by Mimi Rothschild
I came across an interesting article in the Indy Star this morning. The feature chronicles the daily routines of olympic hopefuls who have turned to homeschooling. Home education offers flexibility that is vital for young athletes who are always on the road and always training for the gold.
Obviously many of these kids are not going to compete for the rest of their lives. It’s important that they have an education to fall back on. And yet, most public schools cannot cater to the needs of kids who are attempting to compete in worldwide athleticism. The strict schedules, curriculum, and classroom environment are hard to keep up with for an up-and-coming athlete.
That’s where the benefits of homeschooling come in. A young athlete can practice for a few hours in the morning, do an hour of school work here and there throughout the day, and continue training in between study hours. It’s up to the student and parents to organize a curriculum and coursework schedule to uniquely fit each child’s needs.
Unfortunately, not all schools allow students to compete on sports teams. Some states are more progressive than others. Contact your school administration to find out if your child can compete with in school sporting events.
Homeschooled athletes are able to earn college scholarships. Homeschoolers must register with the NCAA initial eligibility clearinghouse. You’ll have to submit standardized test scores and a transcript.
By Mimi Rothschild
My eldest daughter doesn’t realize how blessed she is to be entering college in the twenty-first century. We have a pile of brochures and DVD’s from colleges that keeps growing, and the phone rings a few times a week. It’s not that my daughter is a brainiac, although she can hold her own in the classroom, it’s that she is a homeschooler.
Colleges are just beginning to comprehend the fact that homeschoolers are outstripping their peers on every academic level. Over the last few decades, we homeschoolers have come up against confrontation from the public school system. Colleges, however, have simply been a little wary. After all, each student is an investment. How can they ensure that their student body will be benefited by a homeschooled child? Homeschoolers were met with raised eyebrows and quizzical looks from all sides.
That’s all changing. A recent CBS News article confirms evidence that I’ve noticed over the last few years. Colleges are finally getting their act together regarding homeschoolers. When faced with an applicant pool full of apathetic public school grads who have no thirst for knowledge, homeschoolers with an innate desire to learn look very attractive. They are not just going to college because their parents are forcing them to do so. Rather, they have been prepared to excel in the college environment by years spent cultivating independent study habits.
As a result, colleges no longer see homeschoolers as a quirky anomalous question mark but as the cream of the crop.
A word of advice: take the time to prepare your children for SAT and ACT exams. Because colleges have no way of verifying the academic rigor of your child’s curriculum, grades mean very little to admissions departments. However, because these exams are standardized, the tests serve as a good metric to determine the capabilities of your child. In fact, it can be the defining factor in many cases. There are a variety of preparatory texts that parents can pick up in bookstores across the country. The MorningStar Academy offers an SAT prep course designed specifically for homeschoolers. You can learn more about it here.
Secondly, make sure your child schedules an interview with college admissions counselors. In an interview, your child can easily illustrate his or her experiences and abilities that are difficult to translate on paper applications. By clearly communicating, your child can also show admissions counselors that he or she is not a social misfit. Unfortunately, some still hold the inaccurate perception that homeschooled kids have trouble socializing. The interview can do a lot to put these concerns to rest.
By Mimi Rothschild
We homeschoolers are academics at heart. As a fervent proponent of education, my biggest dream has often been to see my kids receive their college degree. I see it almost as a seal of approval on my own ability to homeschool. It means that I succeeded in preparing them for the rigors of collegiate life. But has this preparation gone to waste?
More students go to college today than ever before. One could assume that this means that our country’s young people are better educated and that the U.S. is poised to lead the world. Unfortunately, this reasoning is not unlike the push for higher minimum wages. By increasing the amount of students attending college, the academic standards across the board must be lowered to accommodate less prepared students.
This frightens me. The K-12 public school system has been fumbling for decades. Many colleges, even private schools, have to follow suit in order to maintain funding. A good percentage of students attending universities are indifferent to learning. Rather than giving them the boot and losing their tuition money, some universities have opted to cater to the apathetic underperformers.
Parents are still willing to pay outrageous tuition dollars to keep kids in colleges that do little to prepare them for that ever-boding “real world.” Consider the following, from a recent article in the Christian Science Monitor:
“Last year’s National Assessment of Adult Literacy found, for example, that less than a third of college graduates are proficient in reading and the ability to do elementary mathematical calculations.”
As tough as it is, homeschooling parents have to buck this trend and realize that not every child was meant to enter college. I know a young man who recently graduated from a top college. All he wanted to be in high school was a foreman on a construction site. His parents forced him to go to college. Although he performed well, he sadly lacked the motivation to pursue a white collar job and is currently working at the same fast-food restaurant at which he was employed in high school. College students across the country, even ones that do want to pursue white collar jobs, are forced to work as cashiers, baristas, and other low-paying jobs. All this, and they remain mired in crushing debt for years.
