Selective high school opportunities closed to homeschooled students?

[madteaparty]

I'm trying to be thoughtful about this "maybe homeschooling high school" thing, versus my usual method of closing eyes and jumping, and to that end I am calculating the opportunity cost. We live in NY, so obviously school sports are one thing DS cant do. He has never been interested though so not a problem.

 

But I am wondering if you can help me with some less obvious ones. I learned of something called "Princeton Symposium in Creative Arts" for example, and yet I cannot find anything about  directly applying to it online. It seems various schools get to nominate a single student. So perhaps closed to homeschoolers by default? Anyone knows?

 

Are there other similar things out there?*

 

* I don't presume my child would qualify for anything. I'm just doing research :)

[Hilltopmom]

Ds has homeschooled all the way through high school. We're in NY too.

 

We "can" do drama club & things like that at public school but were not interested., he had a full plate already

 

He's done selective (& not so selective) college summer programs, all were open for homeschoolers to apply to- thngs like RPI summer engineering programs, UVM summer engineering program, Cornell Career Explorations, RIT careers program.

He's applied to others like Norwch Cyber Camp.

 

He's been able to do a lot of things, no problem with being a homeschoolers- stuff through 4H, FTC Robotics, local & international Science Fairs (you just apply as a homeschooler instead of through your school science dept), Model UN (homeschool team), Poetry Out Loud competitions, spelling bees, National History Day, etc.

 

Now, I have seen some things (usually awards, not activities) that required nomination from a school, but none of those were things he was into. You could probably use good test scores to access some of those instead.

 

For things that needed transcripts, test scores, & letters of recommendation- we had those from me, or his activities, or his DE classes.

Edited May 22, 2017 by Hilltopmom

[daijobu]

I am not aware of the symposium you cite, but I have encountered programs and contests where I've searched the website for information for homeschoolers to participate and there will be nothing.  But if I call and ask, I find that they are very receptive.  So don't assume anything just by what you read.  

 

Generally I find that programs and competitions are keen to grow participation, not restrict it, so even if you are the first homeschoolers they've encountered, they will often do what they can to make it happen.  

 

The AMCs of course allow homeschoolers, but you need to locate a school, university, or library that will host it for you.  Advanced Placement exams...the schools that host them may or may not allow homeschoolers to take the exam at their site.  

 

When you contact them, be positive.  "Your Symposium sounds like such a great opportunity, and I know of many homeschoolers who might want to participate.  What can we do to apply?"  

 

Sometimes it a matter of fitting a square peg homeschooling family into the round hole of a school situation, but often there is some sort of workaround.  Good luck.  

[madteaparty]

I am not aware of the symposium you cite, but I have encountered programs and contests where I've searched the website for information for homeschoolers to participate and there will be nothing. But if I call and ask, I find that they are very receptive. So don't assume anything just by what you read.

 

Generally I find that programs and competitions are keen to grow participation, not restrict it, so even if you are the first homeschoolers they've encountered, they will often do what they can to make it happen.

 

The AMCs of course allow homeschoolers, but you need to locate a school, university, or library that will host it for you. Advanced Placement exams...the schools that host them may or may not allow homeschoolers to take the exam at their site.

 

When you contact them, be positive. "Your Symposium sounds like such a great opportunity, and I know of many homeschoolers who might want to participate. What can we do to apply?"

 

Sometimes it a matter of fitting a square peg homeschooling family into the round hole of a school situation, but often there is some sort of workaround. Good luck.

Unless I'm even more daft than I imagine, there is no website about the opportunity I mentioned. Assuming I wanted to be a gunner parent and call, there is no such info.

[Julie of KY]

I find that my kids can do most anything not organized by the public schools system. 

 

In Kentucky, home school kids miss out on KEES money if going to a KY college - this is a loss of up to $500/year in scholarship money based on grades. (They can get the KEES money based on ACT scores).

My kids cannot participate in public school activities.

 

My kids can do home school varsity sports (competing mostly against private schools), home school high school musicals, youth orchestras. I've not found any summer activities that restrict us because we home school.

 

The opportunity cost of homeschooling high school is certainly worth it for my family.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

Unless I'm even more daft than I imagine, there is no website about the opportunity I mentioned. Assuming I wanted to be a gunner parent and call, there is no such info.

 

The Symposium you mentioned seems to be part of the Lewis Center's outreach to recruit likely applicants.  I would reach out to the Lewis Center for more info.

 

We had a mixed bag in high school.  Sports was a frustration, especially once we moved away from an area with a lot of swimming clubs.  High school swimming with school teams was not an option.  DS1 ended up moving to open water distance swimming.  DS 2 did sailing and rank road races.  DS3 does outrigger canoeing.  

 

There had not been homeschool participation in Model UN when we moved here.  DS not only started attending conferences, but founded a team of unaffiliated students and staffed the big multi-day conference.  

 

Our area has a strong showing with science teams, often having students place in Science Olympiad events and go to state competitions in SO, Cyber Patriot, Oceanography Bowl and robotics.  Having said that, it is completely dependent on parents being willing to coach.  Also robotics is very expensive.  The local team does FTC, which is a slightly less expensive platform, and they still spend thousands a year on equipment and parts.  Of course, many of the local public high schools don't have teams or have a team in one thing, but not the others.  (Ex. Sea Perch, but not FTC or Science Olympiad.  Debate but not National History Day or Poetry Out Loud.)  

[mschickie]

We are also in NYS.  Our district does not allow hs students to participate in the after school activities but we can participate in a program that allows jrs and seniors to take a couple of classes each semester at one of two local (prestigious) colleges for free.

 

In our area there are lots of opportunities for homeschoolers to participate in. There is a national homeschool honor society that my daughter belongs to (ESA).  In our area one of the local Christian schools allows hs'ers to participate in their plays and join their robotics team.  There are also a variety of sports in the area that hs'ers can join (some competitive some just recreational).  There are also opportunities for competitive sports through some town programs or the YMCA in the area).  

 

You might want to look for some homeschool groups in your area and they can let you know of any local opportunities that might not be so easy to find on line.

[madteaparty]

We are also in NYS. Our district does not allow hs students to participate in the after school activities but we can participate in a program that allows jrs and seniors to take a couple of classes each semester at one of two local (prestigious) colleges for free.

 

In our area there are lots of opportunities for homeschoolers to participate in. There is a national homeschool honor society that my daughter belongs to (ESA). In our area one of the local Christian schools allows hs'ers to participate in their plays and join their robotics team. There are also a variety of sports in the area that hs'ers can join (some competitive some just recreational). There are also opportunities for competitive sports through some town programs or the YMCA in the area).

 

You might want to look for some homeschool groups in your area and they can let you know of any local opportunities that might not be so easy to find on line.

We have the college class option too, though not prestigious and not entirely free ;)

I'm not worried about finding enough for my child to do. I'm specifically concerned about opportunities like the one i mentioned which are not advertised because they want the high school to nominate one and only one student (I'm guessing). I'm wondering how many things like this there are, because this was the first one I found.