Jump to content

Menu

debbiec

Members
  • Posts

    510
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by debbiec

  1. Having just graduated my oldest son from homeschooling, I wanted to send a thanks to everyone and have a reflective moment of appreciation for how this board, and all you wonderful women have shaped my homeschool education and out family. Just a short walk down memory lane:

     

    When my DS was at the end of 2nd grade (2002), I was lamenting at a church picnic (Memorial Day incidently) to some women about dreams fulfilled and unfilled about the education of my oldest in public school. My mother and mother-in-law were both retired teachers, so I had plenty of ideas from them about the strengths and weaknesses of the public educational experience. An aquaintance asked what I thought a good education should look like and when I was done rattling off my bullet points, she confidently stated that I needed to be classical homeschooling. I knew of homeschooling, but frankly, never knew a family who homeschooled (except her, but did not know her well). She talked with me a little about it at the picnic and recommended I check out from the library, or purchase Susan Wise Bauer's book - TWTM. I came home that Memorial Day Monday, looked it up on the internet, found the website and boards, ordered my book from the library and then stayed up the entire rest of the night reading here and other websites, about homeschooling in general and particularly classical homeschooling. It was everything I was looking for and never knew was out there. I spent countless hours into the wee hours of the morning the next several weeks, reading and reading and taking many notes (and sad I had missed our May curriculum fair to "see" things first hand).

     

    Ten years later - here we are with a homeschool graduate! Sure, we had a year of private school and a year of public school thrown in there to mix it up a bit....but we did it! I can clearly say I would never had done it without many of you on this board (who probably have never heard of me, but I have scrubbed the boards clean looking for bits of advice and information as you all have shared your own homeschooling journeys and curriculum reviews which has always been VERY valuable to me!). You all have helped me to educate myself in "what is a quality education" and how does this fit into real life.

     

    I have another son who has special needs and for a variety of reasons, we have chosen to keep him in public school because of services they can provide well that we cannot. Although, it is not a perfect situation, we do "after school" him and summer school him in the things that matter to us for him that we can do welll and the school can not (hats off to Veritas Press Self Paced History courses, Saxon Math and Rod and Staff English). Although our educational journey is quite different for my younger child, he is reaping the benefits of a community of home educators that walked with me (mostly unknowlingly) with my oldest child.

     

    Although, we are "done" on the homeschool front, I wanted to take this "10th anniversary" and graduation moment to thank you all! Thank you for the countlesss hours of time those of you "ahead" of me spent giving opinions about things with such a wide range of ideals represented on these boards. Hours of reviews, encouraging others, and opening up your lives and experiences for the benefit of others. The resources here are unmatched to anywhere on the internet and the beauty of it - available 24/7 :001_smile:. Love and Thanks!!!!!!

     

    Debbie in Nashville, TN

  2. Having just graduated my oldest son from homeschooling, I wanted to send a thanks to everyone and have a reflective moment of appreciation for how this board, and all you wonderful women have shaped my homeschool education and out family. Just a short walk down memory lane:

     

    When my DS was at the end of 2nd grade (2002), I was lamenting at a church picnic (Memorial Day incidently) to some women about dreams fulfilled and unfilled about the education of my oldest in public school. My mother and mother-in-law were both retired teachers, so I had plenty of ideas from them about the strengths and weaknesses of the public educational experience. An aquaintance asked what I thought a good education should look like and when I was done rattling off my bullet points, she confidently stated that I needed to be classical homeschooling. I knew of homeschooling, but frankly, never knew a family who homeschooled (except her, but did not know her well). She talked with me a little about it at the picnic and recommended I check out from the library, or purchase Susan Wise Bauer's book - TWTM. I came home that Memorial Day Monday, looked it up on the internet, found the website and boards, ordered my book from the library and then stayed up the entire rest of the night reading here and other websites, about homeschooling in general and particularly classical homeschooling. It was everything I was looking for and never knew was out there. I spent countless hours into the wee hours of the morning the next several weeks, reading and reading and taking many notes (and sad I had missed our May curriculum fair to "see" things first hand).

     

    Ten years later - here we are with a homeschool graduate! Sure, we had a year of private school and a year of public school thrown in there to mix it up a bit....but we did it! I can clearly say I would never had done it without many of you on this board (who probably have never heard of me, but I have scrubbed the boards clean looking for bits of advice and information as you all have shared your own homeschooling journeys and curriculum reviews which has always been VERY valuable to me!). You all have helped me to educate myself in "what is a quality education" and how does this fit into real life.

