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University of California and homeschoolers


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I'm curious about the answer as well (UCSB alumni here. Oh, I'm missing CA weather!).

 

What I'm seeing on their site is that homeschoolers have to apply by examination or exception - transcripts would then not count. (Although I'm sure you've read this already...)

 

Exception application: "Some students are home-schooled and don't have transcripts. Others have life circumstances that have prevented them living up to their promise. The list is endless." :glare: Yuck.

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:bigear:

 

This is what I understand, although I'm not at all sure. To be on the safe side, so far I have dd enrolled in an accredited umbrella school, just in case we should apply to the UC system.

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It is correct. Except for UC Riverside (and I haven't looked into thier requirements), both the UC and Cal State schools only accept diplomas and transcripts from accredited schools.

 

There are ways of dealing with this:

 

1. Attend an accredited umbrella school, either a public charter or a private one -- BUT the high school credits have to meet UC standards for those pesky A-G requirements.

 

2. Start in community college and transfer -- saves lots of money, but with the state budget cuts it is a nightmare on both community college and UC and State campuses with crowded classes and fewer sections.

 

3. Skip the UC schools altogether. It is easier to get into Stanford as a homeschooler than it is to get into Berkeley. The UCs aren't staying a cheap option, either, with all the tuition increases.

 

We were at an accredited umbrella, but my oldest ds will be going out of state to a private university that accepts homeschoolers. My youngest just passed the CHSPE so he can attend community college full time then transfer some place -- whether a UC, Cal Poly or a private LAC.

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Oh it gets even better. Not only do you have to meet their class requirements, but you have to use materials that have been approved for "a-g" classificiation. So not only is it good enough for you to have taken the 4 years of math, english and whatever, if your course isn't a-g approved they won't accept it. Your student could get around this however by taking the SAT subject test, but it's really kind of ridiculous.

 

FWIW-dd is going the cc then transfer route. Not only because of these requirments, but also because she just isn't ready to go straight into a 4 year.

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Oh it gets even better. Not only do you have to meet their class requirements, but you have to use materials that have been approved for "a-g" classificiation. So not only is it good enough for you to have taken the 4 years of math, english and whatever, if your course isn't a-g approved they won't accept it. Your student could get around this however by taking the SAT subject test, but it's really kind of ridiculous.

 

FWIW-dd is going the cc then transfer route. Not only because of these requirments, but also because she just isn't ready to go straight into a 4 year.

 

I have been outraged for years at how the "a-g" requirements rule the lives of high schoolers, public, private, and homeschooled, throughout the state. It's really absurd. But I had no idea that the MATERIALS also had to be approved. Holy handmaid in a basket, Batman. Well, this morning I'll sit here and review all my ideas about how we have to be with an accredited umbrella school.

 

P.S. Jenn, are you over the flu?

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Guest Cheryl in SoCal
I have been outraged for years at how the "a-g" requirements rule the lives of high schoolers, public, private, and homeschooled, throughout the state. It's really absurd. But I had no idea that the MATERIALS also had to be approved. Holy handmaid in a basket, Batman. Well, this morning I'll sit here and review all my ideas about how we have to be with an accredited umbrella school.

 

P.S. Jenn, are you over the flu?

I know many of my materials wouldn't be approved, and I don't care:001_tt2: (raspberry directed at CA, not you:001_smile:). I'm doing what I feel is best for my children and if the UC doesn't like it than that further confirms my suspicion that attending a UC is not in their best interest. I don't mention it to my step-father though, as he works at UCR:lol:

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Holy handmaid in a basket, Batman.

 

LOL! I'm going to have to use that sometime.

 

About their control over materials. The umbrella public charter I was with wanted their homeschool families to be able to choose their own materials and not be tied down with only UC approved texts. So their negotiated compromise was that the class had to be taught by a "qualified instructor".

 

And now the UC system wants to bring in a higher percentage of out of state students because of the higher tuition they pay. How do out of state applicants get around those a-g requirements with the mandated texts? It is all such a bureaucratic nightmare.

 

Karen -- still in flu mode here, but feeling far more functional than I have in days.

