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ASU only accepts "live labs" on high school transcript. Advice?


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Hello all:

 

I would appreciate your input on this dilemma.  I am home schooling my high school son.  He is currently in 9th grade.  He would like to attend Arizona State University (ASU).  When I reviewed their admission requirements it says that any science lab courses completed in high school must be "live labs".  No virtual labs on computer are accepted.  ASU is not clear about accepting science labs done in the home environment.  The labs we do are "live", meaning we use real equipment (i.e. microscope, slides, dissection equipment, etc.) in our home school science courses.  

 

My concern is that they will not accept these labs.  I have talked with different advisors at ASU and received different answers.  And there will be no guarantee that what they tell us today will be what they judge his transcript by in 3 years when he applies to college.

 

This has been my plan.  What do you all suggest?

 

9th grade:  His first semester of Biology was completed at a local public high school.  The second semester we decided to home school him.  We continued with Biology by completing Apologia Biology.

 

10th grade:  We plan on doing Apologia Chemistry

 

12th grade:  We plan on having him take Physics at a local community college for dual credit for the 1st semester.   The second semester we plan on having him take Anatomy and Physiology at the local community college for dual credit.

 

Have any of you encountered difficulty getting a college to accept home school high school labs?

What did you do?

 

All your advice and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks,

Denny

 

 

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  • 2 months later...
Guest Lady M

I signed up to this forum because of this question so I'm new here.  My son too wants to apply to ASU (for this fall) but then I came across that lab requirement and was stumped on what to do since all labs were done at home.  The 2-page lab sheet they want filled out seems simple but will it be enough.  My son plans on majoring in Political Science so I'm hoping his SAT scores, transcripts, home school affidavit (yes, there's one of those too) and lab sheet will be good enough.  We have a counselor calling us Monday to discuss it further.  If any other home schoolers have had their children attend ASU, please let us know how you proved lab work.  Thank you!

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Mine did back in '08 but I don't even remember the requirement. Maybe because she took three sciences at the community college? At any rate, the requirement ticks me off to the extent that none of the rest of my kids will go there.

 

ETA: it would be different if this were a requirement of *all* incoming freshmen. Labs are notoriously lacking at many high schools due to lack of funds, lack of equipment, or simply lack of motivation. Singling out the homeschooling population is offensive.

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Welcome! ?
 

On 6/14/2014 at 4:54 PM, Lady M said:

I signed up to this forum because of this question so I'm new here.  My son too wants to apply to ASU (for this fall) but then I came across that lab requirement and was stumped on what to do since all labs were done at home.  The 2-page lab sheet they want filled out seems simple but will it be enough.  My son plans on majoring in Political Science so I'm hoping his SAT scores, transcripts, home school affidavit (yes, there's one of those too) and lab sheet will be good enough.  We have a counselor calling us Monday to discuss it further.  If any other home schoolers have had their children attend ASU, please let us know how you proved lab work.  Thank you!


See these 2 past threads for more info/advice on the ASU science lab requirement:
response to "ASU only accepts live labs"
Obnoxious lab science requirement

Having done the labs at home is not a problem. The only tricky bit is to make SURE that when describing the equipment, use science lab names (beakers, flasks, graduated cylinders, bunsen burner), rather than kitchen items (glass jars, measuring cups/spoons, the stovetop). If ASU sees anything other than the science lab wording, they will red-flag the admission form, fearing the student didn't do "real" labs.

A homeschooling friend, whose daughter graduated with my DS in 2011 got a full music scholarship to ASU. For each science class, my friend just photocopied the textbook cover, copyright page and table of contents; printed a list of all the lab equipment (with the "scientific" names), listed all the lab kits used for each science class, plus photocopied a few of their lab reports, and sent it all in as a packet as proof of real lab science, along with that required form you are referring to. They had done Apologia sciences throughout, done the labs at home, and had no problems with acceptance.

BEST of luck in your college admission adventures! ? Warmly, Lori D.