     

    I have another son who has special needs and for a variety of reasons, we have chosen to keep him in public school because of services they can provide well that we cannot. Although, it is not a perfect situation, we do "after school" him and summer school him in the things that matter to us for him that we can do welll and the school can not (hats off to Veritas Press Self Paced History courses, Saxon Math and Rod and Staff English). Although our educational journey is quite different for my younger child, he is reaping the benefits of a community of home educators that walked with me (mostly unknowlingly) with my oldest child.

     

    Although, we are "done" on the homeschool front, I wanted to take this "10th anniversary" and graduation moment to thank you all! Thank you for the countlesss hours of time those of you "ahead" of me spent giving opinions about things with such a wide range of ideals represented on these boards. Hours of reviews, encouraging others, and opening up your lives and experiences for the benefit of others. The resources here are unmatched to anywhere on the internet and the beauty of it - available 24/7 :001_smile:. Love and Thanks!!!!!!

     

    Debbie in Nashville, TN

  3. If two teens are really wanting to get married right out of high school and wanting to attend college, would you still financially help and treat them as a dependent as if they were not married to help them get through college?

     

    This is not actually happening (yet) but has been a "what if" discussion at my house with my teen. I really do not know what is reasonable here in this type situation. I know parents that have done things completng opposite:

     

    1. "You are old enough to marry, you are old enough to figure it out on your own financially."

     

    2. "Of course we will help you! That is what parents are for, no matter what age you are."

     

    Thoughts ~ ?

  4. My son scored OK on the PSAT his 10th grade year. From looking at that score, he was not even close to the NAtional Merit State scores. However, that extra year of math, science, and english improved his score significantly to make semi-finalists. To me, it was really hard to judge due to that fact (that extra year of school).

     

    You probably know that it doesn't count their 10th grade year anyway for NM :)

  5. Didn't you guys get into Alabama too? They have that "certified" transcript language as well.

     

    I read that on the Alabama website and was thankful ds decided to pass (though the Honors College and scholarsihps were very tempting and we are closer than you are).

     

    From the AL website:

     

    "

    Creekland ~

     

     

     

    did you guys get into Alabama? I noted this on their website:

    Home-Schooled Students

     

    The University of Alabama welcomes applications from students who are schooled in the home. Home-schooled applicants should meet the following requirements for admission:

    1. Home-schooled applicants should meet the ACT/SAT, including the writing essay section, and grade point average (GPA) requirements of general admission if they present certified transcripts at the completion of their programs. Refer to the “General Undergraduate Admission Requirements†section.
    2. Students who do not present certified transcripts must take the GED and meet the admission requirements as outlined in the University of Alabama GED Admission Policy. See “Non-graduates of high school†under “Special Programs†below."

    The "certified transcript" was something I wasn't clear about but thankfully, we just decided not to apply (too large a campus for ds). I thought your ds was already admitted and wondering how you handled that, not wanting to hijack your Pitt thread though. Being a large state school, it came to mind when I read about your Pitt concerns.

  6. "To support the admissions application, we need either:

     

    1. a transcript from a third party organization or evaluator, or,

    2. documentation showing the courses a student has studied, year by year, and all end-of-year evaluations of these courses completed by a home school evaluator or supervisor assigned to the student by the local school board or a state-approved home school organization, and,

    3. the SAT I or ACT test results."

     

    "Either" meaning 1 of the 3 items ~ would not ACT score satisfy?

  7. Well, the two out of state schools (GA) took the home-school transcript and didn't bat an eye. And yes, we are part of an umbrella in TN and thus a "private school." I totally get that but one TN private school took the transcript with no questions, but one did not. After we talked to them the next day, they understood why I did that and they agreed that some umbrella transcipts are not done well at all. My umbrella still has not gotten test scores on there (SAT, ACT and AP scores) after multiple requests. At any rate, one school said although they still need one from the umbrella to meet the "school qualification" for homeschoolers, they like being able to see everything at a glance on the one I submitted as a reference and a "big picture" view of his high school years.

  8. DS has one scheduled for an out of state college next week. We just got Skype a few weeks ago to call out of state family and are still learning to use it.

     

    So, if you have a Skype college interview ~ do you "call" them or do they call you? That was never clarified on the email setting the time for the "interview" nor were their Skype addresses exchanged.

