More on college

My first born child is starting college next week!  

She was my first ever child I homeschooled!  My first that I graduated from our school at home!  

When I first contemplated homeschooling my children, I read everything I could about it.   Taking a child's education upon one's shoulder's is a big responsibility.  In a way, I felt that if she didn't succeed in life, it would be partly my fault.  I did not want to ruin my child's life!

Homeschooling has come a long way, even in the 12 years since I began.  Back then, colleges were accepting homeschoolers and studies showed that they were excelling.  I heard that some colleges were even creating specific admission policies for homeschoolers.

Fast forward to today, now most colleges and universities do have specific admission policies for homeschoolers.  It is pretty exciting!   A homeschooling friend of mine sent her daughter to a college that wanted a GED.  My friend did not want her daughter to have to take the GED due to the stigma that often goes along with it, so she talked to the dean of admissions and was able to meet with the admissions board and present her case.  She created a very nice portfolio of her daughters work to show in the meeting as well.   The board voted to let her daughter in without the GED.   Pretty cool! 

I was also excited to find out how easy it was to sign Big Sis up for the ACT test.  It is all online now!   So easy to sign up and take the test at the location of our choice!   I even ordered the results of her test and a copy of it, so we could review what she missed before she took the test again.

All through her high school years, I tried to talk to others with children in college to see what they did.  One thing I heard over and over:  Don't wait until the last minute to create her high school transcript!

Well, going to school, homeschooling, and raising seven kids kind of distracted me from being on top of the high school transcript thing.  So....a week or two before the application deadline, I spent a week putting her high school transcript together.  It did take a fair amount of time, thoughtfulness, and research.

I found a template on www.hslda.org to use for the transcript.  I also looked up the admission requirements for the college she wanted to apply to (it's a great idea to do this before the child is even in high school).   In our case, the University specifically stated it wanted the transcript in a 2-semester format including the grades or averages.  Also, they wanted a curriculum synopsis of the core course requirements (math, english, science, etc), as well as the textbook information for each course. Side note:  the University we applied to has specific core class requirements that they want to see the student has fufilled.  One of these was a science LAB.  I am so thankful we have a local group which provided the means for Big Sis to take an accredited Biology lab.  It is things like this that I believe really helped her transcript.  I definitely recommend checking into college requirements before your child starts high school so you know what kinds of classes your child needs to get into the college of their choice!

I created the documents and we submitted them along with her ACT score.   The next day, I started a transcript for Big Brother!   Not waiting until the last minute again!