BJ's Guide to College Confidence and FREE Getting Started GUIDE

Do you have a college bound teen?  

Does the idea of approaching the colleges as a homeschooler give you pause?

It doesn't have to, for SO many reasons.  One is that many colleges are now noticing how well our homeschooled teens do in college.  

And there is more....

As moms who are homeschooling high school, we are already experts in planning. 

We have searched the net, gotten advice from our friends and have chosen curriculum each year for our kids. We also have decided which subjects to focus on and how to teach them to our kids. 

Planning for high school with and college in mind is really no different, except for one important thing.....Now your teen has their college entrance entrance requirements to fulfill.  

Some popular online homeschool sources suggest that all we need to do is to get started is to check the college websites for their freshman entrance requirements.  

Is that right?

Actually the answer is no.   

It is a good start.  And the easy-to-get-into-colleges may only ask for the college entrance requirements shown on their websites.  

BUT many colleges look for more than those college entrance requirements from their applicants.  

It really depends on the college.  But dealing with this is really not hard.

Here's what I know:  

Easy-to-get-into-state colleges or Christian colleges may only ask for the college entrance requirements that are listed on their websites.  

But many other state and faith based colleges do look for more.  They will likely want to see your teen's high school activities, and did they develop a special interest, show leadership, show rigor in some way...etc.  

And those things will not be listed on their actual college websites.

Don't be confused by some of the information that is going around the web.  To get into college and be College Confidence, it is important to know what the colleges are really looking for.

And all of it is NOT just listed on the college's website.  But it is here in my free download from my book, on college. 

Click here for your FREE PDF 

Researching and Getting Started 

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and it includes the following key information:

- how to really researching the college websites 

- how to find out about any extra homeschool requirements

- and most importantly, what different types of colleges look for in their applicants give your college confidence.

Here's another very important college related question.  Does your college ask for extra homeschool requirements?  What about testing?

Homeschool Requirements and Testing

There two things are also important to know about when getting started:

1.  You will need to find out if there are any special homeschool requirements for your likely colleges.  Many any colleges still have them, but they are not hard to deal with.

and.....

2.   Check to see what the colleges requires re testing.  

Most colleges give you a choice of either the SAT or ACT and some are even dropping this testing requirement.  And I don't know of any college that asks for both.  

Most colleges do still require the SAT or the ACT, but there are many that do not require the writing portion.

And if they don't require that writing portion, then your teen doesn't need to do it!  

Did you know that MANY colleges do not?  

REALLY.  So if it adds stress to your teen's senior year, then why do it?  

We did not have to do the writing portion of the SAT for any of our colleges.  What a TIME saver!

Did you get your free download yet?  For true college confidence.  

How to find out your teen's prospective college requirements and more is discussed in depth in your: 

FREE College PDF download Researching and Getting Started

Your next step can then be to take these entrance requirements and information and sketch out a tentative 4 year plan for your high schooler. 

I have a chapter on that in my book below. 

Do you want an easy-to-use guide to college, for homeschoolers?

I have gathered together all my best tips for high school and college and put it into my NEW book, Homeschooling High School with College in Mind, 2nd Edition. 

Amazon 

This book is an easy-to-read guide to college for homeschoolers, recently updated with 7 NEW chapters, including:

- My own homeschoolers guide to the Common Application

- How to write the Counselor Recommendation Letter

- Where to find college scholarships

- SAT/ACT Prep

- How to make your own homemade courses and more!

Recommended by: Lessa Scherrer, Certified College Counselor

                              

"Betsy has a wealth of understanding and knowledge to share with the parents of college bound homeschoolers. This book is a must-read for parents considering homeschooling high school and for parents in the thick of the application process."

With these included downloadables, you won't need to worry about forgetting things!

Thanks for stopping by BJ's Homeschool,

Betsy

Betsy is mom to her now college grad, whom she homeschooled through high school.  She blogs at BJ's Homeschool, about the early years, highschool, 
college, gifted/2e and wrote -Homeschooling High School with College in Mind, 2nd Edition,   She offers homeschool help through messages at BJ's Consulting,  and has had some of her articles picked up by the Huffington Post.

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 in your inbox.

Copyright @ BJ's Homeschool 2025

Blessed By Our 2e Homeschooled Child

Summary:  Homeschooling our gifted daughter led to many benefits.  It allowed us to adapt to her learning needs and meet her where she was at, in her academics and other developmental areas, too.  

