Would starting to homeschool myself in 11th grade hurt my chances at getting into top LACs?

Applying to College
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<p>I am currently a 10th grader, at a mediocre private school. I went to public school K-9 and HATED it. Then I transferred into the school I am at now ( an all boys, Catholic school.) My freshmen year in public school I finished with a 3.8 GPA. So far this year I have a 3.75, but I am in all Honors level classes. I want to start homeschooling myself for 11th and 12th grade. My curriculum would be classical, and would have a huge emphasis on politics, religion, philosophy.(I want to become a politician) I had some questions for you guys.

  1. What is the most rigorous, classical homeschooling program out there? It an be religious or secular.
  2. Would starting to homeschool myself in 11th grade effect my chances of getting into top LACs? (My 2 dream colleges are Washington & Lee University, and Claremont McKenna College.)</p>
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<p>You can’t really “homeschool” yourself. Your parents have to plan things and register you. What do they think about the plan?
You need to have a curriculum and a variety of subjects, etc. Those will have to be produced for college admissions.
If you plan on reading a lot, you’d have to make sure to include a lot of different viewpoints, from Churchill to Hillary Clinton (in politics) for instance. For philosophy, follow the IB program to ensure you cover what you need. In short, you need a little bit of structure, and then, run with it and read in-depth about a topic of interest.</p>

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<p>Many students are in high schools that are less than ideal. Just like the perfect college doesn’t exist, neither is there a perfect high school. You hated public school. Some students have no other choice, but they make the most of it. You were fortunate to have another choice, but you dislike it too. Now, you want to design your own school program.</p>

<p>It is fine to have your own personal ideals and beliefs, but the response of leaving when something doesn’t suit you isn’t always the best solution. Sometimes it is, but you may be in the situation one day where you don’t like your boss, or co-worker, but you can’t leave your job right away, you don’t like your college professor, but you need the class credit, you don’t like your room mate, but you can’t move. You don’t like your college, but you can’t transfer right away. I think you get my point. </p>

<p>I will leave the decision to home school between you and your parents. However, when you apply to college, they will see a pattern: 9th, 10th. 11th- each at a different school- by your own choosing. ( Some students don’t have the choice if their families move) and they may wonder why. But consider that your changing isn’t only going to affect college admission- it might affect how you learn to deal with situations. You and your parents are going to have to decide just how bad your current school is, and if it is better to leave or learn to deal with it. </p>

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<p>At the OP’s age, most students are quite independent. Yes, Mom and Dad must do the formal paperwork, but a lot of students work independently, even choosing curriculum as long as it meets graduation standards.</p>

<p>Find a homeschool conference web site on the internet and look at the exhibitor page. You’ll find more than curricula there. College recruiters set up booths at homeschool conferences. See which recruiters are heavily recruiting homeschoolers. </p>

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<p>My son has been homeschooled from kindergarden to now the 11th grade. </p>

<p>Having said that I would not transition if I were you. You have 1 year until your college apps start, and homeschoolers often have a different set of requirements for college admissions plus you have the teachers’ letters of recommendation to deal with, etc. I would try and make your schedule work and see how you could supplement with college courses to make it more tolerable for you. You could demonstrate your ability to do college level work and kick out some core requirements at the same time.</p>

<p>If you do try and switch, I would make sure you take some year long courses in 11th grade with a teacher and class participation (online) so you can get a recent letter of recommendation. Its also possible to get a recommendation from a college instructor but unless you have the same instructor for 2 semesters its sometimes harder to get a meaningful letter due to brevity of exposure.</p>

<p>If you want the best “classical” program you should design your own from a variety of sources. My son will be kicking out psychology, philosophy, logic, statistics, etc via various college courses. There are online college courses available also</p>

<p>With homeschooling you have a lot of record keeping, transcript prep and documentation, school board approval, standardized test taking issues, and general crap that comes into play. Your parents are the ones who end of dealing with this.</p>

<p>We are using a combination of PA Homeschoolers (Ap courses), Thinkwell (Precalculus-Trig- Calculus - AP Chemistry) various online and college courses.</p>

<p>Again, I think 11th grade is a little late to transition.</p>

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<p>I think that you need to do some serious thinking about the reasons why you are so unhappy in schools and what you can do do change yourself so that you do not become unhappy in college as well. That may also help you in learning to deal with employment situations in the future. Cutting and running isn’t always an option, or the better option at any rate.</p>