 

Edited by Lori D.
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Based on your link, I not only would keep a scrupulous and detailed lab notebook, but I would save receipts proving I purchased lab supplies and equipment, and would document with pictures also. 

I signed up to this forum because of this question so I'm new here.  My son too wants to apply to ASU (for this fall) but then I came across that lab requirement and was stumped on what to do since all labs were done at home.  The 2-page lab sheet they want filled out seems simple but will it be enough.  My son plans on majoring in Political Science so I'm hoping his SAT scores, transcripts, home school affidavit (yes, there's one of those too) and lab sheet will be good enough.  We have a counselor calling us Monday to discuss it further.  If any other home schoolers have had their children attend ASU, please let us know how you proved lab work.  Thank you!

 

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  • 10 months later...

I wanted to revive this thread, because I had a discussion this week with an ASU admissions rep.  

 

The rep was staffing a college fair table.  He seemed quite familiar with actual admissions requirements and on campus programs, so I think that he was from the admissions office, rather than just being a local alum or parent.  

 

When I asked about homeschoolers, he said that there were some specific requirements and that what most often caused an issue was the lab science requirement.  He described the two page form, but was also quick to explain that there were some other ways of meeting the requirement.  He said that if a student took lab science at a community college, each semester would count as a year of high school lab science.  Similarly, if they had a good score on the science section of the ACT or on SAT Subject tests for science, that would meet the requirements.

 

I didn't see a discussion of this on the homeschool page of the admissions site, but did find this in the general admissions section:  https://students.asu.edu/admission/competencies 

 

One thing to notice is that students are still supposed to have three different sciences from the listing.  So two semesters of chem at CC and an SAT Chem score probably wouldn't meet the requirement.  (I'm not totally clear on how the ACT score would be applied, since it isn't for a specific science.  Maybe that would verify an integrated science or could be used for the science subject that the student stated having taken?)

 

In all his attitude was more of offering ways to meet the requirement, not finding ways to exclude homeschoolers.  One comment he made was that the requirement was supposed to apply to all of the state schools, but because ASU maintained the database of courses that met requirements, they were the school that got audited for compliance.  He also said that there was an online form in the works that was intended to make it easier to approve the lab work.  (Not sure if it will be easier for the family or just for admissions.)

 

I did have the chance to say that news of the requirement had spread through the homeschool networks and that I thought the result was not positive for ASU.  Having made that point with him, I wanted to pass on what I thought was encouraging news of some flexibility and willingness to work with students to meet the requirement.

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Guest Lady M

Hello All - I apologize for not getting back here sooner but wanted to let you know (for those interested), ASU made it super easy for my son to enroll Sept. '14. He chose a chapter/lab out of his biology text to fill in the science lab requirement. So the lab, notarized transcripts and his SAT scores were submitted and he was accepted a short while later. And they couldn't have been nicer or more accommodating. His advisor walked him through everything. So it turned out to be no big deal and just a few extra sheets of paper to fill out. Hope that helped!

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On 4/26/2015 at 5:22 AM, NoPlaceLikeHome said:

Does this mean that a kid always needs to take community college science classes in order to be safe in meeting college requirements? 


Not at all.

ASU is the only university that I've ever seen mentioned that requires the extra hoop of the lab paperwork for science. NO university requires community college science classes from homeschoolers. Even ASU which is a bit more picky is perfectly fine with homeschool science (see posts #8 and #14 up thread).

As a homeschooler, all you need to do is  complete your science credits with high school level materials, and do some labs and lab reports. And as with all of your textbooks, it's helpful to photocopy the cover, copyright page and table of contents for reference when writing up your Course Description document.

And if you go to ASU, fill out their additional lab form.

Sebastian (in post #11) was just pointing out that the ASU rep was sharing that taking community college science was just one of SEVERAL ways of fulfilling ASU's "proof of science labs" requirement. He also said the 2-page lab form worked fine. As did a high score on the SAT II Science test.

Please don't worry or over think this. Your homeschool science will be perfectly acceptable for college admissions.  ?

Edited by Lori D.
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