Thank you--that's all great advice! From everything I've read, the interviews at most colleges are pretty informal and are supposed to be more like conversations than a bunch of gotcha type questions, so I keep telling him that if he has some ideas for the things he knows are coming: "why this college?" "what would you contribute"--plus some good questions to ask about the college and its programs--then all he has to do besides that is talk about what he's interested in. I have an aunt who was a high school guidance counselor until she retired a few years ago; I'm thinking of asking her if she'd be willing to do some interview prep/mock interviewing with him.

DS16 is interested in several colleges that either strongly suggest or require interviews. We're planning on visiting a few of these during our summer road trip, and he's very much dreading the interview part of the visits. He's an introverted, shy, quiet kid who doesn't like to talk about himself and will generally give one word answers to strangers any time he can get away with it. With people he knows well, he's witty and funny and can hold up his end of the conversation just fine, but I very much worry that at an interview he's going to come across as a bad stereotype of a socially repressed homeschooled kid. I'm guessing that sending e-mails to all the admissions people in advance explaining that he's just naturally a quiet kid, and it's not homeschooling's fault would be bad form, so short of that....any advice on how he can prepare for interviews? Both in hopes that they'll go well and so that he'll feel more confident and not ruin his vacation fretting about them.

Speaking of that....finding a place to take the AP exam was especially tricky with that one since a lot of schools don't offer it! just a head's up :)

I don't think I've ever seen geography listed as a graduation requirement, but government and/or economics often is. So I'd go with that over geography as a non-history social science.

....90% might be an exaggeration, as I look back and remember what we did. We used this website: https://www.vwarthistory.com/global-prehistory.html ...and we watched a lot of Crash Course World History for context, too. We had two textbooks that my uncle, who taught the class for years, let us borrow, but we barely touched those. He put in a lot of time making very detailed notecards for each of the 250 works, and I think that was super helpful. He actually enjoys stuff like that, though.

My son self-studied for it, and we found it be pretty straightforward and easy to do. It's not like APUSH or something where they have to learn to do a particular sort of analysis in the essays. With art history, if you know the material, you'll do fine. The main challenge for us was that we got a fairly late start (after Labor Day) and then took a little while to find our groove, and there's a LOT of material to cover, so we were pressed for time at the end. But he really, really enjoyed the class, and got a 4 on the exam. We had a lot of different materials to draw from, but, honestly, the Khan academy stuff was 90% of what we used.

If he really wants to do calculus next year and he's a strong math student, it might be possible to do trig/pre-calc this spring/summer and be ready in the fall. DS16 did a compressed algebra 2/pre-calc this way sophomore year and he's doing very well in BC calc now (and, in a more dated example, my husband self studied pre-calc summer before HIS junior year). Whether this is something he wants/needs to do just depends on what his goals are post high school (and what grade he's in right now--sophomore or junior).

Thank you! It sounds like he could do it, so I guess it's just a matter of deciding whether he wants to put the time into it or not.

yes, this semester DS is taking two classes that aren't part of anyone's core requirements (physics and an upper level Spanish), and he's finding them a good bit more challenging than what he took last semester. He's doing well, but he was a little taken aback by how much work he's doing in them after a very easy first semester of DE. SaveSave

That's a good thought....but I just checked and UGA won't give credit for the subject test, only DE or AP :(

Long story short: DS16 will be a senior next year and still needs a credit for high school biology. He can't do it dual enrollment because either college chemistry or AP chemistry is a prerequisite (he took chemistry at a hybrid school type place--not AP). So I'm planning to sign him up for an online class through Georgia Virtual School. He's mathy and is taking and enjoying physics this year, but he has no interest whatsoever in biology, so we were just going to do the regular, on level class to get it done. But I was looking at the core curriculum requirements for UGA (where he might or might not go) and noticed that a life science is pretty much the only thing he'll come in without credit for. And it'd be awfully nice for him to knock that out. So I'm wondering if he should do AP bio instead (also offered through GAVS). As far as I can tell, regular bio is generally a prerequisite for AP bio, though? He did take a small coop biology class in 7th grade with a curriculum that billed itself as high school level, but I doubt he remembers much of anything from that. Thoughts? Has anyone taken AP bio without an intro bio first and how did it go? Another option might be to take it at our local CC instead of the university where he's doing DE; I don't think they have the same prerequisites. Downside is that he already has a pretty tough course load next year (he'll be taking linear algebra and calc based physics and Spanish DE, plus AP lit at home), and he's not a fan of AP exams. But he might be more of a fan of taking one year of bio with an AP exam than taking it without AND having to take another semester in college.

