My oldest did WWS 1 and WWS 2 in 8th and 9th grade. He loved it and credits it with his great writing skills. He did the programs completely independently in one year wach, but he was older than your kid. Just this week I started my 5th (soon to be 6th) grader on WWS 1. He is enjoying it so far, but of course this is only week 1. He likes working solo, and I feel comfortable helping him when needed. I don’t feel an outside class is necessary for WWS. My kids have not been resistant to doing the program, though.

Wow. Was the Kindle book worth reading?

For 6th grade we’ll do: Math - Precalculus (maybe Derek Owens or Math Mammoth) Science - Exploration Education Language - Lifepacs Spanish 1 (he’s doing it orally with older siblings this year, I’ll have him fill in the workbook for 6th grade) Language Arts - Writing with Skill 1, Vocabulary Workshop History - Story of the World 3 (audiobook with younger siblings)

Thank you for sharing that info! It is nice to have some clarity on this issue. Since autoadmits take up 75% of the freshman class, we’ll have to compete for the remaining 25%. I wonder what the acceptance rate is for the non autoadmit spots. I tried googling, but couldn’t find it. Ds had a homeschool friend recentlly admitted to UT so it can be done!

I totally agree with the above. We have 7 children and use A Beka. In K and 1st grade, I sit with them, and they do 1 page a day, which takes 10-15 minutes at most. From then on, they continue doing a page a day, but they start out on their own, reading the explanation at the top of the page and doing as much as they can on their own. If they don’t understand something they leave it blank, and skip to the review portion. Sometimes they try new things and get it wrong. That’s fine. I meet with them at some point during the day to check their work and explain anything they missed or didn’t understand. They end up being pretty independent. With my oldest, we switched to Saxon for Algebra. He’s usng Derek Owens now, and I’ll probably use it for the others once the hit the algebra stage.

UTD can be very generous with merit aid. If his SAT score is high, you might qualify for full tuition. They use Apply Texas, so it should be an easy app if you’ve already done some Texas schools.

If he’s a national merit finalist, he qualifies for tuition plus $5,500 per semester plus $6,000 study abroad at UT Dallas. They are still accepting applications and still have several preview days open. With this, he might not even need the loan. https://honors.utdallas.edu/nmsp The school also has full tuition awards based primarily on test scores: https://aes.utdallas.edu/prospective-freshmen/awards

I have 2 kids in CC Challenge. I’m pretty sure I won’t have the next one in line do Challenge, and the main things I’m concerned about having to replicate are: 1. Close knit friendships - the kids get along great and hang out together outside of class 2. Speech and debate/presentation skills - we will probably do this through a local speech and debate club 3. Sharing their work with an adult other than me and interested peers - it seems to motivate them to know that their work is not just for me

I was super curious, too, so I called and asked for the specific number. This time I got a totally different answer. I was told they consider homeschooled and non ranking private school applicants under holistic review not according to a 6% rank SAT number. That’s not what it says on the website, though, so I’m just not sure that’s accurate.

Wow!

Yes, that’s true. It just still seems high to me considering that top 10% applicants to any college come from a wide range of backgrounds. I would expect the number to be closer to the College Board’s mean number for the top 10% across the state of Texas. Or closer to A&M’s autoadmit number. But maybe top 10% students with lower scores aren’t applying to Tech. I’m also interested in knowing how the number is calculated, but don’t think the individuals I spoke to in admissions have a clear understanding of how it is done.

Yes, I said above that Texas A&M now autoadmits based on test scores. Just to be clear, I was not making the point that the top 25% still applies. I was simply sharing that I had heard the same as the OP and went college websites and also called a couple of colleges to see whether or not it was true.

I’m not sure how Tech calculated that number because it seems high to me. 1490 SAT score puts a student in the 98-99th percentile. I find it hard to believe that the top 10% of high school students across the state (so including students in rural and unerperforming schools) had scores in that range. I looked on the College Board website, and it said the mean SAT score for TX high school students in the top 10th of their class is 1212, which sounds more realistic.

Yes, it is TX specific. Not sure if the OP is from Texas, but there is a law here requiring auto admit for a certain class ranks and the schools have to assign a rank for homeschoolers and students from non ranking schools.

I was referring to top 25% as their high school class rank. Here is the thread I first read it in: https://talk.collegeconfidential.com/texas-m-university/1662725-homeschooled-a-m-and-sat.html

Right, it doesn’t mean they are in the top 25 of their college. The number is used for admission. At UT Austin, those in the top 6% of their class are automatically admitted to the university. They take up a large number of the available spots. Texas A&M is much easier to figure out because it auto admits based on SAT scores alone.

I just called Texas Tech since they also have a combo of class rank and SAT scores that lead to auto admission. The man who answered said they look at the SAT scores of applicants for that term and assign a class rank that corresponds to students who had similar scores. I asked follow up questions to try to get a better understanding, and he wasn’t quite sure exactly how it worked. He put me on hold and came back and told me that 1490 is the SAT score for top 10%. Regentrude, since there is only 1 person in the homeschool students class, there really isn’t a class rank so they have to assign one. This also applies to schools that don’t rank.

I read the comment about homeschoolers being classified as top 25% on the CC forums. I was curious because we’re in TX and some schools have auto admit based on class rank or a combo of class rank and SAT scores. So I checked UT Austin’s website and it said that homeschoolers are assigned a rank based on test scores. Then, I called UT Austin, and I was told the rank would be assigned based on the rank of students in our area who had the same SAT scores as my son.

I also heard that homeschoolers are considered top 25%, then they look at SAT scores. I called an admissions office yesterday to ask about it, and I was told they compare your SAT scores to the scores of those in schools in your area and assign a class rank. Maybe this varies by school???

What resources did you use to help your child prep for college essay writing? Ds writes really good academic papers, but could use some help with this style of essay writing.

Thanks!

I don’t know if this applies, but I had only taken 2 AP courses (biology and calculus) in high school, and the rest of my courses were regular (not honors), including a year of part-time cosmetology and a year part-time health vocation work in a doctor’s office. I got a scholarship based solely on test scores, and the school I attended emphasized how difficult their courses would be. So I was surrounded by really smart students who had read books I’d never read, discussed topics I’d never encountered, etc. But I knew I could work hard enough to learn anything I needed to know. I made B’s on my first couple of papers and went to the tutoring center and went to the professor to ask for an example of what my papers should look like. After that, I was off and running. Also, when I waa admitted to the school, I asked the AO about additional scholarship money for books if I did well my first year. He said, after the first year I would probably be begging to keep my scholarship. Well the very next year, I got an extra scholarship for books and the next year a scholarship for study abroad! I share this with all my kids often. There are always going to be situations where we suspect we don’t belong or don’t really measure up. None of that matters. All that really matters is what we actually DO! She should focus on paying attention in class, studying, completing assignments well, getting help when needed, etc. and not worry at all about being smarter than or not as smart as others in her program.

I want to get a head start on setting up a college application checklist. Looking for ideas on how to lay it out, organize it, categories to include, etc.

Haha! Good point! I think refereeing is giving her a little taste of this. The parents are AWFUL. She refs for 6-8 year olds, and you would think it was the World Cup. I don’t know if I could do it. She’s making $20 an hour, though!

That’s a really good way to look at it!