I wonder if the College Board submits a photo to the colleges?

Just sign up through the College Board site. You only need to get involved with your local high school for PSAT and AP exams. Good luck on the upcoming SAT!

I agree 1000%. Selecting the right PT is extremely important and almost as important as selecting the right surgeon. My older son had Tommy John surgery when he was in high school. I spent a ton of time researching surgeons and ended up selecting a doctor that was 5+ hours from home. However, I didn't realize that I needed to be as diligent in selecting a PT. When I took my older son to his first post-op appt 5 days after his surgery, I thought the surgeon was going to blow a gasket. He was furious that the PT had not followed proper protocol, (and I was too trusting that the PT was able to follow written instructions). Luckily, no permanent damage had been done. But I learned a valuable lesson that day. My experience taught me not to assume that PT practices associated with a "big-name" hospital employ competent therapists. You really need to do your due diligence up front because not all PTs are created equal. @MysteryJenI hope your daughter has a great, pain-free swim season!

I am sorry to read this. My son began having major hip pain at the beginning of the fall season last year. It was maddening to see him continue to play and watch him down Advil like candy. X-rays and MRIs showed hip impingements and torn hip labrums. He had surgery on both hips simultaneously the beginning of June. The first few days post-op were extremely difficult, but he is happy that he had both hips done at the same time. He goes to rehab three times a week and is gradually regaining his full range of motion. The summer has not been fun, but he is now completely pain-free. The surgeon is very pleased with his progress and expects to clear him to play competitively by December. When I was researching surgeons, it was recommended to me to make sure I find someone who has a lot of experience with young athletes. If you are in the Midwest and want recommendations for both my son's surgeon's name and the name of a surgeon who my friend's daughter regrets using, send me a pm. Good luck to your daughter! Hopefully she will be back in the water swimming pain-free soon!

My kids started high school level classes before the traditional high school age. However, they all graduated from our homeschool at age 18. Their transcripts were organized by subject, and I gave them credit for many of the high school level classes taken prior to their official start of high school, so their transcripts spanned more than 5 years. This approach was not an issue when it was time to apply to colleges. Good luck!

The College Board instruction for homeschoolers: "If you’re homeschooled and want to take an AP Exam, you’ll need to arrange to take the exam at a local school that administers them. To register for an AP Exam, you’ll have to enroll in an “exam only” section in My AP. Here’s how. Your first step is to contact AP Services for Students at 888-225-5427 (toll free in the United States and Canada) or +1-212-632-1780 or apstudents@info.collegeboard.org. That office can give you contact information for local AP coordinators who may be willing to test outside students. We recommend you do this no later than September 4. You are then responsible for contacting coordinators on that list to see if one of them can arrange testing for you. You should do this no later than October 4. Note that schools may have their own local deadlines for receiving requests from outside students to test at their school. The AP coordinator who agrees to help you will provide a join code for an “exam only” section in My AP. You’ll use the join code to join the section so that the AP coordinator can order your exam." https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/join-your-class-online?fbclid=IwAR0toSc2ZFEmCpjHP4fHgY7m7EQ6q9b66Kc9vs_AttWg6olDwFEHR_qBN7E

It looks like the Subject Test requirement is just for homeschoolers: (Although, it looks like you can have a mix of SAT Subject Tests and AP exams) Washington and Lee University is pleased to consider applications from home-schooled students. Given the unique nature of each student's curriculum, we suggest including the following, in addition to the material for all of our first-year applicants, to ensure an accurate and fair review of your application: Results from five SAT Subject Tests or AP Tests

I would bet a large sum of money (and I am not a betting person) that the woman you spoke with is completely clueless and flat out wrong. If homeschoolers had to attend an accredited program, the university wouldn't have the "portfolio method" as an option. I bet you will get good news on Monday. Enjoy your weekend!

@roadrunner. Would pre-recorded work or does it need to have a life component?

I agree. In addition to the ways you mentioned, the colleges are receiving the student's adversity score from the College Board when the student submits an SAT or ACT score. (I don't understand how this is legal since it is not disclosed to the student, but I digress...) If you look at the Common Data Set for schools that state they are need blind, the percent of full-pay students does not vary by more than a fraction of a percent from year to year. If they were truly "need blind", I would expect more variation in the number of full-pay students from year to year.

The smoking outside of buildings would have been a big turn-off for my kids, too. This is something we never even thought to consider. My town bans smoking in public, but the ban is limited to indoor public areas. People are permitted to smoke in outside areas, such as sidewalks, parks, etc. Just curious if your town ban smoking in public everywhere or is the restriction limited to indoor public buildings? My son's college says it is a smoke-free campus. However, they still permit smoking in outside areas as long as they are 25 feet away from any building. It looks like SMU's policy is similar and they also say they are a smoke-free campus. My daughter's campus is also smoke free, but they don't permit smoking anywhere on campus, even outside. So it looks like it might not be enough to see if a campus is smoke-free. It looks like each individual policy should be examined to determine the college's definition of "smoke-free".