<p>My daughters tended to supplement their public (and later, college) educations when they did not feel that the course went deep enough, or they wanted to explore other subjects. You may want to do the same.</p>

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<p>NYS requires paperwork, but not every state does. And by high school, many home schooled students are self directed learners. The college reps I’ve spoken to (at the admissions workshops I set up for home school families) tell me that’s one of the things they like about our children.</p>

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<p>State regulations for home schooling differ. I home schooled my son all the way through 12th grade and never once had to deal with our school board. Any recordkeeping software will create transcripts (or you can do it yourself with paper and a calculator), and standardized testing is as easy as ordering tests online (look up home school testing) or registering on the College Board site. </p>

<p>The son of a good friend just started home schooling (in 11th grade).He’s self studying for CLEP exams and already has a semester’s worth of college credits for about $400. If you don’t like the direction your life is taking there’s no reason to wait until x happens to be happy. Research your options, understand all the consequences of those choices, then make whatever decision is best for you and your family.</p>

<p>First, OP, look into the home school regulations of your state. They can usually be found at your state education department or by Googling “home school regulations + state name.” If you can take courses at your local community college as a home schooled junior & senior you should have no problem getting recommendation letters. I’d also look at the admission requirements of the schools you’re interested in to see what they require of home schoolers. Sometimes, what a state requires for home schooled students is less than what colleges require. For instance, NYS doesn’t require foreign languages for home schoolers, but all 4-year colleges I’ve researched do. Make sure you’re getting your math, history, science, etc. covered, not just the courses that interest you. Find out how many lab sciences the colleges require. SUNYs require 3, but we did 4 because I like science and thought it was important. If you need more labs than you have, you can take one at your local cc or do labs at home. Amazon sells science textbooks and lab manuals that are used in public schools and lab equipment can be purchased fairly inexpensively online. Make sure your parents are on board with your plans. In NYS, you could leave school tomorrow as long as you informed the district within 14 days afterward, so you could really home school for 2-1/2 years. Make sure you have a solid plan before you make the transition though. </p>

<p>If you have any questions, feel free to PM me. I run a home school network in NY with several hundred families. We can help you find a network in your state too.</p>

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<p>^^This!</p>

<p>The one thing i can see in the future for OP is more unhappiness if he doesn’t address why he’s unhappy. Is it the mediocre academics or the social atmosphere? There’s nothing wrong with homeschooling per se, but I’m not sure it’s a good idea or the solution in this situation. If it’s academics, then supplement that with work on your own at this point - just put up with the school, it’ll be a much smoother path. </p>

<p>If it’s social, realize that HS sucks for a lot of kids. Going to a new school doesn’t help, but I’m wondering if OP would be happy in any environment - including the colleges under consideration. To fit in at LACs, you need to get along with people since everyone knows everyone. One needn’t be an extrovert, there are tons of introverts at D’s LAC, but you do need to be social within your group or you will be miserable. Hiding in your room will make you hate the school even more. Perhaps you’re surrounded by idiots, but it’s not that long until you can reinvent yourself at the school of your choice, so just stick it out.</p>

<p>Finally, W&L and CM are both great schools, but very different. Make sure you check each out - most people wouldn’t like both equally</p>

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<p>You guys need to understand something. The teachers and academics at my school are Ok. I hate the students. There are times in my Honors English 10 class (and many other classes), when I am the ONLY one answering questions. The other boys seem brain-dead. I would say I’m an elite humanities student. I can’t take this anymore. All they talk about are thier athletics, and their little social lives. The language that they use makes me want to throw up at lunch. And they call themselves a “Catholic School” The school seems to have a HUGE admissions problem. They have admitted students that no respectable private school would ever admit. My dream was to go to a boarding school like Exeter or Groton, but it is almost impossible to get into thsse schools. I am looking into Stanford Online High School. I think that would be a wonderful fit for me. And one more thing, When you say “All I see for OP in the future in unhappiness in college” Do you seriously think that colleges like Washington & Lee University, Claremont McKenna College, Hillsdale College, and Patrick Henry College (colleges that I am looking at) would admit the idiots in my school that I have described above? The answer is clearly NO.</p>