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I know many of my materials wouldn't be approved, and I don't care:001_tt2: (raspberry directed at CA, not you:001_smile:). I'm doing what I feel is best for my children and if the UC doesn't like it than that further confirms my suspicion that attending a UC is not in their best interest. I don't mention it to my step-father though, as he works at UCR:lol:

 

My dh works at UC, so we are eligible for some kind of faculty dealie should dd apply; I'm not sure what it is, but we always have that in the back of our minds should finances prevent us from getting her to the small liberal arts school of our dreams.

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Oh it gets even better. Not only do you have to meet their class requirements, but you have to use materials that have been approved for "a-g" classificiation. So not only is it good enough for you to have taken the 4 years of math, english and whatever, if your course isn't a-g approved they won't accept it. Your student could get around this however by taking the SAT subject test, but it's really kind of ridiculous.

 

We used to be with a charter school that supposedly offered a-g courses, but even then it was a nightmare (OSU German wasn't a-g, even though they're HQTs, b/c they're not CA-approved :glare:; my son's orchestra class at our local CC wasn't a-g b/c the teacher isn't CA-credentialed :glare: ...). I decided to focus on my sons' educations and not worry about the a-g requirements. One of my kids tests well and we're planning to use the SAT testing route (for example, his 710 on SAT Writing portion supposedly covers four years of a-g high-school English. Which I find absurd, b/c he was eleven when he got that score ... and still has to take four years of high-school English (which he would anyway, of course), and then they'll retroactively call it a-g ... :confused:). Anyway the SAT subject test scores are very low that make a course "count" (such as a 530 on chemistry). Don't know how one handles the lab requirement ... :confused:

 

ETA: I should clarify that it was our umbrella/charter homeschool organization that decided he should still take four years of high-school English and *then* they'd call it a-g. It's quite possible that UC would give him credit (when he applies, which would be during his fourth year of high-school English, so kind of the same thing, in practice) just because of the exam score. On the page I've linked they use terminology like "score of XXX clears one year", so it seems -- I have to ask UC directly -- that the test takes the place of a class ...

 

but here is the page detailing which scores satisfy a-g requirements. Quite low to just satisfy the a-g requirement, but obviously the higher the score, the better your chances of admission ...

 

A) History/social science

...

SAT Subject Examination

 

U.S. History: Score of 550 satisfies one year.

 

World History: Score of 540 satisfies one year.

 

etc.

 

We have some time yet, but I plan to call UC and ask more questions about this subject-test policy ... and also the 'examination path'. It says the subject tests you use for that can't be subjects you've taken a college class in ... so if we use Math Level 2, but my son takes multivariable calculus at the CC, will Math Level 2 (precalc) still count? :confused: As a PP says, the UCs aren't the value they used to be, so we're hoping for good merit/need-based aid at a private school, but the UCs will (hopefully) be a backup like they were for me eons ago. In fact, my parents met at Cal :001_wub:

 

~Laura

Edited by Laura in CA
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Students we know who were hsed and went to UC schools attended community college and transferred in. Most of these did go to the UC school after high school graduation, but they had taken enough cc courses to transfer in as sophomores or juniors. That is the easiest way to get into the UC system.

 

But now is not a good time to attend a UC or a Cal State school because most students can't get the classes they need. Some of the schools are telling prospective students to plan on it taking a minimum of 6 years to get a degree, and tuition costs keep increasing.

 

My dh is a UC Irvine Alum and has donated to the school in the past. After they enacted their policy about only accepting students from accredited schools, my dh told them not to bother calling him any more because they refused to accept our dc at the university. The student on the phone sighed and said that she had heard that from a lot of Alumi.

 

My dc decided not to go to CA state schools. One ds did apply and was accepted as a transfer student, but could not register for any classes because of budget cuts and resulting course cuts. The school told him that being accepted was not a guarantee that he could take classes. Crazy, right? He is now happily enrolled in an out-of-state state university where he can get the courses he needs for less money than CA universities charge, and living expenses are lower, too. Most the students we know at CA state schools (UC and Cal States) have either transferred out to attend out of state schools or transferred into private schools because they can't get classes they need. Students who have stayed are also taking cc classes to make up for the classes they can't get at the state university. One friend's dd is taking 4 cc classes and 1 at a UC because she could only enroll in 1 course there.

 

The counselor at the cc told my dd that the cc recommends students transfer to an out of state university or to a private school, and transfer to a Cal State or UC only as a last resort.

