elegantlion Posted July 7, 2010 Share Posted July 7, 2010 This is sort of a spin off of the homeschool philosophy thread. The thought of homeschooling high school doesn't faze me, but the role of the guidance counselor seems intimidating (understatement :glare:). So what is good advice for helping to prepare for these duties? How do you organize this information, like testing dates and other deadlines? What do you wish you had done, or done sooner? TIA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwen in VA Posted July 7, 2010 Share Posted July 7, 2010 Read books. Go to college websites. I like -- "A Is for Admission" by Michele Hernandez "Acing the College Application" by Michele Hernandez "Homeschoolers' College Admissions Handbook" "What Colleges Don't Tell You" By reading the books, you can learn a lot about what colleges are looking for -- records, testing, etc. By reading these boks when your kids are still early in high school, you can implement any great ideas you have -- ideas for recording an extracurricular or organizing a team effort of some kind or whatever. My big piece of advice -- have a folder on your computer with the child's name and high school after it. Then put in subfolders -- volunteer work, 9th grade classes, 10th grade classes, summer activities. Put in as much information as you can as you go -- course descriptions (including teacher, text, how graded, etc.), volunteer hours, booklist, etc. Your kid can help maintain these records. In our house, kids are responsible for listing all books read and the date. I am responsible for cornering them once a month and recording all of their volunteer hours. I am also responsible for noticing that my son is doing yet another weird cool project and listing that in the file named "Kid's Weird Projects"! You will figure out some way to record the information, but do record it somewhere somehow! One thing I didn't realize -- a lot of colleges want to know what your kid did during the summers, not only the activities but approximate time commitment. You can easily organize all the information during the summer after junior year, but you NEED the information so you can organize it! Ultimately, you will probably need less information than you think you will, but it's important to have recorded as much as you can as you go along. that way you don't realize (as I did a month or so ago) that you have no idea what grade your son received for his Latin 2 class! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Barb B Posted July 7, 2010 Share Posted July 7, 2010 Ditto what Gwen said. Most important - keep track as you go! Also, look on college web sites now to see what some want. You don't have to know what college dc want to go to - just look at a variety so you can get an idea. Also, I came across some that want course descriptions - something that you can start now. Barb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martha in VA Posted July 7, 2010 Share Posted July 7, 2010 What a terrific question! I'd also recommend getting your hands on SWB's talk about creating a High School transcript. I don't see it listed at the PHP Store or I'd link it. I know they carry it though because I bought it at HEAV. Maybe give them a call and see if they will sell it to you. It is loaded with invaluable information. (Now, that said, it's very probable that lots of the same information is in TWTM. I just learn better by listening than I do by reading.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted July 7, 2010 Author Share Posted July 7, 2010 I love the idea of Kid's weird projects! We have a lot of those. Course descriptions, I need work on that for sure. Thanks for the info on the SWB talk, I'll look for that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FloridaLisa Posted July 7, 2010 Share Posted July 7, 2010 In addition to the excellent and seasoned advice from Gwen, I would add: *find a local friend/mentor who has schooled her children through high school and into colleges. Take her to lunch and ask all of your questions. It's good to find a local perspective. *begin now looking at the requirements for the colleges that your dc is interested in. Also look at the requirements of the prospective major and even graduate school. If your dc dual enrolls, it will affect graduate school. *trust your own instincts and the research that you have gathered. My oldest was given terrible advice by the dual-enrollment coordinator at our local cc. My advice ended up being the better course of action, but ds didn't realize that until it was too late. :glare: It was fixable, but I learned to continue to insist on certain things. HTH, Lisa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted July 7, 2010 Author Share Posted July 7, 2010 Thank you all! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted July 8, 2010 Share Posted July 8, 2010 I agree with all that Gwen posted above. And I heartily concur with this suggestion: *find a local friend/mentor who has schooled her children through high school and into colleges. Take her to lunch and ask all of your questions. It's good to find a local perspective. I posted previously on this same topic. You can find my suggestions at this link. I also recommend joining the Yahoo group hs2coll · Homeschooling toward college. Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnM Posted August 9, 2010 Share Posted August 9, 2010 CollegeBoard.com has excellent information. I am a former high school guidance counselor and we encouraged all of our parents to go to that website. I feel a bit inadequate to give strong advice to most homeschoolers though. I spent 4 years in the guidance office (after 12 years of teaching high school), but it was in a very inner-city school and my job was primarily to show parents that college was even an option for their children! I am very familiar with the CA state schools and requirements. I am finding NC to be quite different. Dawn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heather in AL Posted August 9, 2010 Share Posted August 9, 2010 Also look at the requirements of the prospective major and even graduate school. If your dc dual enrolls, it will affect graduate school. Lisa, can you elaborate on this please? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted August 9, 2010 Author Share Posted August 9, 2010 I agree with all that Gwen posted above. And I heartily concur with this suggestion: I posted previously on this same topic. You can find my suggestions at this link. I also recommend joining the Yahoo group hs2coll · Homeschooling toward college. Regards, Kareni Thank you. I've been on the hs2coll yahoo group. Okay, I lurk there. Excellent group, lot of information. CollegeBoard.com has excellent information. I am a former high school guidance counselor and we encouraged all of our parents to go to that website. I feel a bit inadequate to give strong advice to most homeschoolers though. I spent 4 years in the guidance office (after 12 years of teaching high school), but it was in a very inner-city school and my job was primarily to show parents that college was even an option for their children! I am very familiar with the CA state schools and requirements. I am finding NC to be quite different. Dawn Thank you. I keep forgetting to check college board. I met my high school guidance counselor once, to change a class. :glare: This was a highly rated suburban school and the counselor never once talked about college with us. I didn't go to college, partly because I had no one helping me figure out how to handle all of the details. I want my son's experience to be different, so I'll over plan I'm sure. Lisa, can you elaborate on this please? yes, please. :bigear: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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