reed? My daughter applied EA and we are still waiting.
12/22
Well hell’s bells. How much do you wanna bet she missed it somehow. Thanks for the info!
I think we got an email, and the portal updated, and then about 3 weeks later a package came in the mail. Fingers crossed for your kid!
S24 - still in process, waiting on 3 more schools
1410 SAT
4.11 weighted, 3.94 unweighted GPA
3 AP (5 score) and 2 more upcoming - 2 of the classes taken through HSLDA academy, 3 were independent study.
10 DE General Chem
Lot of music activities, awards, etc 13+ years
Lots of EC, volunteer and leadership work (church & other), charity concerts, teaching music.
Juilliard - rejected
U Mich - accepted
Indiana U - accepted
Univ of Roch - accepted
Have no idea of any scholarships or other aid yet thanks to the whole FAFSA circus this year. If he gets into Colburn it won’t be a problem, though, since that is free.
The whole homeschooling journey has been truly a wild ride. I wish we’d known more about Dual Enrollment before his senior year, but that’s the breaks. Also wish we’d done standardized test prep a couple years earlier, to build those test-taking muscles further.
Perhaps I’ll update my post when we get the $ information from the schools.
Just got the rejection from Northwestern University.
Just waiting on Colburn now.
Rather than type it all out again I will just link to my post in the thread about my homeschooled S24.
One thing about UMass Amherst is that they require homeschooled students to certify that they can benefit from a college education. They say this is a federal requirement, but none of the schools my S23 applied to required this. (Some of the NYS public colleges had language to this effect when S24 applied.) To matriculate you have to take the GED, or get a letter from your school district saying you have completed a sufficient high school program, or have already completed at least 27 college credits. My son will have 31 college credits from DE, which we did intentionally because we knew UMass Amherst was one of his top choices.
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