 

But if your child wants to go to a UC school, taking cc courses is a good way to save money and get into the school. The cc course catalog has info on which courses transfer to UC system so there shouldn't be unpleasant surprises.

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Does UC look favorably on out of state cc credits/AA degrees or does the cc have to be in California to qualify? We no longer live in CA.

 

Part of my problem is that both my husband and I went to UC schools, my father was a professor at one, and just about everybody I knew in high school went to one, so I have this idea that UC is the only thing around.

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The counselor at the cc told my dd that the cc recommends students transfer to an out of state university or to a private school, and transfer to a Cal State or UC only as a last resort.
Wow.

 

Was this before or after the most recent round of tuition, previously known as fees, price hikes? Kudos to the brutally frank counselor and that particular cc. Our local cc still has the college fair with various Cal states represented at the tables.

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Does UC look favorably on out of state cc credits/AA degrees or does the cc have to be in California to qualify? We no longer live in CA.

 

Part of my problem is that both my husband and I went to UC schools, my father was a professor at one, and just about everybody I knew in high school went to one, so I have this idea that UC is the only thing around.

 

Last I heard, UC is courting out-of-state students because they have to pay out-of-state (higher) tuition.

 

And take a gander at Colleges That Change Lives to see if it will change your mental framework. It certainly did mine. The only reason I cling to trying to still fulfill UC entrance requirements is that dh works there (and I used to). But my grasp is getting feebler now that I'm reading this thread...

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Thanks for this. I didn't know some SAT subject tests count for a-g.

 

Homeschoolers also have "eligibility by examination"": They can be eligible if they have high scores on all 3 parts of the SAT plus 2 SAT subject tests.

 

http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/freshman/california-residents/examination/index.html

 

I was going to do this as a backup for my son but he totally bombed the USH SAT Subject test so he'll have to transfer if he really wants to go to UC.

 

I agree that UC's req's for hsers are ridiculous. Also with the new Gov's plan for UC and CSU playing (or should I say paying?) a large part of saving the budget, who knows what it's going to be like there in the next few years.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi all,

I hesitate to revive this thread because I don't have much concrete information to add --I came searching for info, actually. :)

 

Ds applied to UCLA in November, largely on a whim. We were not even aware then that admissions by examination was possible. Though we live in SoCal and I am a UCLA alum, it was not on our radar for possible schools. We always took as law that UC's do not like homeschoolers and figured it was their loss.

 

Ds, however, received an AROTC scholarship he can use there and that's where the ROTC interview was held. He decided, "why not?" sometime in mid November and threw himself into the application which he submitted with only 2 days to spare.

 

He was homeschooled K-11 and did not complete any a-g approved courses in that time frame. The only one that counts is a Community College Biology class he took for the sake of the lab. He is currently in a Christian school because a serious illness in our family prevents me from homeschooling him at this level; and his military aspirations mean he cannot take too many CC classes. Though the Christian school is a-g approved, and he is taking a full load of academic classes (including 3 AP) it is not near enough to meet the a-g requirements for UC.

 

So....we applied with a grin. Told them he was homeschooled for 11 years and figured that he'd fall into the "special circumstances" category. The boy can write well which is a plus. His essays highlighted his extracurricular and "out of the box" experiences all of which were possible because of homeschooling. He even took the required SAT IIs after the deadline (with their approval.)

 

We were surprised when he was asked to submit a "supplemental application" ---which included 2 more essays and a brief questionnaire including first semester final grades. In addition, he has received several emails encouraging him to begin scholarship and financial aid apps.

 

Today he received a letter from the UC president explaining that his application will be considered by other UC campuses. Evidently they are encouraging "readers" to take a "holistic" view of applicants and consider them for any UC program that might fit in addition to the one to which they applied. The letter said my son should expect to hear from some of the other schools regarding their offerings.

 

This is more attention than we expected and it does not mean he will be accepted to UCLA. I just find it immensely interesting and came here to see if others had walked this road before. It is funny that I don't actually want him to go there (and it is not his first choice) but my curiosity is certainly piqued.

 

BTW he is a motivated student who writes well and has a variety of interests, sports, extracurricular and community service activities. He does not test well on standardized tests, however, so his SAT score (while quite respectable) is not up there with the stars.

