It may also depend on the school. At both of my kids' private colleges-- one meets fulls need and the other not quite, but very generous -- outside scholarships can be used to reduce work study and federal loans, but not any institutional grants. Usually the college will have this info posted on their financial aid pages.

I don't know anything about it, but Truman State comes up all the time on College Confidential as an affordable OOS school. Too small, though?

Nebraska?

If the FAFSA was already filed, you're DS should have received an email that is was successfully processed along with information on how to access his SAR. The EFC would be there, although it's meaningless for CSS schools.

What about Loyola, MD? In Baltimore but not downtown. Has a required core. About 4000 undergrads. Easy travel to FL (fly from BWI) or NY fly, train, 4 hr or so drive). As far as I know the only requirement for homeschoolers is that they can't apply test optional. You'd have to check for anything else.

Our pubic school district does 1492-1876 in 8th grade and then 1877-present in 11th if in regular US history. AP US is everything.

What is she using as the subject line for the email? My DS had a required supplement for a school as a homeschooler and they had a specific way they wanted the subject line in order to deal with it/match it to his file. It was DS "last name, first name, homeschool applicant additional essay" So maybe for you do something like her Last name, first name homeschool applicant required whatever. Just a thought.

Try this: https://www.collegeessayguy.com/blog/supplemental-essay-prompts-2019-2020 There should be links to the prompts for each college. I haven't actually checked. Some good ones are Boston College, U Chicago, Wake Forest. Note that the best essays often require knowledge of the college and have that woven through the reply so I would try to find schools she's interested in rather than wasting a bunch of time getting familiar with a school you know she won't apply to.

^^ This. A public school teacher I know gives extra credit for wearing a collared shirt to the final. Nothing academic about it.

Still a work in progress but I'm putting together a course on the history of the American muscle car for my DS. He wanted something fun and light for spring of his senior year, so I said come up with something and this is it.

Does the price for #1 include the cost of communing -- the bus when not riding with dad? Does the cost of #2 include car, gas, insurance, maintenance for said car, any tolls, etc.? Need to know if I'm comparing apples to apples on cost first.

Thanks all! I've been second guessing the format of my DS's transcript and every sample I looked at had a spot for SSN so I was second guessing m decision not to put it on there. It won't be there.

Another reason to at least plan for and take SAT/ACT is scholarships and honors programs. Often even if the school is test optional the tests are required for those two things. FWIW, my DS is applying to several test optional schools, but so far the only one that is test optional for homeschoolers is Wake Forest. He confirmed this at his interview. That being said, there's a reason Wake has 7 supplements to the Common App.

Social security number on the transcript -- yes or no? Thanks!

Log in to the Common App as a counselor/recommender. If you click on "Profile", you should see ""Counselor Profile." Under that will first be "Personal Details", then ""School Details", then "School Profile". At the end of all the "School Profile" questions is says "Attach your school profile here" and that's where you can upload it.

Mine is two pages, but that's because my DS did freshman year in public school and I wanted to keep things consistent. The public schools only do end of semester grades. Each semester is a clean start even if it's a year-long class. There are no end of year cumulative grades. Hope that makes sense. Anyway, I did manage to get all of the courses and grades on the first page along with student/school info. The second page is grading scale, outside providers, and my signature. Profile is separate.

Mine is weighted only. It's what all the schools around here do and what the state flagship, which is located in our school district, expects.

Talk with others in your area or state, definitely. I'm in CO and the problem is that the law is wishy-washy. She absolutely has to have immunization records, attendance records (minimum 4 hours a day for 172 days) and evaluations. However, the statute says "including, but not limited to" those items, so keeping other records, especially of the required subjects, is a good idea. Now a comment on evaluations. OP you said the girls are in 3rd but you are reclassifying them to second. What grade is listed on your Intent to Homeschool? I ask because there is mandatory testing/evaluation for 3rd graders but not 2nd. If they are considered 3rd graders and you don't test/evaluate and report it, you will not get renewed for the following year. You need to get this cleared up. Good luck!

Emancipation is for those under 18. This student is 19, so not an option. Tax dependency is a completely different issue.

I would contact the school(s) in question directly. I know Duke states the following regarding recs for home schooled or cyber-schooled students: Although your parent may complete your school report to provide context for your academic choices, we encourage students to provide two additional letters of recommendation from non-relatives and preferably from individuals who have worked with the student in an in-person academic setting. Employers, religious leaders, sports coaches or other adults can write these recommendations if all academic instruction takes place in the home. Letters from an on-line instructor are less helpful if he/she has not had direct contact with the homeschool student. But on the Common App Duke has slots for 2 required teacher recs, one additional (optional) teacher rec and one optional "other" rec. Good luck.

Asking parents isn't new. The university I graduated from 30 years ago started asking my parents for money not long after I said yes. In fact, it's part of their giving program "The XX Parents Program is a vital part of the XX Annual Fund. Each year, the generosity of XX parents helps the university support its financial aid ..." Taken directly from the university website -- I removed the school name. This is a well known school with one of the larger endowments. Our current college student's school started asking right away, too. We aren't giving -- except that buying tickets for a certain annual event we attend apparently counts. His choice once he graduates.

I really don't think it counts. We ordered the Question and Answer service from the May test for our son. He had a 5th section that was math. It isn't released with the QAS. His score is made up entirely from his results from the first 4 sections.

One thing to note, since you mentioned both -- the approach to the SAT vs the SAT subject tests are a bit different. On the SAT there are no penalties for guessing/wrong answers, whereas for the SAT subject tests there are penalties for wrong answers. From the college board for subject test scoring: One point is added for each correct answer. A fraction of a point is subtracted for wrong answers: 1/4 point is subtracted for five-choice questions. 1/3 point is subtracted for four-choice questions. 1/2 point is subtracted for three-choice questions. No points are deducted for unanswered questions. If the resulting score is a fraction, it is rounded to the nearest whole number — 1/2 or more is rounded up; less than 1/2 is rounded down. Just something to keep in mind while prepping. Best of luck!

Interesting, mine hated testing at the local university -- our state flagship. The one time my older one did they were in a large, 400 person lecture hall and it was a football Saturday, so no parking available meaning I had to drive him and then meet him off campus to pick him up. As for subject tests, mine have always been able to leave when they are finished with however many they are taking at the high school we use.

So, I did a little digging and it seems that since the March 2019 test kids who are writing the essay can end up with the 5th section, too. Before that, it was not the case. Makes for a long day.