<p>My daughter was homeschooled prior to high school. When she mentioned this to one of the Ivy coaches, she advised her to “make sure admissions knows that, it can really help you.” I thought it was irrelevant since she was in school for all four years of high school, but apparently it is still somewhat of a hook. My question is this, do you think I should ask her guidance counselor to comment on this in her recommendation? She had a very smooth transition into school and her GC comments on this all the time, apparently they have had a few homeschoolers come into the school with some really bad outcomes. Anyway, other than having my daughter use it as an essay topic, would there be any other way to highlight this in her app? My daughter is meeting with her GC and the teachers who will write her LORs next week, do you think I should add a line about being homeschooled prior to HS on the highlight sheet that she is giving them? Any advice is greatly appreciated. As a recruit, she is trying to get all her LOCs in by the end of the school year so that she can send her apps in early. Thanks!</p>
<p>fishymom, does your GC have the parent write a statement about their child? Our GC uses a few questions to prompt us to characterize our child and talk about specific experiences and personality traits. Without a prompt sheet, it seems like you could still write a statement talking about homeschooling and any particular areas she took strong interest in and how she pursued them, for example. I have no idea whether our GC and teachers might have used these statements to flesh out their letters. I do know they try to present a complete picture, and specific details or unusual circumstances can be more impactful and interesting to read than what they may know of her from limited school contact. I’d offer to write something- if they can use it, great, if not, no harm done.</p>
<p>Riverrunner, our GCs don’t do anything like that, but what a great idea! There are about 2,000 kids in the school, with only 5 GCs. They each have about 100 seniors every year, I don’t know how they do it. But my daughter is very lucky because her GC knows her pretty well. We met with her several times before my daughter made the decision to go into the school system and she has stayed in regular contact with her ever since. I know she will do whatever she can to help in the college app process. She has asked for a highlight sheet and I think she would appreciate a statement from me also. I never thought to do anything like that, so thank you for the suggestion!</p>
<p>fishy,
We’re in a similar-sized school, with same counselor/student ratios. Asking for information is probably the only way they would be able to write some of these letters! The students must each fill out an extensive questionnaire about themselves, and the parents answer two questions: 1. How would you describe your child? 2. Personal comments/insights. Obviously, these are completely open-ended topics. Students are required to hand these in to the GC before asking any teacher or GC to write a letter for them.</p>
<p>I save a file of letters from summer jobs, volunteer efforts, camp evaluations, and so on for each kid. I quoted these letters in my answers when I didn’t want to simply gush, and needed specific examples of their best qualities.</p>
<p>Fishy-
What did the GC say ?</p>
<p>My daughter hasn’t met with her yet. Graduation is tomorrow, so things are a little crazy at school this week, but she is supposed to be called down Thurs or Fri. I will let you know more then!</p>
<p>Sounds good. hope the gc is helpful.</p>
<p>This is interesting to me as we have homeschooled all along. I realize it is different as your child went to traditional school for high school, but we never had a coach indicate that homeschooling might be a hook. We did have coaches indicate it might be a problem. (Usually at smaller schools. I think because it can involve additional testing, etc.) On the flipside, we never had any indication either way from Admissions. Did the coach say why s/he thought it would be helpful? </p>
<p>We are going through recruiting with our second son so have talked with dozens of coaches and admissions people over the past couple of years. I find this comment from the coach very interesting and quite cool! Hope it works to your student’s benefit!</p>
<p>Hi Kate! I was quite surprised when the coach made the comment myself. It came up in conversation regarding testing and my daughter’s lack of experience with standardized tests due to being homeschooled all those years. The coach said to make sure we made admissions aware of it because it could help her. I don’t know what she meant by “help”, maybe for diversity or maybe look at her test scores in a different light. In any case, her GC is going to incorporate it in her recommendation. It can’t hurt, but I’m not sure it will help either.</p>
<p>Hi - jumping in here
I would hazard the guess
that</p>
<ul>
<li>they look at testing in light of the student not being conditioned to test early/often–and weigh Fishy’s studnet’s grades at the public hs more–</li>
</ul>
<p>And in the case of a current homeschooler
- they ask to see more testing–such as SAT2s to see an apples to apples mark of what the student can do compared to peers if the student is currently homeschool…</p>
<p>don’t know
will be interested to hear…
Diversity can play into this too</p>
<p>Good luck ;o)</p>
<p>My daughter’s GC is going to address her transition into a large public high school from homeschooling in her recommendation. She also suggested that my daughter write an essay on the varied educational opportunities my daughter has experienced. I agree fog, it will be interesting to see how it all plays out!</p>