 

We'll see:tongue_smilie: ---and if any of you are interested, I'll keep you posted.

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  • 1 year later...
It is correct. Except for UC Riverside (and I haven't looked into thier requirements), both the UC and Cal State schools only accept diplomas and transcripts from accredited schools.

 

There are ways of dealing with this:

 

1. Attend an accredited umbrella school, either a public charter or a private one -- BUT the high school credits have to meet UC standards for those pesky A-G requirements.

 

2. Start in community college and transfer -- saves lots of money, but with the state budget cuts it is a nightmare on both community college and UC and State campuses with crowded classes and fewer sections.

 

3. Skip the UC schools altogether. It is easier to get into Stanford as a homeschooler than it is to get into Berkeley. The UCs aren't staying a cheap option, either, with all the tuition increases.

 

We were at an accredited umbrella, but my oldest ds will be going out of state to a private university that accepts homeschoolers. My youngest just passed the CHSPE so he can attend community college full time then transfer some place -- whether a UC, Cal Poly or a private LAC.

 

UC graduate here, but I don't want my kids to apply. The UC is only after out- of- state and out -of- county dollars. They for go top ranking CA students for this goal. Yet DD wants to keep the UC door open, so we are enrolled in a private online school that does offer approved a-g required courses. However, online art and science classes are not accepted unless the student takes an AP or SAT II subject test.

 

 

Hi all,

I hesitate to revive this thread because I don't have much concrete information to add --I came searching for info, actually. :)

 

Ds applied to UCLA in November, largely on a whim. We were not even aware then that admissions by examination was possible. Though we live in SoCal and I am a UCLA alum, it was not on our radar for possible schools. We always took as law that UC's do not like homeschoolers and figured it was their loss.

 

Ds, however, received an AROTC scholarship he can use there and that's where the ROTC interview was held. He decided, "why not?" sometime in mid November and threw himself into the application which he submitted with only 2 days to spare.

 

He was homeschooled K-11 and did not complete any a-g approved courses in that time frame. The only one that counts is a Community College Biology class he took for the sake of the lab. He is currently in a Christian school because a serious illness in our family prevents me from homeschooling him at this level; and his military aspirations mean he cannot take too many CC classes. Though the Christian school is a-g approved, and he is taking a full load of academic classes (including 3 AP) it is not near enough to meet the a-g requirements for UC.

 

So....we applied with a grin. Told them he was homeschooled for 11 years and figured that he'd fall into the "special circumstances" category. The boy can write well which is a plus. His essays highlighted his extracurricular and "out of the box" experiences all of which were possible because of homeschooling. He even took the required SAT IIs after the deadline (with their approval.)

 

We were surprised when he was asked to submit a "supplemental application" ---which included 2 more essays and a brief questionnaire including first semester final grades. In addition, he has received several emails encouraging him to begin scholarship and financial aid apps.

 

Today he received a letter from the UC president explaining that his application will be considered by other UC campuses. Evidently they are encouraging "readers" to take a "holistic" view of applicants and consider them for any UC program that might fit in addition to the one to which they applied. The letter said my son should expect to hear from some of the other schools regarding their offerings.

 

This is more attention than we expected and it does not mean he will be accepted to UCLA. I just find it immensely interesting and came here to see if others had walked this road before. It is funny that I don't actually want him to go there (and it is not his first choice) but my curiosity is certainly piqued.

 

BTW he is a motivated student who writes well and has a variety of interests, sports, extracurricular and community service activities. He does not test well on standardized tests, however, so his SAT score (while quite respectable) is not up there with the stars.

 

We'll see:tongue_smilie: ---and if any of you are interested, I'll keep you posted.

 

Interesting. Let us know what happens.

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It's an interesting twist that acceptance into the UC system does not guarantee placement in the campus of your choice.

 

This was true even when I was applying to college (whereas there is a recent push to limit the number of Cal State attendees who did not attend high school nearby), but now they can funnel applicants to UC Merced and still smugly say they've offered them a spot "in the UC system."

 

Another recent (I think) twist is being offered a spot at a flagship school such as UC Berkeley, BUT you can't start until spring semester. I know several kids, including at least one homeschooler, in this situation. All I can think is that they figure a bunch of kids will drop out by spring.

