Summary: Do you worry that your homeschooled teen would not be able to get into college? How homeschooling helped our daughter not only get into college, but also do well there. We use aff links only for products we used or love for our homeschool.
Are you considering homeschooling your college bound teen, but wondering if they could get into college?
Do you ever ask yourself, like I did, these sorts of questions...….
- Will my teen be ready for college level work?
- Will they be able to compete with other students, whether public schooler or those from private schools?
- Can I find the homeschool curriculum that they will need for college prep
I did worry about those things at first.
But after seeing our daughter do well in her first quarter of college, getting onto Dean's List (who knew?), I began to wonder why I worried so much.
It is not hard to get into college as a homeschool grad! Some colleges are even starting to recruit homeschooled applicants. They want those self motivated teens who know how to find the answers to their questions and know where to look.
And do so independently.
Our daughter graduated college, after studying for 4 years there. She developed an interest in political science in high school, and that lead to a minor in that along with a B.A. in Communications. And she loved it.
We credit homeschooling for not only helping our daughter get into college, but also making Dean's List.
Here’s 7 ways that it did:
1. Homeschooling can best meet your teen's individual learning needs.
Homeschooling created an environment that nurtured and prepared our daughter well for college. It gave us the flexibility to not only challenge her intellectually, but also explore and find ways to accommodate forany learning issues, early on.
If she had been in public or private school, she would have been faced with learning most everything through listening to the teacher, in front of the class.
That would not have worked for our daughter. And if she was tested, with only verbal directions, she would have failed. In homeschooling, we used visual and tactile (hands-on) approaches, and she loved learning and excelled in it.
You get to choose the homeschool high school curriculum that fits your teen's needs. Some of our favorites include:
As a homeschooler, she was able to learn in the way that she liked best. That is just the tip of the iceberg...
2. Homeschooling builds confidence by providing a strong foundation, and a soft place to fall, so crucial for kids, during the teen years.
Nothing like knowing that a cozy home is a waiting our teens, when they just finished a difficult day at their part time job, a new activity, or just finished up with the ACT test.
She was well rested and able to focus on her test prep. Later, in college, she is still taking advantage of this, as she commutes to campus.
3. The 1 on 1 focus of homeschooling catches any learning gaps.
As homeschoolers, we can review, go back, switch up our curricula, or even add another year of high school, if that would help our teen.
My daughter benefited from the freedom to switch curricula or approaches when needed, gearing our homeschooling to her strengths. She was a visual learner, and we could set up her learning to focus on that, as opposed to auditory learning, and that made all the difference for her.
She could work ahead on some subjects, take extra time for others. It allowed us to accommodate for her sensory issues easily, day to day.
4. Homeschooling allows for time to build special gifts and foster and grow your teen's interests.
Following their interests motivates our teens so much, even for doing the less interesting work that would be required for their chosen field of study.
Helping our kids discover their inner-most gifts and interests, not only helps them grow, it also creates strong motivation for them to learn, study those things that will help them in the future.
When my daughter wanted to try her hand at becoming a leader, we found activities that would foster those skills.
Homeschooling gave her the time, and the resources, to pursue her interests in leadership. And when my daughter applied to her college honors leadership program, her high school activities helped her get accepted.
5. Interest-led learning produces motivated, self-starters.
Encouraging their interests builds self starters! That is just what many colleges are looking for, motivated and independent learners,and those are things that makes a college student succeed.
6. Homeschooling teaches self management skills
Homeschoolers learn how to organize their studies, plan their days, and prioritize what needs to be done first, etc....... all skills that are essential to success in college or a new vocation.
My teen even took our workboxing organization style with her to college! Organizational skills learned at home were key to her success in her freshman classes at college.
7. Homeschooling teaches problem solving and researching skills
My daughter watched me search and choose homeschool curriculum each year. During homeschool, she had often seen me search for resources, as we chose curricula, searched for a dance class, or surfed the net for help in algebra, from Khan Academy.
Through the years she learned how to problem solve and research things for herself, as she did that every day in our homeschool.
When faced with a difficult class in college, she put her problem solving skills to work.
So her first thought, when faced with this difficult college math
class was not how she could find a way to drop it. It was, instead, a question to be answered - What resource would help me to deal with this?
She came to me and we worked out a plan together. She completed the class and did well in it. Homeschooling taught her the problem solving skills to do that.
Those are my top 7 reasons why homeschooling prepares our teens well for college. What would you add to this list?
I helped my teen get into each of the colleges that she applied to with scholarship offers. Then I wrote this book which tells you how to do the college admissions process. Plus the details that you will need re transcripts, etc. It was featured at the 2021 Homeschool Superheroes Conference.
It is a FRUGAL easy-to-read guide for homeschooling your college bound teen including:
- what is needed for college admissions
- homeschool transcripts
- assigning high school credits
- preparing for college writing
- make your own homemade courses
- scholarships
- my Common Application guide
- reference letters
- course descriptions
- lots more.
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