Our daughter has been a blessing to us, ever since we flew to China to adopt her as an infant.  

At the same time, she has taught us a lot along the way.  

We knew she was gifted from the first days we received her, on a bus ride in China.

Soon there were also signs of attentional and sensory issues, but since we were already homeschooling these were mostly easily managed.

With my OT background, we worked to accommodate things to meet her needs, as best we could.

We knew that our school district did not have a gifted program that would meet her needs.  So we took the plunge and tried our hand at homeschooling.

Our adventures with homeschooling led to many positives.  Are you thinking about trying your hand at homeschooling?

Here's 7 ways that homeschooling helped our 2e daughter, starting with adapting things to her needs:

1.  Homeschooling allowed us to adapt to our daughter's unique learning needs.

We tried a variety of approaches to find the way that she could learn best.  Of course, this took time to figure out, but we found ways to eliminate distractions, meet her sensory needs, and choose curriculum that was engaging for her.  

  

When she was young, processing verbal directions was a big, big challenge.  And if she was tested with only verbal directions, she would have failed the annual public school tests each year.

If we had chosen the public school route, my kiddo would have been learning from the teacher, who spoke in front of the class.  However, as a homeschooler, she was able to learn in the ways that worked best.  

2.  Homeschooling allowed us to change out our curriculum or unschooling projects when things were not working. 

It was trial and error, lots of errors...but we had time to try different things...and ways to meet her sensory needs.  Ways she would not have had in school.  We focused on hands-on approaches, like what Oak Meadow Homeschool curriculum provides.

3.  Homeschooling enables us to teach task skills, like concentration and attention to detail, through creative activities.

We found that hands-on activities worked very well for our kiddo, helping her to develop executive functioning skills in an enjoyable and comfortable way

We did hand sewing one year, weaving another, then knitting the next.  She loved it and her attention span grew quickly. 

4.  Homeschooling gave us the time to do a variety of outside activities.

We did a number of outside activities through the years, following her interests starting with pre-ballet, then kid gymnastics classes.

One of them helped her a lot with her apparent auditory learning issues.  Many kids with ADHD have auditory learning difficulties.

Irish Dance and Auditory Learning 

My kiddo wanted to try Irish dance classes.  She saw one of the classes when we were at the Parks Dept.  To do that, she would have to follow the complex verbal directions for each of the Irish dance steps. 

Auditory processing was very difficult for her.  Any verbal directions needed to be given 3 or 4 times, or written down.  

But, alas, in dance class, things were different.  She could more easily follow verbal directions when physical skills were involved.

My kid was so comfortable with physical skills, she learned to process the many verbal directions that were given.  

Of course, watching the steps at the same time was a big help.  But the teacher added in a lot of verbal instructions, too, and my daughter began to really be able to process that information.

As her verbal processing skills improved in Irish dance, they began to transfer to other areas as well.  At home, she began to use video courses , and DVD's, which involved listening to verbal directions and lectures. 

And, no longer does she struggle with auditory processing.  By the time she got to college, she could easily follow her college lectures! 

She had gradually build up her auditory processing skills over the years, without the pressure that she would have had in public school.


5.  Homeschooling allowed our daughter to build up her own organizational skills.

Homeschooling helped my daughter to gradually learn, over the years, to organize her studies, plan her day, and prioritize and then eventually create her own study schedule.

By high school she was independent in making her own daily schedule.  Once in college, she took our own work boxing technique with her!  

6. With homeschooling we could build in nature and other calming activities in our days.

We could take off, and go to the park.  We could use the backyard any time we want.  We could hang out at the river, and watch for salmon spawning.  I loved that.

And getting out in nature was such a great way to calm and de-stress, for both of us.

Getting out in nature and spending down time together helped to build up that relationship.

7.  Homeschooling taught our daughter how to find and use resources.

Having our daughter learn at home gave her a lot of opportunity to learn how to find and use resources.  She saw me do it each year, while looking for curriculum and making calls to find outside activities in the community.

I started early on to involve her in the process.  For searching for curriculum and also for making phone calls about extra-curriculars.

I would have her watch me, then eventually hand her the phone to help out.  Soon she was making the phone calls herself.

When she encountered a problem with a math question, she learned to look things up herself, going to Khan Academy or other helpful sites to find the answer.

Many millennials today struggle with finding a job. When my teen graduated, she already was very comfortable searching for resources, and also with making cold calls and other methods for finding a job.

