I know of one family where the father helped their children to apply to ONE college, Calvin College, his alma mater, and then told them that they were free to apply to other colleges on their own. But neither one applied anywhere else so they both ended up at Calvin. What a way to get your children to go to the school of the parent's choice! Dd has received acceptances from University of Maryland and University of Maryland at Baltimore County (safety); waiting to hear from Pomona College (reach) and Bryn Mawr College in March.

Thank you so much for this wonderful list of free resources. I was trying to check out the "African Waldorf" but the link is broken. FYI

We moved in our first and second sons, N and Y, for the first time this year. We live overseas so N, who is a junior, was moved in by his grandparents when he was a freshmen. I always felt bad about that and so for Y, I made sure we were around to move him in. As a side story, I just found out that the mattress size in N's school depends on the dorm hall, which was news to me! Freshman year mattress was regular while sophmore year mattress was XL. LOL. N had been squeezing his twin size sheet onto a XL twin size mattress! I asked him how often he washed his sheets. Not often. It dawned on him that that might have to do with the STRUGGLE of putting it on. We found out what mattress he would have this year. I pronto got onto Amazon and ordered him an XL bed sheet set (Love Prime Shipping!) just days before he had to go. (I don't know WHY he didn't get XL sheets previously or ask me to get them! As a overseas mom, love Amazon, did I mention this?) For Y's move in, because we were coming in from overseas, we didn't have much. We were minmalists. Five of us went to drop him off so all his stuff had to fit in the back of a minivan. The four of us were able to carry all his possessions in one trip, excluding the dad who left to park the car. As long as you don't take the big items which I consider unnecessary, there's not a whole lot to take. The whole process was made easy also by the fact that the school was super organized. We were told the day and time to come. Y's roommate brought TV, refridge, and carpet. We didn't bring any of that and we were in-state while the roommate was not. I had figured the kids could talk about getting things like that AFTER they moved in... Maybe it's the influence of his roommate whose mom commented, "He probably has enough clothes for both of you" but Y feels like he needs more shoes and clothes. Or it could be his major is a factor here. We had to buy him a suit, a casual suit jacket, and dress shoes for his business school. He does need a casual non-sneaker non-dress shoes that can work with jeans and dark pants. Anyway back to Amazon to browse!

Thanks, Gwen.

Ha, ha. That is funny. :laugh: Being immersed in the homeschool world, I'm surprised to hear a comment like that. It feels like every should have already heard that homeschoolers go to college.

I called the Collegeboard and they said that if I wait until mid July, the 2016-2017 test dates will be up and at that time, I can re-register for a new test date for $28.00.

As a result of an increasing number of homeschoolers, many college sites have a specific page for homeschoolers with recommendations/requirements noted on it. As 8FillTheHeart said, there a big range in what schools want. For University of Md where my DS will enroll at in the fall, there wasn't really any extra work, if I recall correctly. On the other hand, Bryn Mawr College, has a list and one of the requirements that's irritating me is the need for two MORE recommendation letters on top of the two required for all applicants. Essentially, you need to check out each college for what they want. But at the minimum, you should have a transcript, course descriptions, and a school profile done. Portfolios, reading lists, etc. would depend on the school and major.

DD had an emotional breakdown and missed the SAT subject tests. I have to wait another 9-10 hours before I can call the collegeboard since we're in Central Asia. So I thought I'd ask my question here first. I want to register but not on June 4, the last remaining test date for this academic school year, because on that very day we're traveling back to the US. But June 4 is the only option available on the registration portal. Is it possible to change it to an October date by calling it in, or is it a done deal with no chance of re-registration? Anybody with this experience?

Wow. This was so easily resolved. I think you can count yourself, that is your daughter, lucky. Just keep telling yourself that $400 is not too big a loss in the big picture. :001_unsure: Really it isn't.

Based on the information from this link, because our son is not filing taxes and we claim him as a dependent, it seems we the parents will have the add the overage from the grants to our income. Our income tax reporting has never been this complicated. I guess we also will have to consult an accountant. Any recommendations for an accountant in the Baltimore, Md area?

I totally did not know the room and board grants were taxable. So, if I'm understanding this correctly, this is taxable income for the student?

Congradulations. How proud you and your family must be. It is my dream that my kids will one day say that they were happy to be homeschooled.

