"School Profile" for Common App, scholarship forms, etc.

[Maura in NY]

How have people done this in the past? What information did you include? I've seen what public/private schools include, but what parts of this did you decide were relevant?

 

Northwestern U's: http://www.ugadm.northwestern.edu/counselors/hsprofile/

 

College Planning Center of Rhode Island: http://cpcri.org/GuidanceCounselors/AdmissionsInfo/YourSchoolProfile/tabid/139/Default.aspx

 

Thanks for any ideas, input, etc.

 

Maura

[Kareni]

Maura,

 

I'd be happy to send you (or others) my homeschool profile. Simply send me a personal message with your email address.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Brenda in MA]

Maura,

 

I chose not to include most of the information listed on your example from Northwestern in my son's high school profile because it seemed to be more relevant for a student attending a traditional school.

 

I didn't see any point in discussing the demographics of my area, the median test scores, or the % minorities. I can see the colleges wanting this from a traditionally-schooled student so they can better understand how a particular student compares with his/her peers -- e.g. is a student with a 3.5 GPA top of the class in a school with "strict" grading, or just middle of the road in a school that gives out a lot of As?

 

What I did discuss in the school profile was our philosophy of homeschooling -- that we feature rigorous academic work (this was evident from his test scores), while working to encourage independent work as the high school years went on.

 

I went on to describe that early high school was done mostly at home, with a slow transition to more independent courses through some on-line coursework, and eventually courses at the local CC.

 

I also made a brief statement that he covered 4 years of English, 4 years of Math, 4 years of science, .... so that they could see that he had met the basic course requirements for admission to college.

 

I also talked about some special features of our homeschool approach. One of these was that we did integrated history, literature, and religion. I talked a little bit about how these subjects were done and how doing the integrated approach allowed the materials from different courses to reinforce each other.

 

I ended with a statement that I didn't label any courses "honors" because we only have one level of chemistry, English, etc. I also did not weight his GPA, and I discussed that in the school profile section, too.

 

HTH,

Brenda

[Jane in NC]

The toughest part of this process for me was writing the counselor letter. Namely you need to sell your child which can sound like hyperbole because he is Your Child. No bias there!

 

I mention this because I found that I had to distinguish between what went into the school profile, which became a statement of homeschool philosophy, and the counselor letter. It sounds as though the two are different, but, as a homeschooler who essentially lives education, I found certain elements of overlap. In the profile, I mentioned that school for us went beyond 8 to 3 or fall to spring. This was a good opportunity to mention cultural exposure, summer activities, etc.--essentially extensions of our homeschool into daily life. Then, within the counselor letter, I could discuss my son's personality and those characteristics which led to a successful homeschooling experience.

 

I did include some of the demographic information for our area, namely because our schools are abysmal! If there was any question of "Why are these people homeschooling?", I figured that the statistics alone were an argument in our favor. It sounds as though many homeschoolers exclude the demographics so that is really your call.

 

Jane

[Bev in B'ville]

The toughest part of this process for me was writing the counselor letter. Namely you need to sell your child which can sound like hyperbole because he is Your Child. No bias there!

 

I mention this because I found that I had to distinguish between what went into the school profile, which became a statement of homeschool philosophy, and the counselor letter. It sounds as though the two are different, but, as a homeschooler who essentially lives education, I found certain elements of overlap.

 

Nodding head. It was hard to distinguish between our philosophy and the counselor's letter since as a homeschool entity, the two are very closely related. I just finished mine last week and it was indeed hard to write.

[Maura in NY]

What you are describing sounds like what I wrote in the two parts of the Homeschool Supplement that ask for your homeschooling philosophy and your grading methodology. Those were limited to 1500 characters each - ugh, that was tough!

 

Did you just write an expanded version for the School Profile? I think all of the schools ds is applying to have asked for the Homeschool Supplement.

 

What do you think?

[Brenda in MA]

What you are describing sounds like what I wrote in the two parts of the Homeschool Supplement that ask for your homeschooling philosophy and your grading methodology. Those were limited to 1500 characters each - ugh, that was tough!

 

Did you just write an expanded version for the School Profile? I think all of the schools ds is applying to have asked for the Homeschool Supplement.

 

What do you think?

 

Maura,

 

What I did was to divide the info between the 2 forms but not repeat much. On the homeschool supplement, I discussed grading and homeschooling philosophy (a brief statement of why we homeschooled and our expected outcome).

 

In the school profile, I discussed more of the nuts & bolts of how his schooling was carried out -- some at home/some at CC, integrated history/literature/religion, etc.

 

I just figured out everything that I wanted to tell them and split the info between the forms and put things in the place that seemed most logical to me. I made sure not to be redundant. I know if I was reviewing applications, I wouldn't really be a stickler for what info was on each form, as long as it's there and communicated clearly, but it would drive me crazy if the same info was repeated at length on more than one form.

 

I tried to look at the whole package -- transcript, counselor letter, school profile, homeschool supplement and make sure it made sense and gave them a good picture of my son, what he was taught, and how the teaching was carried out.

 

HTH,

Brenda

Edited September 2, 2010 by Brenda in MA