Parents, remember that college is one of many ways to achieve financial stability and occupational fulfillment. Pushing your unwilling children to enter college will not necessarily give your child the edge he or she needs to compete in the job market. Rather, pray with them. Pray that God will show them the path that they are to take. Don’t push your child into a university if he or she has no clue what she wants to do. There’s nothing more confidence-breaking than spending four years and $60,000 on a worthless college degree. I’ll leave you with one more statistic from the same report:
“Take a look at the Bureau of Labor Statistics’s 10 fastest growing occupations between 2004 and 2014, and you’ll find that six of the 10 professions do not require a four-year degree, and four of these call for no academic degree at all.”
It’s something to think about, parents.
By Mimi Rothschild
The process of college admission can be a very intimidating thing, especially for homeschool families and their homeschooled teens. There are ways for homeschooled applicants to avoid many of the pitfalls and problems that can crop up. With a little preparation and some planning, the process can be relatively painless for college bound homeschoolers.
The most important factor in gaining admission to the college of your choice is your grades. More specifically, how well you perform in your college preparatory curriculum. The ideal curriculum to prepare you for college is one that includes the maximum number of classes you can manage in the subjects that matter most to colleges. Mathematics, English, science, social studies and foreign language classes rank highest on the college watch lists. There are other factors that colleges will consider, but class performance in these subjects holds the most weight.
A common misconception is that grade point average is everything. Many parents and homeschooled students believe that if they simply choose easy classes and get the highest grades they can, then colleges are certain to line up to admit them into their schools. In fact, students have been turned down solely based on the fact that they chose easy elective classes instead of more demanding classes.
Another big mistake homeschool students make is ignoring great resources. Many homeschool students ignore or fail to identify resources available to them when choosing and applying to colleges. Contact current students of colleges to get an inside perspective on the school. Look to counselors and administrators to get specific information on their admissions processes. You can even use your friends and parents for third party advice or to bounce ideas and information off of to get a different perspective.
Do not choose a college based on a friend’s choices or because your parents went there. This is your future and you must decide on the best choice based on your own personal preferences. Personalize your search to include your own values. Evaluate the schools themselves based on the information you gather directly rather than from anecdotal evidence or the many myths that surround colleges. The point is, the homeschooled student will only be comfortable in an environment suited to their personal preferences.
Once you have narrowed your search down, explore your choices in more depth. Investigate college campuses, their specific courses, location and environment. During this process, ask yourself questions about what you want from the college and whether it matches your abilities and interests well. A major mistake many homeschool students make is simply choosing a school for its reputation and popularity and find later that it was just not a good match for them.
By Mimi Rothschild
With the recent growth of homeschool families in numbers in addition to press popularity, the traditional schools of education are getting the jitters. There are some school districts that are experiencing declining attendance in classrooms, which ultimately results in reduced funds allotted to these school districts. Homeschool education is growing at a surprising rate of seven to fifteen percent annually.
The concept of homeschool education is not new to the US. In fact, the nation has had a bright history of home schooling. During the 17th and 18th centuries, parents would act as tutors and teach their children in their homes. Products of home schooling include legends and iconic figures like Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Agatha Christie, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain and Andrew Carnegie, among other notable personalities.
By the time compulsory attendance in traditional schools gained prominence, the homeschool education populace dwindled to such an extent that it became controversial and illegal in some states. However, during the late 1960s and early 1970s, homeschools came into the limelight again, as many families became disillusioned with the quality of public education. The writings of critics of public education also influenced parents to opt for homeschool education for their children.
Now that homeschooling is common and legal in almost all the states in the US, there are college and university admissions officers who continue to ponder as to how to deal with a rising population of newly graduated homeschool students seeking admission. The number of homeschool children between grades 9 through 12 is estimated to be above 14,000.
A report is being prepared to examine the stance taken by the college admissions personnel toward the homeschool graduate and the perceptions they have with regard to the student’s talent in the college. College admissions policies for homeschool applicants and the attitude and openness with which the homeschool graduate population is welcomed have been studied and analyzed. It has been reported that fifty-five admissions officers hailing from different college admissions counseling departments across various regions participated in this study. The members or the officers were from accredited institutions, and had been working at these institutions for more than four years. They were subjected to an electronic survey where they were asked to give their opinions in a three-part questionnaire. The information gathered was developed as crucial data on the homeschool admissions policies of four-year colleges and universities across various states in the US.