Thank you for your heartfelt wishes!

Ever feel bad to those around you for having so many good things happen to you at the same time? That's a bit how I'm feeling about right now. First the acceptance into the business school at DS's university, and now a grant which came through. And it's more than enough to completely pay for the COA at his university. I'm almost really ashamed to be this happy. :huh: :hurray: :sad: :party: :001_rolleyes:

When DS applied to his university, he applied as undecided because he wasn't sure of his major. Later when he became interested in business, we realized that it was much easier to apply as a freshmen than as an internal transfer. DS emailed a question regarding this request but after not hearing any response, he called. The rep gave a very vague answer which I translated as "possible but unlikely." But recently, he received a reply and he's in! Amazingly, I did not know that you had to apply to the business school separately. Engineers I knew but not business. But thanks to college forums such as this, I was alerted, took action, and now he's in! In my family, I'm the one who is happier and more excited about the "acceptances" than the my own children the applicants.

If you create a second email, you can forward the emails from the second to the primary. I know this can be down in gmail because I have several accounts and I forward all of them to the primary and I only check the primary one.

Thanks ladies for your tidbits. I really appreciate them. This is gonna require serious thought, whether we should pursue this path since there seems to be some hurdles we'll have to go over. We're homeschoolers overseas so I'm not sure where we can get this proof. But I guess we'll get to that IF we decide to go down that road. Thanks again.

Hello everyone. Even though I just joined today, I wanted to share that my second son will be attending University of Maryland at College Park. Major: He was undecided but is now considering business. Reasons for choosing UMD: It was pretty easy, based solely on elimination. Of the four schools, he was accepted into, one was in a location that he was sure didn't want to go to (an overseas American college which he applied to at my request), one didn't have a good business department, and one was a little more expensive than we liked but doable if he really wanted to go there and study hard, maintaining a term and cumulative GPA of 3.0 for a hefty scholarship. The last college was risky because although he's a bright young man, he has gotten good grades on his natural smarts rather than studying. In addition, there were some other personal issues which I fear may still effect his studying in college and put the scholarship at risk. Without the scholarship, we'd be in trouble. But as I mentioned, if he had really wanted to go there, we would've supported him but he has not expressed that desire. Despite the fact he had a choice of one, he's content with this school. We're happy that it's a good school and we're almost sure it'll be a full ride for us with his scholarship and grants. (We're still waiting on one more grant.)

Creekland, thanks for your welcome. Before you replied, I read one of your signature quotes ("What screws us up most in life is the picture in our head of how it's supposed to be.") in a thread and found myself laughing and then copying and pasting the quote to share with my kids.

I was perusing the Naval Academy website which said this regarding homeschoolers: "(Y)ou should let us know if your schooling is recognized by the local school board or the State Board of Education." What does this mean? Does this mean we should simply state in a letter if homeschooling is recognized in our home state or do we need a letter of proof? Also, how hard is it getting a nomination? That is, did you have any problems getting one? We are oversea residents with official residency in Maryland. I was looking at the service academies for my current ninth grader. Seems like homeschoolers have blazed the trail into all kinds of higher education so I thought I'd ask here.

Wow. I was aware and/or have used most sites on Janet's list except for Rugg's Recommendation. I'll be looking forward to perusing that site someday. Two tools: 1.http://www.educatedquest.com/ This site gives detailed college coverage in a report format, downloadable in PDF. Not all colleges are there and I can't find a master list so you just have to search in the search box but many of the colleges he selects to visit and write about are selective colleges. It's fun descriptive reading, a change from looking at "lists." 2. Common Data Sets These documents are the latest information that you can obtain from each school. All colleges/unis are required to produce them so if you do a google search with the school's name and CDS then you'll have access to the latest info. This is my favorite tool because ALL the numerical information that I want to know about the school is there. Not as useful if you still haven't narrowed your list of colleges down.

Hi everyone. I've been an on and off lurker here for years. To reveal how long: nearly since the beginning of our whole homeschooling journey which started when my oldest child was in first grade and now he's a sophmore in college! I still have three more to go. I grew up in VA, our legal state residency is MD, and currently residing in Central Asia but about to move to another country within the next 6 months. So a big hello to those in NoVA, MD and expatriate homeschoolers!