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Sebastian (a lady)

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Everything posted by Sebastian (a lady)

  1. I like @regentrude's letter for her son, because it gives specific examples that demonstrate the traits she wants admissions readers to think of when considering her son. She didn't just say he was organized and resourceful, but gave an example of his putting those traits into practice.
  2. Those are wonderful activities. She can talk about what she learned and changed and the effect she had on others in the group and in her community. That is far more effective than being one of dozens in a club or honor society who don't do much.
  3. You may want to revise the application timeline. Double check that results for the Early Action schools will be in hand before the deadline for the RD colleges. Many colleges also have a priority scholarship deadline that is similar to their Early Action or Early Decision deadline.
  4. Can you beat the bushes locally to find additional students? A lot of families in my area are new to homeschooling and aren't that familiar with local options.
  5. For a DE chemistry course, I bought my son a paper copy of the textbook. He wasn't using it at all, because the chapters didn't match the online text. It hadn't occurred to him that he could use the table of contents to match up chapter titles and get 80-90% of what he was looking for. In the same course, he didn't realize the online textbook account also had a bunch of videos that explained certain topics further.
  6. Knowing campus resources in case of computer failure would be helpful. My son had his computer fail to run an app mid semester. He was using library loaners, then an ice storm shut down the library and the academic buildings with computer labs. It was a bit of a crisis until he realized there was a browser version of the program he was trying to use.
  7. Does your college have general education requirements? Maybe have students identify a few courses that meet those requirements. I think new freshmen are not familiar with the course codes used at colleges (ENG 100, MTH 2015, etc) or how to read a course description. Might be good to highlight not only the general description of a course, but prerequisites, and location/scheduling info. (My son accidentally registered for a 13 week DE chemistry course instead of a 15 week one. He also forgot to schedule time for lunch last semester.) Does your college have a tool to help build a schedule? Like if you need the following 5 courses, here are possible combinations? Or if you must have these 3 courses plus two gen eds, here are options? Are there major related resources in the library (books on reserve, databases) or static displays that would be helpful for study? Is there a process for reserving a group study room?
  8. I'd suggest the student be the one to ask. They can do it via email with some assistance. They can even write an email template and send it to multiple colleges with minor tweaks. (I mention this, because this because many students I work with don't consider that they can ask the same question of multiple schools.) Not only is a student likely to get a better response, but it may also be considered demonstrating interest in the college. Demonstrated interest is increasingly important, as colleges want to admit students who are likely to end up enrolling.
  9. My oldest did it many years ago. He really enjoyed it and came home with the Raspberry PI he'd used in the camp. He went on to do a Cyber Patriot team and earn a degree in CS.
  10. I'm thinking of students who are used to having obstacles swept away from their path, used to getting what they want. I think many of these types also cheat in high school.
  11. Among the reasons why students cheat, let's not ignore the students who feel entitled to do what they want because that's what they want. Maybe it's entitlement or not needing to work hard during high school or having lawnmower/snowplow parents who eliminated any obstacle in front of them. Some students don't go to college for the intellectual challenge, but for the credential, networking, lifestyle, parental expectation, or social scene. I don't know how large a group this category is, but it's not zero.
  12. I'm reading a book about the advent of land grant universities in the US. It starts with a discussion of the debate over what the purpose of colleges were -- curriculum like theology, law, philosophy & classical languages or curriculum like science, engineering, & agriculture. This debate was happening in the 1790s-1860s as technical institutions were being established. Sometimes I think we need a more diversified set of terms for post-secondary education. College is used to cover many paths that sometimes don't overlap much.
  13. This issue is compounded when the course has a disorganized online portal for syllabus and assignments. In an ideal world, the syllabus and online list of assignments would match. Often they don't. Assignments might be listed in a portal like Canvas under several different tabs. They might not all be listed at the beginning of the course (or beginning of the week for a course that unveils tasks at the beginning of each week).
