How to Apply to College as a Homeschooler

This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: How to Apply to College as a Homeschooler. How to Apply to College as a Homeschooler This is college application season for many college-bound homeschool high schoolers. It can be a stressful time for these teens (and their parents), especially if this is the first child heading off to college. How can you be sure your homeschooler is completing the forms well. What is a homeschool parent's role in the process. 7Sisters Vicki served the local homeschool community for almost two decades as college admissions advisor. In her work with homeschool high schoolers and trainings with college admissions officers, she picked up some tips that have been helpful to her five homeschool graduates and hundreds of other local teens. In honor of college application season, Vicki is sharing some basics of the process to get you started. Ten tips on how to apply to college as a homeschooler Tip #1: Write your application essay early Trust Vicki on this. If your homeschool high schooler writes his/her essay early. We would tell our local advisees to write their essay during the summer, that would give them time to have parents or teachers look it over and give advice...AND do multiple rewrites. Even if the topic changes at application time, details can easily be tweaked once the guts of an essay is created. Remember multiple rewrites take a good essay to a great essay (use grammar checkers like Grammarly to help.) Also, if you have a college that allows your teen to skip the essay, don't skip! That essay might give your homeschooler an edge if there is a lot of competition for entrance. If your homeschool high schooler will be using the Common Application or other applications that publish essay prompts early or have standard prompts, it is much easier to start that essay. Even if an essay prompt is not available for their preferred college, have your teen choose an exciting or inspiring story from their life and write an essay to be tweaked later. For help: Here's a freebie post and a downloadable college admissions essay writing guide from your 7Sisters. Tip #2: Ask for recommendation letters letter early PLEASE, take us seriously on this. Recommenders need a little time to write an excellent recommendation. Give them time. Also, if your recommender will be writing a paper recommendation, give them self-addressed, stamped envelope to the college. If your recommender will be writing a digital recommendation, let them know where the link will be coming from. (And also approximately when it will come, so they can check the spam file if it seems late.) ALSO, please train your teen to ask the recommender politely. In fact, use the word, "Please." This is a skill that will help them the rest of their lives. AND when they are done with the recommendation, be sure to have your teen thank them. Your teen can (and in many cases) should give the recommender a fact sheet about themselves and/or a resume to help them fill out the recommendation with good details. Tip #3: Find out what the colleges are looking for Make sure this is shown clearly on your homeschool high schooler's transcript.