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<p>Patrick Henry is not really selective, so the answer to your question is “probably yes”, but the other three, no. Now, your description may not that be objective. :slight_smile:
If you are tired of being the only one answering questions, then yes homeschooling is a valid option, but do join an established network or curriculum. In many states, you could leave your present school at the end of the term, as long as an acceptable homeschooling solution has been found.
In terms of conservative colleges, look into Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Clemson, Auburn, Wabash, Calvin, Wheaton (IL), or Gordon (MA).
However, you can’t design a “conservative” curriculum in high school - you have to expose yourself to a broad variety of writings, people, and theories (including excerpts from Marx, if only to refute them, and, as importantly today Krugman’s blog and books plus Piketty’s opus, which really isn’t that hard to read – even if the Freakonomics books + Guns, Steel, and Germs_ are a good way to start). It sounds like you’re interested in a PPE-type curriculum - which is offered at few schools in the US but can be found in Canada and, obviously, the UK, where it’s the prime course for budding politicians.</p>

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<p>I would consider 1 of two options I your situation. </p>

<p>1-enroll in Kolbe. If you do full enrollment, I am pretty you will get an accredited diploma and apply to colleges as a Kolbe grad vs homeschool grad. (Verify that to make sure. I haven’t pain attention in yrs. ). They also have a new online option. <a href=“http://www.kolbe.org”>http://www.kolbe.org</a></p>

<p>2-see if you can dual enroll as a homeschooler at your local community college. It is not uncommon for many homeschoolers to DE all of their jr and sr yrs and graduate with their AAs. Another option would be to see if you can a couple of classes at a regional university. Typically CCs are easier to work with and since you have been on a traditional high school path, it might be more difficult to convince a university to accept you, but it might be worth the try.</p>

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<p>Ultimately, it really doesn’t matter whether W&L or any other school would admit your classmates. It matters whether they would admit you.
I agree with a previous poster who commented that your tendency to cut and run is problematic: not just from a life lessons viewpoint but from a college admissions viewpoint. Adcoms are looking for students who will be successful and graduate in a fairly orderly fashion from their institution. Someone who has attended three different school settings in three years does not immediately fill one with confidence. Combined with your reasoning for doing so (you don’t like your classmates, feel superior to them, and really want Groton or P-E but don’t feel it’s possible to get in)…not a message I would personally suggest sending.</p>

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<p>Does your school have a debate club or class? If no, start one. I suspect there are some kids like you there; you just have to find them. Could you work on a political campaign or with an elected official outside of class? </p>

<p>You say your school is fine academically, you just need to find some peers with common interests. Look inside school, but then be ready to also look outside. I agree with those who say withdrawing is not the answer. </p>

<p>And if the school doesn’t satisfy academically, go find some supplemental reading and activities. You don’t have to reject the whole school and homeschool. </p>

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<p>OP, you’ve received a lot of good advice about how to reach your goals, but the extent of your discontent is concerning. I can’t tell if you find your circumstances this intolerable, or if you are portraying a stereotype, but in either case, you are going to find yourself to be discontented in any college or school until you let go of your pre-conceived ideas about people- and I mean all kinds of people- preppy, not preppy, conservative, liberal, and so on.</p>

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<p>And they call themselves a “Catholic School” <<<</p>

<p>Catholic is not exactly synonymous with elite academics. It is a religious school, run on the basis of exchanging services for money. Can you find any publics in your area that run the IB program? Publics that have magnet programs? In my kids’ school district you can do pretty much anything on line including APs. Maybe you should be looking to your school district to see what they offer as far as enrichment goes. What standardized tests have you got? Soph PSAT? Any tangible measures? If you feel you are a very superior student, you will want to be able to qualify that with results. </p>

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<p>Idon’t think you know a thing about Patrick Henry College. Most students who go there were homeschooled from K-12. They would most certainly NOT be like the students in my school. watch the documentary “God’s Next Army” Its on YouTube, and it shows you what PHC is like. At this point, they are an elite Christian college, focused on creating future leaders. They have sent several students to Harvard and Yale law. If you look at the matriculation data, students from PHC have been admitted to Harvard and Yale Law for several years in a row now. I think you are just hating on PHC because of its conservatism. Get over it, it is MUCH better than any of those Uber-Liberal colleges (Sarah Lawrence, Mills, Oberlin, Wesleyan etc.) </p>

