I wanted to chime in since we visited (fall/winter 2021), I thought it was a friendly campus, and the students were so polite! If a student was going through the door when I was coming through as well, every time someone held the door. Every time! I never experienced that on another campus. And over the past two years (two kids going through the application process one after the other), I have visited a lot of colleges! I do agree that it is grittier than other campuses. A lot of people describe it that way. And you can't beat Clark's offer of a free master's in select programs if they continue on right after their senior year (some classes are incorporated into their senior year, and then the bulk of the coursework is done the following year). I have a feeling business isn't one of those "free" masters programs, but it's worth looking into. Our tour guide was a swimmer and brought us through the gym. She was enthusiastic about her sport and the gym facilities. But I wouldn't call it a sporty school based on my visits and comparisons with other schools we visited. And other places had nicer gym facilities. Neither of my kids is sportier, but one likes to work out regularly, so we paid very close attention to the facilities and what was available to non-athletes.

We have a couple of stores in our area that are well-curated consignment stores. All the clothing is organized by style and color, which makes shopping so easy. And priced well (more expensive than thrifts store but nowhere near retail). There's more women's clothing than men's, but you can find tuxes (not often), sports coats, and oxford shirts. Maybe you have something like that in your area? We're in a fairly rural area, but one store owner will go on shopping trips to NYC too. You never know what you'll find!

Everything will turn out OK 🙂 Signed, Parent of a homeschooled college freshman and a graduating homeschooled high school senior ______________________________________________________________________ That said - DD is waitlisted at Dartmouth. And rejected by Brown. Neither would have been possible financially and, like all the Ivy schools, huge reaches. But every kid deserves to indulge in their dreams.

So sorry to hear that! I bet the competition was fierce! There can be so many competing for just one scholarship. My dd went to a scholarship weekend a few weeks ago, and recently found out she didn't get the scholarship either.

We heard from Grinnell too. Dd was admitted with a huge scholarship!!! It was a very, very nice surprise.

Sorry that it took me a while to reply. I wanted to think about this because I kept coming up with "nothing - I wouldn't have done anything differently, except I wish I could take back the time I spent worrying about whether we were doing the right things." But worrying about college and whether we were doing the right things also helped me to carefully think through how we did high school - what to let go of, and what to concentrate on. So, I guess spending some time worrying is actually a good thing.

First, let me say congratulations to everyone's kids who have been accepted to college already. And to the parents who facilitated the homeschooling. You all deserve a big round of applause. You were the teacher, the educational coordinator, the guidance counselor, the afterschool activity director, and the mom/dad/support team. I was humbled by the experience. And I have to say that it is very nice to scroll past all of the pinned "Motherlode" college conversations! Those lists always scared me because there seemed to be so much to do and so much that didn't match up with my kids. But I tried to remember and embrace SWB's advice on not making a decision from a position of fear. I had to remind myself repeatedly that it was OK that we didn't do many things on the list. With both my kids, a wave of relief came with their first letter of acceptance. Over the years, many friends and acquaintances would ask, "But what about college?" What could I say? Do any of us really know what to expect without going through it first? I am so proud of dd. She has worked very hard but has remained true to her passions along the way. That is one thing I loved about homeschooling - the ability for the kids to grow into themselves. She had to make a film for one of the schools, and she showcased how homeschooling impacted her. It was very touching. Agnes Scott (scholarship) Beloit (Presidential Scholarship) Earlham (scholarship with additional scholarships pending) Emerson (scholarship for film) Hampshire College (scholarship) Lawrence University (scholarship with additional scholarships pending) Oglethorpe (with an invitation to scholarship weekend for theater and leadership) Sarah Lawrence (scholarship) St. Olaf (scholarship with additional theater and art scholarships)

Hill's Learning, posted by Farrar looks great! I went through this twice with my kids. One wanted to discontinue German online after the second year. We tried Latin (ugh!) because dc didn't want to do an online course. The pandemic was good for one thing - a local person was slated to finish their Masters in Germany and couldn't return because of the pandemic. She posted on a local listserv that she was offering one-on-one tutoring, and she was a godsend! It wasn't cheap, but my kid became fluent in German in less than two years and will now minor in German in college. dc was very, very well-prepared for college-level German. My other kid took three years of Japanese online and loved it. But she saw other dc become fluent in German and realized she was not developing fluency in Japanese in spite of her hard work. She asked to d/c online classes for the fourth year to pursue improving her conversational skills. I naively thought that it would be easy to find a Japanese tutor, especially since our local college has a good Japanese program. Yeah, right. Turns out, those students sought out online one-on-one instruction prior to studying abroad in Japan. Sigh. So that's the route we went and dc is very happy to find a great conversation tutor. It's not quite the same rigor and comprehensive teaching style of private tutoring, as we experienced with the German tutor, but dc has been working through the remainder of the Japanese textbook on her own so she doesn't feel like she is missing that aspect. And it is much more economical! So, to me, the bottom line is to not let the online class kill your kid's love for the language. There is nothing wrong with dropping the class and finding a way to finish up the year so you can give full credit for the year. Then figure out a way forward.

Here's an article on how and when to appeal a financial aid offer. I thought it had some good pointers. The author is a college advisor (not the one I have personally used). But I have spoken with him, and I found him to be very knowledgeable. This article was from a parent newsletter from a college dd was accepted to. So there is at least one college endorsing the methods described in the article.

Done! The last application was sent in this morning. Dd sent in quite a few early action applications but had a couple of reaches that were regular decision. And just like that, it is all over. I know. There are decisions to make. And we have to hear from a few more schools. But this is a cause for celebration, right? Then, my husband said to me, like it was a good thing, "Well, now you never have to read another college application essay." Why did that make me feel like crying??? Of course, it didn't help that my other teen left to go back to college on Sunday. Sigh.

