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rads

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Posts posted by rads

    Which Christian colleges offer generous scholarships?

    in The College Board

    Posted

    2 minutes ago, Dotwithaperiod said:

    I’m not sure if this one is the right type of Christianity for you, but it’s a lovely school. Houghton College, in NY. They have a full scholarship for NM finalists, semi-finalists offered thru the Honors group. It’s a tiny school, though I’ve heard very good things about it.

    We applied to Houghton too, I thought they give 3 full scholarships per year only?

    Retake SAT because of essay?

    in The College Board

    Posted

    Hello,

    My daughter (a homeschooled senior) scored a 1540 on SAT but with essay score 6, 2, 6. She’s interested in honors programs with full ride or full tuition scholarships. How badly could this essay score affect her, especially since these colleges don’t require or recommend SAT essay for admissions? Possibly thinking of retaking SAT with essay, but she probably would have to wait till December, which would be after some scholarship deadlines but before others. (For example, some Baylor scholarships have deadline for application mid November, and finalists come interview in January).

    She’s planning to take AP English Language as her AP course this year (as well as Calculus and physics courses that she may use to study for AP exams). She is a NSMP semifinalist with good chances to become finalist. 

    Thank you for your time!

    • Like 1

    AP versus online college course for homeschooler

    in The College Board

    Posted · Edited by rads

    16 minutes ago, chiguirre said:

    Since you're interested in Baylor, I'd suggest contacting Texas A&M. They do give full tuition scholarships to NMFs so you only pay for room and board. They also accept a LOT of CLEP credits which your dd could self study for. If you live in TX, they offer freshman year programs at some CCs. Blinn is their local school and students can live in their dorms but they have a program at HCC in Katy that I read about. It's too late to start this semester, but perhaps it would work for spring.

    We lived in Texas for many years and plan to go back there, therefore looking for a college there and already audited Baylor. Her SAT score is 99.5% but we are worried that her last year will look weak and thinking about taking online college level course in calculus or something like that. Would it be better idea to take it at a college affiliated with A&M or Baylor or maybe a top national university? She told local CC college that she has high school diploma so we will have to pay full price anyways.

    AP versus online college course for homeschooler

    in The College Board

    Posted

    36 minutes ago, RootAnn said:

    I'm curious as to how all this works with National Merit. The process is slightly different for high school seniors vs those who have skipped senior year (Which is kind of what the OP has said). Who is filling out the NM paperwork? Who is receiving notification of NMSF status?

    My daughter was in online public high school for a year but we moved to NY where it is not offered. So we did PennFoster which is online AdvancedEd accredited private school. According to NMC website online school students are treated as homeschoolers.  We received her National Merit paperwork and will be filling it out.

    We decided that medicine may not be best for her personality and currently considering engineering, she is gifted in math and engineering will fit her better. As for an engineering degree, her SAT scores are very competitive and we would like to get a full scholarship which was already alluded to by 2 colleges. We called Baylor in Waco TX  that she liked and they said gap year is not a problem but that college doesn't necessarily award scholarships based on NMSC.

    Now another question, if she should be in a rigorous program so she can demonstrate ability by getting good grades, and wants the opportunity to get recent quality teacher references, would AP courses or college courses serve her better in this way?

    AP versus online college course for homeschooler

    in The College Board

    Posted

    49 minutes ago, Matryoshka said:

    You said she's completed the online high school program - is this a gap year, or are you graduating her after this coming year? I'm confused by the timeline, lol. Was this one of those complete programs that issues the transcript and diploma, or are you in charge of those?

    I ask because taking any college classes during a gap year can mess up freshman status for scholarships. 

    She technically got a diploma from that program at the end of junior year, but the program is on the easier side and probably won’t impress colleges, so she is continuing to take classes this year as a senior, particularly advanced classes. How do we make sure that colleges will consider her a senior and not in her gap year this year?

    AP versus online college course for homeschooler

    in The College Board

    Posted

    4 minutes ago, Lucy the Valiant said:

    In some geographical areas and budgets (mine), cost is also a deciding factor. 

    As homeschoolers, we will have to pay full price for AP courses. PAH is approximately $700 or more per course, should be close to college prices and that made me think. Any suggestions on which reputable colleges allow to take only couple courses online? 

    AP versus online college course for homeschooler

    in The College Board

    Posted · Edited by rads

    Hello, 

    My daughter finished online high school program one year yearly but did not apply for colleges yet. She will have one year to take courses and I would like to know what are pro's and contra's of taking AP courses from PAHomeschoolers versus trying to get an online course from a reputable college. We would like to show prospective colleges that she can take college level classes and I was wondering if taking a college course would make better impression than AP course. She is a semifinalist at National Merit scholarship program and we will try to make it to the final. 