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<p>Kdkhan, if you don’t want advice, don’t ask. People here are trying to help you and your reaction confirms rather than informs what other posters have stated above about your maturity. Additionally, please don’t make assumptions about me just because something I said doesn’t sit well with you.
You’re the one bringing up Sarah Lawrence, Mills, Oberlin, etc - this is called an informal fallacy, in lay terms “strawman”. I know you’re young but you keep saying you’re so much better than your classmates, so I wouldn’t have thought you’d use such a sophomoric trick.
In any case, if telling you bare facts that contradicts what you believe is “hating”, well, you’re in for a rude awakening at <em>any</em> reputable college.
Patrick Henry is nowhere near McKenna or W&Lee. In terms of perspectives and reputations, it’s nowhere near Clemson, or TAMU. It has about 300 students (which isn’t detrimental per se, cf.Olin or St John’s, but is limiting in terms of offerings, facilities, etc.), its student body is extremely self-selecting so that 90% are admitted (for most who are not, it’s due to their essay/values), its average SAT is in the 1800-1900 range and ACT is about 30. Most students are well read (more than 40% score 700 or more on CR) but less so for math (only 13% at that level). Even though the school is tiny and the applicant pool is self selective, over 40% don’t graduate in 4 years.
For a point of comparison, McKenna’s admission rate is 12%, 60% score above the 700 mark on any section of the SAT, close to 75% score 30 and above on the ACT, and 85% graduate in 4 years.
Adelphi, Touro, Longwood, UAkron all sent students to the Ivy League for Law school, it doesn’t make them “elite”.
God’s Next Army isn’t quite what I’d call a rousing endorsement of PHC ;-).</p>

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<p>Look,I’msorryifIamoffendingyou,buthere’swhatyouneedtounderstand. It’s not that I don’t want advice( I am very thankful for all the good advice) but I don’t like it when you say “PHC isn’t selective, so they will have kids like the ones at your school” I never said PHC was as good as W&L or McKenna, it clearly isn’t. Byt I hate it when schools like Sarah Lawrence ( which is Uber-Liberal and costs over 60k a year) get national attention, and PHC( which is conservative and costs 40k a year) gets mocked and hated by people because they are strictly Christian. I don’t hate liberals, or gays. I may not support gay marriage, but does that make me a bigot? NO! All I am trying to say is, don’t put what I write out of context. PHC deserves as much respect as Sarah Lawrence, or any sny 2nd tier school. That’s all I’m saying.</p>

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<p>OP, I see where you are coming from. Lots of parents place their kids in a private school, but those students don’t always want to be there. Do you have your parents’ support to switch to homeschooling? It helps for the whole family to pull together with homeschooling, it’s actually one of the great side benefits.</p>

<p>There are many ways to become educated these days, and sitting in a boring classroom day after day is no longer the only option. Don’t hold off on doing what you believe will most benefit you personally in your quest for true education, just to impress someone and get admitted to a particular college.</p>

<p>So, your choices are:</p>

<p>“Why yes, I am a drone, and I comply with the mainstream masses so that I can play the college admissions game. I gave up my passion and just plodded through high school so I would look better to college admissions counselors.” </p>

<p>vs.</p>

<p>“Let me tell you about my passion for pursuing XX subject or subjects in-depth. Yes, I have strayed from the mainstream path, but I am richer in spirit and deeper in love with XX subject as a result.”</p>

<p>If you are intelligent enough to interact with admissions staff and convey your sincere passions, then I think you can overcome switching gears mid-stream and keep your high school transcript from being seen as a negative.</p>

<p>Be sure to research your state laws and compile with each and every step. You will need to keep super accurate, detailed records of every subject you study. Photocopy textbook cover and table of contents, and specify how much of the book’s material you actually studied. Find ways to get outside testing and letters of recommendation.</p>

<p>Take field trips and document them, participate in National History Competition (or something similar) to add to your academic resume. Reach out to people who interest you and ask to shadow, interview or take a tour of their facilities, etc. Education can be whatever you want it to be, as long as you cover the basics needed to comply with state laws, and with the colleges you want to attend.</p>

<p>Best of luck to you!</p>

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<p>Well, this discussion certainly took a sudden right turn.</p>