She learned that step by step through homeschooling.  And she is now working in her area of study in college.

Whichever way you go as far as an educational path, I hope that you enjoy the journey with your gifted child as much as we did.

I was recently asked to write for the top special education site on this topic.  I invite you to click 8 Tips for Homeschooling a Twice Exceptional Student for more ideas and encouragement.

What would you add to this list?   I love reading your comments.

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Thanks for stopping by BJ's Homeschool,

Betsy

Betsy is retired O.T, homeschool blogger, and most importantly is mom to her 2e college grad, whom she homeschooled through high school.  She blogs at BJ's Homeschool, about the early years, high school, college and 2e.  

Want to stay in touch?

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Copyright @ BJ's Homeschool 2023
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How to Get Your Homeschooled Teen into College

How to get started helping your homeschooled high schooler get into college.  This is the first important step to take for #homeschoolingtocollege #homeschoolhighschool This post may included affiliate links to products that we love and have used or would use in our  own homeschool. Please see my disclosure policy.

 
Getting Started - Homeschooling to College

Does your teen want to go to a 4 year college, after graduating from your homeschool, like mine did?  

When we were in the middle school years, my husband and I began thinking about the possibility of college for our daughter.  And I was more than a little nervous.  But I wanted my teen to have the option of going directly to a 4 year college, if she felt that was the way that she wanted to go.

  

How would I, as a homeschooling mom, help her get there?  

The idea of knocking on the college door with a homeschool transcript in hand, was more than a little daunting for me.  I knew that the homeschool transcript was now widely accepted by colleges.  But the colleges seemed so big, and I, in contrast, felt so small.  

Do you ever feel that way?

I wanted more information, so I began to research about homeschoolers and college.  And I found that there were many homeschool friendly colleges out there, that wanted the type of kids that homeschooling produces - motivated, independent learners. Seeing that spurred me on to want to find out more.

What would my daughter need to be considered for college acceptance?  

I looked up the most likely colleges that my daughter might attend. The requirements were similar, but not consistent from college to college.  And some colleges had extra requirements for their homeschooling applicants, and some didn't. 

What's a mom to do?

This chapter explains how we came up with the list of required courses that my teen would need for college admission.  And it wasn't that hard to do! 

So our first step in going from homeschool to college was to research our daughter's college entrance requirements.

Starting this research early is a help, but it is still possible to do this any time in high school, by just recalling info from their previous studies, and going from there.  And you can always add in an extra quarter or two, to make up for any requirements that you might have missed.

 College Entrance Requirements

  

Each college will show their admission requirements with just a click of the button.  This information was easy for us to find, just by looking at college websites, and clicking on the freshman admission requirements. 

We found these requirements to be similar from college to college, with some variance depending if the college was an ivy league, private, or a state college. 

How did we find this information?  We just clicked around until we found a heading like this:

______________________________________________

College Academic Distribution Requirements (CADR)

All applicants must complete a minimum level of preparation in six subject areas. This requirement ensures that students entering the University have an appreciation for the liberal arts and are adequately prepared to succeed in college.....etc

______________________________________________________

There we found a  list of their requirements....

SAMPLE  ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS

# 1 A STATE UNIVERSITY

 Math - 3 credits

English - 4 credits

Social Studies - 3 credits

 Science, with labs - 2 credits

 Foreign Language - 2 credits

Senior Year Math or Statistics course - 1 credit

1/2 -1 credit of Fine Art

Here's another example, just for comparison sake. My niece is going to a faith based college in our area.  This is how her high school requirements looked:

 #2 A PRIVATE CHRISTIAN COLLEGE

English - 4 credits
Math - 2 credits
Social Studies - 2 credits

Science - 2 credits
Foreign Language - 2 credits Electives

Electives - 3 credits  

So you see that this college does not require as many credits as the first one did.  That would leave more time for volunteering, or special interests, etc, for our teen.

#3 AN IVY UNIVERSITY

English - 4 credits

Math - 4 credits

Science 4 credits, with 3 lab sciences

Social Studies – 4 credits

Foreign Language – 3 credits  

See how they require so much more than the above two examples. Many ivys also look for SAT subject tests, and/or AP courses.

 Each college is different.

Some colleges also require extra things from their homeschool applicants.  Our next step was to look for any specific requirements for homeschoolers.  But they didn't get in our way!  

     Homeschool Requirements

To do find out if your teen's prospective colleges ask for extra things from homeschoolers, just check for any special requirements on their websites.  If they have any, they will be listed there.  