    Home school to premed?

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    On 8/29/2018 at 7:09 AM, 8FillTheHeart said:

     

     

    I went back through and read this thread. It sounds like you are in NY. Is she planning on applying to NY Us? If so, you need to understand NY homeschooling law and how NY Us handle homeschool transcripts. Every state is different.  The states I have lived in and the Us where my kids have applied to college have not had additional hurdles for homeschoolers. Some NY Us are not homeschool friendly. I don't know any details, just vaguely remembering things I have read. So the answers to some of your questions might depend on your state.

    I wanted to mention a couple of other paths as well.  First, kids don't have to major in biology or pre-med. My ds's friend I mentioned in the post above majored in physics. I know creekland stated boredom is a factor in kids above the 15th%. I know neither my ds nor his friend (both physics majors) would ever have use the word bored to describe their UG yrs. They were both incredibly involved in research. My ds spent a minimum of 18 hrs/week on research. They took grad level classes, etc.

    The other option I wanted to mention is the bs-md path. My dd's roommate is in a bs-md program. Students are admitted as freshman. If they are accepted into the program and maintain all of the requirements, they are automatically accepted into the med school. My dd's friend has the same scholarships Dd as do a couple of other kids who have also been accepted into the bs-md (7yr program). Dd attends USC and the program there is called BARSC MD. It is mentioned in this bulletin. https://www.sc.edu/about/offices_and_divisions/undergraduate_admissions/connect_with_us/high_school_counselors/counselor_handbook_17_web_version.pdf

    Fwiw, according to USC's website (this is about Honors College students in general, not BARSC MD) 

    Anyway, lots of different path options. If one U's door is closed due to homeschooling, you can always look for other ones with doors wide open and welcoming to homeschoolers.

    Thanks you, we are planning for college in NY or TX

    Home school to premed?

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    16 minutes ago, katilac said:

     

    Not unless you homeschool in an area that doesn't offer many opportunities outside of school for extracurriculars. High GPA and high ACT or SAT scores are the baseline for the majority of scholarships. Lots of schools have merit available based on those alone. Competitive scholarships require something extra; this could be leadership, general involvement, special talent, lots of things. 

    Thanks, do you feel that 16 yo needs to attend a formal online school or good grades on courses listed above would be as good or better?

    Home school to premed?

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted · Edited by rads

    On 8/13/2017 at 9:59 PM, creekland said:

    For pre-med you want a strong background in science, math, and perhaps some social sciences.  English never hurts either, of course.  We went with Thinkwell for Calculus (but did NOT do the AP test, opting to retake Calc instead at the 4 year school in order to not mess up GPA), did AP level Stats (w/test), AP level Psych (w/test), a combo of Apologia (both years) and Campbell for Bio - AP level, but without test as again, we wanted him to take that at the 4 year school, Apologia (both years) for Chem - in hindsight - would have added Zumdahl - Apologia was not enough (my guy got an A anyway, but he had to work far more for it than with his other classes), Physics with Apologia, Microbio (200 level class w/lab) at our local CC, and a freshman level English class at our CC. 

     

    One other course I highly recommend is a Public Speaking course - my guy did his at the CC.  This is awesome not only for public speaking in general, but for interviews and understanding people/body language in general.

     

    With a solid foundation, freshman year courses (even at high level schools) are pretty easily handle-able as long as the student doesn't get too distracted, of course.  With your dd's PSAT score, she should easily be able to handle it.

     

    We did our "AP level" courses at home... so technically they weren't "AP" classes, but colleges only cared that the test scores were there.  On the transcript I just put Statistics w/AP test score=5.  Same for Psych, of course.

     

    Best wishes to you.  Homeschoolers can definitely handle pre-med. ?

    Thank you, lot of very useful info! So one does not need to buy an online school package and can just pick an choose courses such as listed in this thread?  

    Home school to premed?

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted · Edited by rads

    Hello!

     

    We are not entirely new to homeschooling. My 15 yo daughter had 6 months of home school through K12.com and did not find their curriculum challenging. She will be a sophomore this fall. She is a good student and had score exceeding 99.5% on PSAT and STAR test last year. We were thinking about more challenging curriculum that would show if she can handle premed courses. I believe in NY state there is enough flexibility with home schooling to allow for AP courses but I am not sure where to start. Ideally we wold like to put together curriculum themselves that would be geared toward premed.

     

    Thank you!

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