Collaborative labs required??

[8filltheheart]

There is a poster on CC stating that MIT and "other top schools" will not accept homeschoolers who do labs at home bc labs are required to have been completed in a group collaboration.

 

Has anyone else ever heard of any such thing? (How many kids on this forum have used PAH's AP chem? Ds loved that class. And oh my, the hrs spent on Spectrum chem labs. Ugh. Won't drudge up those memories.)

 

Curious if others have ever heard this from MIT.

[Kathy in Richmond]

Wow, I've never heard of that policy before, including MIT. Really?!!

 

I'd love to hear more details, especially if there's been a change. I'd be very surprised, though. MIT for one is fairly transparent about what they're looking for in homeschoolers, & I'd expect any big changes to appear on their admissions website.

 

In the past when my kids were in the thick of it, I inquired and was told that they want to see more backup of grades from homeschoolers (though certainly not in every class or subject), but that could take the form of some testing (AP, SAT Subject) or outsourced classes (PA Homeschoolers, DE, etc).

 

MIT has always been interested in seeing a collaborative spirit in their applicants.. Again, however, there are plenty of ways to demonstrate that you can work well in group settings. School labs are certainly not the only (or best) way. Scouts, youth groups, summer experiences, extracurricular teams, etc, all work well!

 

We did ALL of our science classes and labs at home, not even via any online classes...We went the testing route for science to back up their learning, but no collaboration on labs (unless you can count curious siblings) and both kids had excellent college results, including MIT.

[8filltheheart]

That is what I thought. Kathy. It seems like an arbitrary line in the sand with no posted info online.

 

ASU is upfront with what the expect. It seems unbelievable that MIT would change criteria and not publicize the requirement.

[Dmmetler]

How would most homeschoolers even prove that? Usually the parent is the one making the transcript and course descriptions, even for classes taken in a co-op. I can't say that I listed which labs we did at home vs which ones DD did at the local college vs which ones were done with a pulled together group of kids. If anything, the ones done in a group are less likely to be the standard labs. Unless the kids can take it at the local PS or do it at a local college, it seems like it would be hard to prove that the labs weren't done at home.

[8filltheheart]

How would most homeschoolers even prove that? Usually the parent is the one making the transcript and course descriptions, even for classes taken in a co-op. I can't say that I listed which labs we did at home vs which ones DD did at the local college vs which ones were done with a pulled together group of kids. If anything, the ones done in a group are less likely to be the standard labs. Unless the kids can take it at the local PS or do it at a local college, it seems like it would be hard to prove that the labs weren't done at home.

 

They were suggesting that lab sciences would require DE type instruction.

[FriedClams]

I've not read that, not gotten that info from my DD who has researched MIT thoroughly (lol!). We did chemistry in a co-op, and again with BJU as the co-op was weak. DD is dual enrolling (at a state four year college), and taking a lab (astronomy) for the purposes of being in a collegiate lab setting for both experience and college applications. My guess is that while it's not required, it can't hurt.

Edited June 11, 2017 by FriedClams