My son did Spanish, Wellness, and World History his first semester and had a good experience. He'd had a ton of Spanish at home with a tutor already, but the placement test only put him in the second level--on one hand this made for a very easy intro to college Spanish and an easy A, which was nice; on the other hand he's taking the next class now and still hasn't gotten to anything new, which is getting a little frustrating for him. Wellness was to fulfill the state graduation requirement (I don't know if this really mattered, but our state flagship can be very picky about homeschoolers, so I figured better safe than sorry) and was, as you'd expect, an easy grade as long as you showed up and did the work. World History (and wellness) were both honors, but the history prof was a very easy grader. So that worked out well, too, in that I think he got a good intro to a college level seminar type class (and wrote his first college paper), but without a lot of stress or pressure.

My oldest used Pandia Press's US history last year and enjoyed it. It has literature built in, too.

I have a low maintenance middle child who slips under the radar easily as well, so I understand. I do think a job plus ballet earlier on isn't nothing. I'd look at what she spends her free time doing and see if there's actually something there that IS an extra-curricular, just not in a traditional sense of the word. And also at what she's most interested in academically that she could expand on this summer or next year (and going forward into college) outside of a class setting. Not only for scholarship applications but because she'd enjoy it and find it fulfilling. If she joins a debate team or starts piano lessons out of nowhere late junior year then that's absolutely going to look like she's just doing it for applications, but if she goes farther with something she's discovered an interest in because of a class she took or whatever, then I think that "looks" authentic and also is genuinely a great way to start exploring and figuring out what she might want to pursue in college. As an example, my oldest took art history in 10th grade and really enjoyed it. He especially liked the architecture parts (and the northern renaissance, but I'm reasonably sure he doesn't have a future as a renaissance painter). He's also strong in math and has always been interested in design in general, so I'm encouraging him to dig into architecture more deeply. He just went on a field trip to a local architecture firm organized by a museum. We're visiting Fallingwater this summer. Harvard has an open courseware class on architecture that he's planning to do as an elective next year. I have NO IDEA if he'll really end up majoring in architecture, but I do think it fits in well with his strengths and interests and, if nothing else, he'll enjoy learning more about it.

My son took Spanish with a private tutor for several years before high school and during 9th and 10th grade, but he only exempted the first level of college Spanish when he switched to DE (which ended up meaning at least 2 semesters of really easy Spanish that's all review for him; either the placement test is not so accurate or he should have reviewed verb tenses more before he took it...but I digress). My plan is to still give him credit for Spanish 1 and 2 in 9th/10th grade on his transcript, since he definitely did the work. Not sure if that really helps, since I'm not giving him HS credit for any Spanish he did in middle school. In his case, he's planning to take a total of 4 semesters of DE Spanish, so he'll have way more than either the graduation requirements or the 4 credits more selective colleges like to see, so I'm not too worried about how I'm counting the beginning of high school Spanish. Does the college where he's doing DE not offer a placement test for Spanish?

My son's taken 3 AP exams without being enrolled in a class; it can definitely be done. Finding a place that will let him sit for the exam can be a big issue (the college board is not the least bit helpful with this)....presumably his school would at least let him do that, although I'd check and make sure. Have you tried raising a stink at the school about letting him into the class?