In conjunction with the classes, look for local film contests. There are many geared toward high school kids, like 48-hour film festivals (you have 48 hours to create a five-minute film when given a prompt, a prop, and sometimes a genre) or documentary contests aimed at high schoolers. My dd has done these types of contests and has had a lot of fun with them over the years. She was always interested in film and did work on her own for fun. But she really grew as a filmmaker when she started entering contests/festivals. There is even prize money awarded in these contests. Also, check to see whether you have a local CCTV station. They usually have great programming for kids and teens, at a low cost. They also sometimes sponsor contests. Just warning you - it can be like going down a rabbit hole...

Thank you so much for the suggestion! Fabulous! I found a used copy, ordered it right away, and it arrived yesterday!!! And it looks like it had never even been opened! Even better!

I agree with Farrar - if you can't keep it all on one page, you should look at the design or the content. Make sure there is white space! Also, Sebastian (a lady) had great advice about alternative layouts to fit everything in. I used this transcript for both kids. It's not free, but it looks professional and has plenty of space for everything. My kids typically had 10 courses per year (some were half credit!), and everything did fit on one page. I did have to use narrow margins, but there was still plenty of white space. And along with the course name, I had room to label which courses were specifically home, outside tutor, honors level, or WTMA. Best of all, it was very easy to fill out!

Wow! That's fantastic!!!

Congratulations! I wish her luck with the whole process!!!

For all of those who have hit the submission button over the past few weeks, here's a blog from a college admissions counselor who is telling you to CELEBRATE the submission! It's a fun read, and even though the author is writing directly to high school students, it definitely applies to homeschool parents. It's A BIG DEAL! 🙂 And I'm so happy to hear about the submissions from other posters today. Another hurdle! My kid, who has already submitted a bunch of early actions, needs to do the final proofread of an honors program essay that is due today. Thank goodness it doesn't need to go through the Common App, just the school's portal. But really, it's down to the wire...

Yes! This is what I'm referring to. LinkedIn is the perfect place to look. To at least be aware of the person's interest/field. It's a good habit to have, whether you're going for an interview, networking, etc. Even an interview with an admissions counselor, it's useful to look up their info on the college website. Sometimes you find out that the counselor was homeschooled, went to that particular college, etc. Then the student has a bit of an idea of what to expect from the interview. My kids always liked the interviews where the counselor was homeschooled. It meant they were not going to be expected to talk a lot about it! I know some people think it might be creepy, but I actually think it's rather polite, if you stick to the basics. I can absolutely see your point. But one of my friends had a kid who did not look up any info about the person, and the interview did not go well. It was an Ivy school.

This is probably very basic, but make sure your son knows something about this person - what this person has done, where they work, (and what that company does if applicable), what kind of research they have done (papers published), etc. even if it has nothing to do with your kid's interest. This doesn't apply to all alum interviews, but it sounds like your son knows who this person is ahead of time.

I just sent out my documents to a school that's not using the common app. I refused to open the files to see if there was anything I needed to change. Because there is always something to change! And I found a couple of typos/mistakes in the school profile that I wrote last year when I pulled it out to adjust for my kid this year. We got acceptances last year and merit scholarships...so either no one noticed, or they disregarded the mistakes. I hope they show the same grace this year!

Congratulations to everyone who submitted or is about to submit!!!!. Isn't it amazing that we got our kids to this point and are finally making it over this last hurdle???? And now the wait begins...

I didn't use the IRS link last year because it said that it couldn't access my files. I though it was just a glitch in the system. So I manually entered my financial information. Turns out, some schools want the "official info" directly from the IRS. So I would get requests from some schools to either upload our 1040 or request a tax transcript directly from the IRS. Not all schools made me do this. In fact, the school my kid ultimately ended up at did not require IRS verification, but several did. And it became just one more hoop to jump through.

Last year, the College Board was so glitchy on December 1st that my kid's application couldn't be sent in. It was NOT a fun night, especially since we had to get up the next morning and drive three hours for a tour and interview. Luckily, the schools were aware of the issues and accepted "late" applications. But I do not want to go through that again. So now I am happy to report all of our EA schools have been submitted. Yippee!!! Including my stuff (phew!). Now I'm playing catchup with my own work. We had to deal with something similar happen with CSS profile last week. It was impossible to upload information. Ugh. At least we weren't tight up against the deadline. But I fought with the site for over an hour before admitting defeat. The next day, the site was working better, and I was able to submit everything. And now we're in the phase of dealing with all those "little" things that each individual college wants, such as the special homeschool "application," etc.

Strangely enough, it wasn't a font issue. We tried switching fonts. We ended up saving it as a new document, and that fixed the problem. Maybe a bit of corruption somewhere? Because none of the supplemental essays were coming out that way. The weird thing was that it looked fine when after copying and pasting. But when we went back to review it, the question marks appeared!

I also included any spring classes on the transcript with SP where the grade should be. In the note section of the transcript, I noted that SP = spring course. And, like other posters, I used a note to indicate first-quarter grades and added that to the note section (FQ = first quarter grade)

We had a slight panic yesterday when DD's essay uploaded with question marks instead of "f"s. Can you imagine????? And since her passion is film, there were a lot of question marks dotting that essay! 🤣 I shouldn't laugh - it actually uploaded fine and then when we went on to the next section, the issue cropped up. So it could have easily gone unnoticed. Luckily we caught it when we reviewed the PDF of the application!