I don't think that was ever the case, even though some homeschool providers did jump through the hoops of getting NCAA approval. I was involved in those thread discussions 8 years ago and had numerous conversations with the guy who was the homeschool liaison at the NCAA (I am not sure if that position exists today.). While there was a list of approved online providers, those were more of an issue with public cyber-schooled students, not us homeschoolers. The NCAA also had an approved textbook list, but their list back then did not include the textbooks that we were using for math. When I questioned the NCAA rep (I think his name was Kevin) about the process of getting these textbooks approved, I was assured that I didn't have to use a textbook that was on their list. I just had to make sure that the book I was using was at least high school level. By the time my son was going through the process and debating playing D1, the NCAA had changed its process and had implemented worksheets that homeschoolers had to complete. Online courses still did not have to be approved by the NCAA. The homeschooling parent just had to list herself as the teacher of record on the worksheets since she had the responsibility to issue the official grade on the homeschool transcript.

Unless something has changed in the past three years, you do not have to use an NCAA approved online course provider - you just need to list yourself as the teacher of record on the worksheets homeschoolers need to complete. As long as the textbooks and other materials that you select for your home-brewed classes are at the high school level or above, the NCAA will be satisfied.

How many online classes are on your schedule? If you have some of those in the line-up, can you replace them with home-brewed classes where you control the timing and can set your own deadlines?

Can you move some of your classes to the summer to free up some more time during the regular school year?

My kids did school from 8 am to 2:30 pm, with a break for lunch, Monday through Friday. (My oldest conducted research every Wednesday from 8 am - 5:00 pm during the school year when he was in high school, so his Wednesday was longer.) In addition to that time, they usually met for an AoPS class in the evening once a week, conducted their lab experiments on the weekends, and continued with math and reading literature throughout their summers. In my experience, I dropped quite a few online AP classes because I felt they were an unnecessary time suck. I found it more time-efficient and just as educational to create my own AP class that fit better within our time constraints. Good luck finding a schedule that works for your kids!

1. Most of my kids' classes were created by me and were not accredited. It was not an issue with any college. 2. I created my kids' transcripts using Microsoft word. Each transcript was a page long that listed the courses taken along with grades and standardized test scores. It is an easy process, and I think there are software packages available for those that want to use a standard template rather than creating a transcript from scratch like I did. 3. No. 4. I wrote a course description for each class listed on the transcript. I tried to make sure the course description was written at the conclusion of the course, rather than waiting to write the course description in the summer before college applications were due. Good luck!

Welcome to homeschooling! The most sensible approach will be the one that works best for your family. Fwiw, in the elementary years, I did not use a curriculum for anything but math and grammar. Everything else was interest-led. My kids' science involved mainly "hands- on" kits and experiments. They didn't begin using science textbooks until they hit high school level. This approach worked very well for my kids - they were successful in their AP science and college science classes. Good luck!

Calculus based physics is broken up into two separate AP classes - Mechanics and Electricity & Magnetism. One option would be to take a fun science first semester and then take AP Physics C Mechanics the second semester. The advantage of this option is that your daughter would have had the necessary calculus by the time the course starts.

Singapore math for elementary level AoPS (beginning with algebra) Memoria Press for Latin

I think your son would be fine in a room that has a window. That room would also be less distracting than the center of the library or a donut shop. Just as an fyi - as a tutor, I refuse to tutor in someone's house as I prefer to meet a student in a public location for my own safety.

I agree. In my experience, accreditation is irrelevant. Homeschoolers who want to play D1 or D2 do have additional NCAA requirements that need to be met, but those requirements have nothing to do with accreditation. Fwiw, my D was awarded merit aid at every school she applied to that awards merit aid, and none of her classes was accredited.

Yes, you are in charge of the transcript and can present your children's academic records as you deem appropriate. Fwiw, I did not include any of the transcripts provided by the outside homeschool providers because they didn't provide any information that I had not already provided on the transcript, and ,more importantly, I didn't want these documents to detract from the other documents I had submitted. (My kids did not take any classes at a college or community college. If they would have, I would have been required to submit those. )

Academic Providers did not have consistent grading scales. Some awarded an A+ for any score about 97%, while others awarded an A for the same percentile. In an attempt to standardize the grades, we did not list any grade as an A+. Our letter grades were assigned based on the percentile scores received from each provider. Our grading scale is stated on the High School Transcript.

I addressed this in the homeschool profile. I had a blurb that said that outside providers did not have consistent grading scales and + and -'s were not used on the transcript. I did not report the teacher's recorded grade anywhere.