 

Several local kids have spurned the UCs (although the vast majority of the kids my son knows at the local ps are attending UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UCSB, or UCSC, or Cal State campuses) and are attending the Univ of Arizona and the Univ of Alabama on full rides. :001_smile: Harder on their parents to have them far away, but sweeter on the pocketbook.

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OK, here it goes...

SunnyCa? Did your homeschooler/christian 12th grader get any UC acceptances?

 

:)

 

Ds only applied to UCLA because Dh and I did not actually think he had much of a chance as a homeschooler ---given what we had heard about it being impossible. Each UC has its own admissions criteria/application process, so the applications have to be filed separately for each school. We did not want to pay too many app fees, so we focused only on the school he would choose if he was given the choice.

 

He loves UCLA and it has turned out to be a great fit for him. We are glad he gave it a try.

 

ETA: I guess I forgot to answer the question directly:) Ds was accepted and we were pleasantly surprised.

Edited by sunnyca
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My daughter is going to SF State in the fall (a CSU school). We have homeschooled independently all along. My daughter has 1 cc class, no approved A-Gs, though her courses fit the requirements. She had decent SATs, not phenomenal. All went smoothly until we submitted her official transcript in June. (Prior to that the student records the classes they've taken in the online application.) Apparently, the admissions counselor had never seen a homeschool transcript that wasn't from a public or private charter school. (That's what she told us) From there we had a number of lengthy conversation and the "higher ups" had a meeting to establish a protocol for handling independent homeschoolers. After a nerve wracking couple of weeks, we got the call that her transcript was accepted. She starts next week.

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  • 8 months later...
Guest guatomallin

Hello, I'm new here!

I hate to revive an old post, but I need some opinions and clarification. I am so scared!

 

I am a senior at a small project- based learning charter high school in California. I applied to four UCs last fall and got accepted to all. I will hopefully attend UC Davis next fall... I got into my top choice school hoooray!!!!

 

However, something did not feel quite right and I decided to investigate my high school's A-G approved courses. I discovered that not all of the classes I took at my charter school are A-G approved courses. I had absolutely no idea!

 

Is it possible I will get my admission rescinded? Is there any way I could fix this? Is there any chance they will let me attend UC Davis regardless? Are my hopes and dreams broken?!

 

Thanks,

Carlos.

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Hello, I'm new here!

I hate to revive an old post, but I need some opinions and clarification. I am so scared!

 

I am a senior at a small project- based learning charter high school in California. I applied to four UCs last fall and got accepted to all. I will hopefully attend UC Davis next fall... I got into my top choice school hoooray!!!!

 

However, something did not feel quite right and I decided to investigate my high school's A-G approved courses. I discovered that not all of the classes I took at my charter school are A-G approved courses. I had absolutely no idea!

 

Is it possible I will get my admission rescinded? Is there any way I could fix this? Is there any chance they will let me attend UC Davis regardless? Are my hopes and dreams broken?!

 

Thanks,

Carlos.

 

 

That is something you'll need to take up with the administration of your charter school. Hope it works out for you.

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Funny but I was just thinking of this thread. No been there done that advice. But it does look like there is a new link for the admissions by exam explanation. http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/freshman/requirements/examination/index.html

 

I had the impression that homeschoolers need not apply. But it seems a little more open if you are willing to demonstrate ability and coursework through other means. Not sure I'd steer a kid that way in part because of state financial uncertainty.

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Is it possible I will get my admission rescinded? Is there any way I could fix this? Is there any chance they will let me attend UC Davis regardless? Are my hopes and dreams broken?!

 

If you got accepted, then you're in. I've never heard of a college rescinding someone's acceptance for anything other than academic fraud. It's the school's job to decide whether your courses are acceptable to them.

 

I wouldn't worry about it.

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  • 5 weeks later...
Guest candycandy

I agree with the post on 5/23/2013. The admissions officers should have checked those things before they decided to accept you and I am pretty sure they did.

UC admission process seems to be complicated and to satisfy a-g, there are few other options.

 

http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/files/CC11_SatisfyingA-G_final.pdf

If you read it carefully, you may realize your unaccedited courses could have been satisfied somehow, and if they still aren't, the admissions office must have made an exception which is possible. (After all, they take international and out-of-state students from unknown schools)

Would you kindly let us know once you safely start going to UCD?

Have a great Summer!

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