     

    Just wondering ~

  9. Well, DS is calling the admissions office today and I went ahead and ordered the umbrella transcripts anyway. They are free and I'm on a time crunch with them for requests. Really, it might have been easier all the way around to have just sent the umbrella transcripts that certainly look like an official school and no one would have even known he was a home schooled student (unless they asked).

  10. and I was a little exasperated at him but being that he is one of a team of folks evaulating him for admissions, I had to be really calm and polite. He said in his 16 years of working at the university, he has never seen a homeschool transcipt. Are you kidding me?!!! He said I HAD to have a "school" transcript. I explained that we couuld obtain and forward a transcipt from our umbrella, but I did not agree with how they handled DE credits so chose to do my own. We sent the university his 9th grade public school transcript, his community college DE transcript and our homeschool transcript. He said he simply did not understand why in the world we would send his community college transcipt for admission ....etc...

     

    It was exasperating because DS called his assigned admissions officer (not the one who called me today) a month ago and got the particulars about all this on the front end. He even went to the school (local) and talked to them in person.

     

    If this wasn't one of his first choice schools at the moment ~ I would just not care, but it's his first choice and he REALLY needs an merit scholarship from them so I want to do whatever they want. I offered to send the umbrella transcript, but now he says not to worry about and he will see what the committee admission committee says. Should I send it anyway? Our umbrella emailed everyone that all transcript request must be in by next week to be processed and mailed by December 1st. ugh!

     

    He has already been accepted to two other private universities with the exact same things, and we didn't have a hitch at all. And on top of it all, he told me Vanderbilt (our other local private university) does not accept homeschool students ~ what!? (This was not Vanderbilt I was talking to, though I have talked to the Dean of Admissions from Vanderbilt before DS not to apply and homeschool student applications are not much different than most other universities - a supplement). I know homeschool students that attend Vanderbilt. Good grief.

     

    Fortunately ~ this is our only problem in the admissions process thus far. DS is applying for 4 colleges total, admitted to two and waiting on this one (scholarhip required to attend) and one other (will hope for scholarship but will attend anyway).

     

    Vent session is over ~ thank you.

     

    Debbie in Nashville

  11. He will graduate May 2012 and seriously considered a gap year but has since opted against it. He is planning to attend medical school, but plans to be an English major for his undergraduate and taking the science/math classes to be take the MCAT. Some schools will allow him a "prehealth" minor and some have recommended a double major (science/English). The jury is still out on that for him.

     

    We have visited 5 colleges so far and have 1-2 more to go before November 2011. He has completed application for 3 of them so far, and one more to tie up some loose ends (essay), and one more state school (back up/safety). The private school essays are bogging him down right now.

  12. I'm not absolutely sure if this is correct, but once you complete your "School Profile" on the on-line app (I just finished ours Monday), you can then "review" the on-line app and see where it plugged in your "school Profile information" on a PDF format. It displays the entire on-line app (many parts left blank because they have not been completed on line).

     

    The Recommendation portion (A) is on there. I think this is probably the same as the "endorser." If so (?), it says:

     

    "LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF THE SEMIFINALIST

    The recommendation is most helpful when it complements other information on the application and highlights ways in which the applicant has excelled both

    in and out of school, revealing personal characteristics that cannot be gleaned from grades and test scores. Avoid repeating information found elsewhere

    in this application. "

     

  13. Thanks for the report! We just contacted them last week (and missed the local reception for Honors College interested parties here in Nashville last week) to schedule a visit, only after making a visit to Western Kentucky Honors College. DS had no interest at all in a large university, so we have not even looked. Since WKU was close, we drove up there for the morning and did the formal Honors College visit. Although he not interested in attending there, it did open his eyes up to the "small school within a large school" possibilities. Thus we are looking at UA due to the $$ incentives.

     

    Wonderful report, Creekland! Many thanks for the time you take to do this.

     

    DS is likely headed to med school as well (and we discuss Enlglish major/pre-med type minor), but wants to major in English with a science minor, thinking he has graduate school time be more focused. HOwever, more than one college has suggested a double major, but we are concerned about GPA for grad school. We did make it down to Berry and Covenant, but just did not have time to fit in UA at the time.

     

    Again, many thanks for your report. We have been borderline on making the visit to UA, but am now glad we are going.

     

    Debbie in Nashville

×
×
  • Create New...