I'd go ahead and start algebra now. None of my kids finished a pre-algebra program; they all went straight from Singapore 6 into Jacobs Algebra (well, with some detours trying to find a pre-algebra that we liked. But we never really managed to). If she can start algebra now and work through the summers, she should be on track to make it to pre-calc by senior year.

Wow--this changed a lot in just a few weeks. We decided there's not enough time for AP European history (he'll already have 5 social studies credits, so it was probably an overly ambitious plan from the start, but it sounded fun). AP English Lit: at home Biology: Georgia virtual school--I realized that regular bio is a prerequisite for AP, generally....he's not particularly interested in Bio, so we're just doing regular on level to get it done and adding in physics (which he's much more interested in) instead Spanish: DE Math: Differential Equations, DE and then probably another DE math (College Geometry?) second semester (assuming a 4 or 5 on BC calc. Otherwise stats or maybe linear algebra or calc 2) Econ: spring semester, DE Calculus based physics: DE Electives: maybe an open courseware architecture class, maybe something with Crash Course's film class, maybe Great courses photography. There's not enough time!

I bought two different prep books for my son, but he MUCH preferred using Khan Academy to practice, both for the content and the organization

It's possible the close relationship with net price calculators I've developed lately has left me tense and suspicious ;) .

Everything I can find only talks about the FAFSA, though! Although, the more I think about it, it doesn't seem like it would make much sense to count withdrawals from a parents 529 as income since they already counted it as an asset the year before. But I don't necessarily trust the formulas to make sense....I guess I'd just feel better if I saw something that didn't add the "most schools only use the FAFSA caveat," since that makes it sound like the CSS makes a difference.

And he might also get nice merit aid at in-state schools, some of which are quite good, and that would make them hard to turn down... (and, honestly, I don't have much sense of what selective colleges he has a shot at yet. I find it really hard to figure out given his fairly unorthodox hodge podge homeschool transcript (and no SAT scores other than the one he took in 9th grade. he takes it again next week)). I've run net price calculators at a whole slew of 100% need met schools and our EFC is all over the map, but almost invariably significantly higher than our FAFSA EFC (except at Harvard. All he needs to do is get into Harvard and he's all set ;) ), which is why I'm so concerned with how different schools look at different assets...a few thousand would make a big difference. SaveSave

In our situation, we're looking very narrowly at schools that meet 100% of demonstrated need (either without loans or with modest federal loans only) or at our state universities where tuition is covered with lottery money and we'd be paying "only" room/board/fees/etc. If he can get into a 100% need school, he can go. Otherwise, state public school. Maybe we're just a little....niche, but the FAFSA vs CSS and how CSS schools look at things like 529 withdrawals makes a HUGE difference for us. It's too late for me to do much about what we've done so far (oldest is a junior), but looking ahead to how to plan for future years (and future kids)...it's frustrating how opaque the process is. But if I harp on CSS schools, it's because there's absolutely no way we could even consider a private school that doesn't have generous need based aid and that means we're only looking at CSS schools and in-state public schools.

If anyone DOES know for sure how distributions from parent held 529s are treated by CSS schools, btw, I'd love to hear! I've been googling for forever, and I can't figure it out.

I'm not saying it isn't factual, I'm just saying that from what I've seen in researching financial aid the EFC on the FAFSA really doesn't mean much of anything because there aren't any colleges that will give you aid to fill in the gap between your federal EFC and their cost. Any that do meet need use their own formulas. I'd love it if our EFC according to FAFSA meant something, but it really doesn't seem to. I think (but I'm definitely not sure) that the way it works for CSS schools is that whatever's in the 529 will be treated as an asset for the first year, but then when you take the money out it will be considered income or gift money or whatever for the student and count against them the next year. There's a lot of talk online about waiting to withdraw until after you've filed for FA fall of Junior year so that it won't be counted against you. I'm certainly not suggesting people not save for college, but I am saying that "except for CSS schools" is a pretty major thing if you're counting on substantial need based aid because all the schools that offer the best need based aid are CSS schools.