  14. If he applies as a homeschooler, it will be up to you to complete counselor tasks like submitting a transcript. Teacher recommendations are often best done by junior year teachers, who taught the student through a full course. Some college instructors are reluctant to write letters before the end of the course. This can pose a problem for applications due in fall of senior year. It's worth his talking to his junior year teachers to ask if they are willing to do recommendations and what process they use. If the school uses a program like Naviance to coordinate recs, he will need their contact info and their willingness to submit directly to applications. You might also consider what support for college applications he would get staying with the school. An active and knowledgeable counselor can be helpful. It is definitely possible to have great college admissions as a homeschooler, but it's good to think through what that entails. One suggestion is for you to create a PRACTICE Common App account and then invite yourself to be a counselor using a second email address. This will let you poke around the counselor side and see what you would need to do. The actual application for fall 2023 opens August 1. (NB- Not all colleges use the Common Application. California public colleges are either on the UC Application or the CSU Application. Some other colleges have their own apps.)
  15. If you are homeschooling in CA as an independent homeschooler (ie, PSA), can you request an official copy of the the charter school transcript to attach to the one you submit that is cumulative? Your student will need to indicate each school they attend for each grade in most applications. Meaning the charter for grades 9-11, and your homeschool for 12th.
  16. One of mine did two years at 8th grade. He just wasn't ready for the level of work high school needed, especially in writing. He was young for his grade at the time. It was a great choice. He had time to develop more foundational skills without feeling like everything would go on his high school transcript that year. He had several great college admissions and got wonderful grades as a college freshman. What I'd suggest is making sure you address areas of concern. For us it was writing. If there is something where a diagnosis would help, use the time to do that.
  17. They may also have missed a shift in selectivity at some colleges. And released college class profiles don't show the stats of students who were turned down, which often run very close to the stats of admitted students.
  18. Do you mind sharing which university this is? I'm part of a homeschool affinity group within one of my educational consultant professional organizations. We like to keep track of colleges that have specific expectations for homeschool applicants. We've even gotten a few to relax use of tests in favor or more holistic review for homeschoolers.
  19. I've asked dozens of admissions officers if they would consider CLEP scores when evaluating applications, especially from homeschoolers. None have said they would use CLEP scores *for admissions*. Many seemed confused by the question. I think homeschoolers put more stock in CLEP for impressing admissions reps than actually occurs.
  20. Do you live in a state where these types of classes are required for homeschoolers? We homeschooled in three different states, and the public school graduation requirements did not impose this type of course requirement on homeschoolers. I have seen some states get very specific with the subject areas that have to be covered by homeschoolers, but it seems to be the exception rather than the rule. I also haven't seen that colleges care much if a homeschooler has PE, health, or personal finance on their transcript. [I don't think they care if a traditionally schooled student has them either, for that matter. This is one reason may colleges recalculate gpa to their own in house formula that only includes courses in core courses.]
  21. I really appreciated Uncle Tom's Cabin. But I only required my kids to read the first part (until Tom is sold, about 10 chapters). I think Stowe does a good job of anticipating and countering popular justifications. That said, slavery was something she observed rather than experienced. Doing a smaller portion of the book gives room for other voices who did have experience.
  22. I had this happen a few years ago, before the current communities were set up. There was a support email address in something from the audit. I reached out to them and they tolf the community moderator I should have access. There were some amazing teacher created study guides, and recommendations for projects and readings. When APUSH went through a revision, there was lots of discussion of what to emphasize and how the frq scoring rubric worked in practice.
  23. I do agree that too often people make assumptions based on poorly understood rules of thumb they don't stop to crunch numbers on. Buying or renting or using base housing is a complex topic that depends on the local housing market, rank, schools, commute, deployment schedule, and military speciality. The advice you hear is often grounded in the other person's experience and you may not know or share that specific context. I fight against this often when advising on college admissions topics. Families should be reading VA websites, long explainer articles (Kate Horrell is a favorite), and books. Instead they rely on FB comments stripped of context and misremembered headlines for articles they didn't read. Members of sites like tend to be ahead of the game in terms of spotting future pain points and putting in the work to try to make a few alternative courses of action. For those reading along, go do an EFC calculator. Put in round best guess numbers. Do a few net price calculators for 3-4 colleges. Then look at the admissions rates for those schools. Don't just assume you'll make it work to pay for the highest rank college your kid is admitted to.
  24. This is what I did in a similar situation with different grades in two credit bearing courses. In the course description, I explained the 1 high school credit was comprised of the two college courses and the weight for each in the high school gpa. It was a weighted course on my hs transcript, because I weight college courses. Colleges didn't seem to have any issue with this.
  25. It's the closures list. Doesn't list the centers going as scheduled.
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