Validation

This just means that the colleges are requiring something specifically for homeschool applicants, like  a few outside credits or some testing, to "validate" the homeschool transcript.  

Three of our colleges required what they called "validation" for certain subjects, but two of them have now dropped these extra requirements!  Some colleges still have them, but the trend is towards dropping or simplifying them....

Below are 3 examples of homeschool requirements, and as you will see, they vary A LOT.

_____________________________________

College A –

A Private Elite College

This one is still asking for lots of "validation". 

"Homeschooled applicants need to show additional non-homeschool setting assessments, or validation in 3 areas, Math and Science, and Foreign Language......."

To do that, choose one of the following for each subject:

1.   Take an AP test or SAT subject test 
 2.  OR take the ACT test 

3.   OR CLEP testing 

4.   OR take the course at an accredited college or community college, AND
5.  For foreign language, take a test at the college  

What we did:

We just took the ACT test. That gave the college their "validation" for math and english.  For foreign language, my daughter took that test at the college, during senior year, and she was accepted.

Note - CLEP was added recently so you could just do CLEP tests instead!!

Also, for AP testing - Anyone can take AP tests, so that means your student does not have to take the actual AP course.  They can study at home using AP resources, and then go in for testing.

This school was the hardest to deal with for us, but by using their ACT testing option, we did not stress about their extra requirements.

College B -

A Two Tier State College  

This college did not require any special homeschooling requirements or validation!  

Currently, their website suggests that applicants show rigor in their work, such as with college level courses, AP courses, or community college courses in their high school years.  They also looked for volunteer or work experience.

What we did:  

We did one dual credit course, and my daughter did volunteer work and reported that to the college, and she was accepted.

     College C -

A State College

This college just asks that GED scores be submitted, which they used to "validate" the homeschool transcript.  No other hoops to go through! 

So you see how this works, and varies so much from college to college.  Good News!  Many colleges are making these extra requirements easier, or even dropping them.  That is the trend.

There is another important step to do, when researching and getting started.

Be sure to check the college website for what testing is required. Do they ask for the SAT or ACT?  Which one?  Either?  Or neither? Some colleges are dropping this testing option.  But most still have it.

The other thing to check on is this:

Does your college require the writing portion of the SAT or ACT?

Many don't!  Our colleges did not require the writing portion of the SAT/ACT so we did not have to do that!  Of course we still had to do the college entrance essay.  But if your teen does not have to do the writing portion of the SAT/ACT for the colleges, that is a blessing.  Then don't do it!

If the website does not have this information, I encourage you to just call the Admissions dept.  We did and they were helpful each time.  Also, did you know that college students are usually the ones who answer the phone in the admissions office?  

My teen worked there last year.  It is not daunting to call and just talk to a college student on the other end is it?

NOTE - Did you know that we don't need to follow the public school high school graduation requirements? 

 As homeschoolers, we only need to follow the homeschool laws of our state, and most of them leave the decision of what to do during high school to the parents.  

So once you have the college requirements figured out, then you can enjoy filling in the extra time, with your teen's special interests, volunteering, high school activities, and such, as is best for your teen.

There are High School Planning Printables for each important step, going from homeschooling high school to college, in my book mentioned below.  

College Entrance Requirements Form - This is for recording and figuring out your teen's requirements for college admission. 

Have you seen my facebook group called Homeschooling Through High School?

Have you seen my facebook group called Homeschooling Through High School?  Join us!

After helping my homeschooled high schooler get into each of the colleges she applied to, I wrote this guide:

Homeschooling High School with College in Mind - 2nd edition, 

Paperback is at Amazon $11.99

For more info: Homeschooling High School with 

College in Mind - 2nd Edition

Be sure and pin to save and follow BJ's Homeschool on Pinterest

Thanks for stopping by BJ's Homeschool,

Betsy

Betsy is mom to her now college grad, whom she homeschooled through high school.  She blogs at BJ's Homeschool, about the early years, highschool, 
college, gifted/2e and wrote -Homeschooling High School with College in Mind, 2nd Edition,   She offers homeschool help through messages at BJ's Consulting,  and has had some of her articles picked up by the Huffington Post.

Want to stay in touch?

Subscribe, Pinterest, Facebook 
No spam ever.  
Just encouragement for your homeschool in your inbox.

Copyright, 2019 
All Rights Reserved

 .