rigorous high school prgam that's easy to implement?

[Halcyon]

I am posting on behalf of a friend. Her son is hs currently, in 8th grade. He is very mathy, loves science, a wonderful reader (certainly reads at a college level, as far as I understnad). His dream is MIT, Caltech or some other high end school with a great engineering program, strong science, but also great literature classes. His mom is very capable, but is nervous about high school and preparing her son properly. She is worried about not doing things 'right' such that it hinders his chances of going to a top notch school. That said, she hasn't fully researched engineering/science schools, and there may be quite a few lesser known schools that are just as good (and cheaper!) than the ones her son knows about. Can you all help me to help her? Should she do an all-in-one progrAm? Is there a site that has guidelines for her to follow in terms of record-keeping, reqs, etc? What courses would you recommend? Her son has done algebra already but not sure what else. I'll check.

[homeschoolally]

:bigear::bigear::bigear::bigear::bigear:

[Donna A.]

You don't say whether they would want Christian content or what their view is of the beginning of time, but if Christian, you might have her check out My Father's World high school. It's *definitely* college prep material (one of the author's sons is currently in college for an engineering degree), and is written directly to the student with a scheduled weekly check-in time by mom or dad. The lesson plan guide also includes very clear instructions for the parent to do grading and that sort of thing, and they recommend an SAT prep book which I'm finding very helpful. Here's a link to their high school page: http://www.mfwbooks.com/highschool.html

 

Check out their message boards for discussion and extra help, too.

 

For high school, I just don't think you can get much "easier to implement" AND college prep than MFW unless you went with a video school option.

[Kathy in Richmond]

Hi - I've taken two kids along this route. They're both math and science-loving kids and both had similar kinds of college aspirations to your friend's son (both were accepted to Caltech & MIT). If there was a rigorous + easy-to-implement secret way to get there, though, I must have missed it, lol! Lots of work, to be sure :-)

 

Even though there's no simple shortcut, I think that there are *lots* of possible routes to the same end results. I've met lots of homeschooled kids over the years at MIT, Stanford, etc, and they all had a different story to tell about their homeschooling. Here are some of my disjointed thoughts:

 

 

 

• Think about *why* he wants to go to MIT or Caltech. A lot of kids have a dream school in mind, but don't know much about the reality of life there. There are ups and downs to such schools versus, say, a large state school or smaller engineering college. Visit different schools & talk to students and professors if you can. We never had much of a budget for school visits per se, but we combined them with other family travel whenever possible...driving through New England? Good time to tour RPI, MIT, Harvard, Olin, etc. Also, start following the MIT blogs , especially those written by current students. MIT is quite transparent about life at the institute; they want prospective applicants to know what it's all about, and they don't sugar-coat what the students write.
  

 

 

 

 

• Start investigating lots of engineering schools for potential good fits. Some other great schools off the top of my head are Carnegie Mellon, RPI, Rose Hulman, Harvey Mudd, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Olin, Georgia Tech, Case Western, U Michigan, & the military academies (I'm sure I'm missing many more). Some will have narrow engineering offerings; others will have a broad selection of liberal arts in addition to engineering. Go to their websites and read up on what their undergraduate students are doing. Most school websites have sections for prospective students. Find out the recommended high school preparation/ coursework and testing requirements. Each school differs, so take notes! Also, most schools have something on their admissions websites for homeschooled applicants. Take their suggestions for homeschoolers seriously. If they *recommend* stuff like SAT subject tests for homeschoolers, you'll want to take note.
  

 

 

 

 

• Besides reading the WTM forums, they might want to investigate:
  

 

 

 

 

 

• College Confidential
  (look for the Engineering majors forum, specific college forums, & parents area).
  
  

 

 

• The
  MIT admissions website
  has lots of advice & would pertain to other schools as well. In particular, look at the
  info for parents
  , the
  tips for homeschooled applicants
  , and their
  recommendations for high school preparation
  .
  
  

 

 

• US News & World Report college issues usually have lists of engineering schools. The one I own has engineering school rankings by specialty, so if he has a specific kind of engineering in mind, it might help them.
  
  

 

 

 

• You don't have to do high school alone! Online schools abound. We loved PA Homeschoolers & Art of Problem Solving and also used EPGY and Write@Home, but there are many more. Maybe there is a decent local college where her son can take some classes during high school. Investigate summer programs in his field of interest. For the really competitive universities, they'll need to do some of this anyway. Most of the admission counselors I've talked to over the years emphasized that they rely heavily on outside evaluations for their homeschooled applicants. And even if it weren't important for college admissions, I'd still have mine in a few outsourced classes. As they progressed into the teen years, they needed & enjoyed those connections with other adults . Sometimes they found it easier to take advice and correction from someone besides Mom, too, lol.
  

 

 

 

 

• The other item the adcoms told me was super-important for homeschoolers was testing. Competitive schools often count homeschoolers' test scores more heavily (& take mommy-grades with a grain of salt). She has lots of time if her son is in grade eight, but she should start now learning about the PSAT, SAT, ACT, SAT subject tests, and AP tests. She can start by going to the College Board website or googling those tests on this forum. And speaking of the college board website, she might want to spend some time looking at the general college planning info available there.
  

 

 

 

 

• Besides planning coursework, my most important piece of advice to her would be to take advantage of the relative freedom of homeschooling. Instead of tying him down to a desk and implementing school-at-home all day long, help him identify an area of passion and find the time and resources to pursue it. In retrospect, it was not only fun for my kids, but it actually ended up helping them to stand out amongst the public schoolers who were too busy to do much besides schoolwork. Some kids might like to work on building projects (Carole in DE's son built a kayak, I think? Make magazine might be fun for potential hands-on engineers. I once listened to an MIT adcom sing the praises of kids like that), others like my son might delve into all kinds of computer programming (from Lego robotics to USACO olympiad training <-- that website has a free training program, btw), and others like my daughter might like the world of theoretical math, math camps and math competitions. Still others I know about loved science fairs, while others had their own home businesses that they developed over the years.
  

 

 

 

 

• Also along those lines...think about building some time into their lives to give back to the community. It helps them build perspective that it's not all about them. And it's just a good thing to do :-)
  

 

Edited October 5, 2010 by Kathy in Richmond

[Kathy in Richmond]

& here's the rest of my post...it got a little long (LOL...can you tell I have too much time on my hands now with my youngest in college :-P)

 

 

 

• Record-keeping...Find a plan that works for you and keep up with it. It's horrible to have to have to re-create transcripts and course descriptions from scratch in the fall of twelfth grade. Get a good homeschooling high school book or two for ideas of how to do this. Down the line, read a book or two on college admissions, specifically for homeschoolers or otherwise.
  

 

 

 

 

• Financial Aid & College Costs…Every family's situation is different, so beware of blanket statements that say what's best for everyone. Depending on family finances and the student's track record, there might be need-based or merit-based (or both) aid available from individual colleges. Outside agencies also grant scholarships to deserving kids, and homeschoolers can qualify. A good place to start learning about funding college is Paying for College Without Going Broke. Online calculators can give you a rough idea of whether or not your family might qualify for need-based aid. But beware! The schools don't have to follow these guidelines. Our experience is that some will give more; other colleges will give much less. Some will do loans and others won't. We personally qualified for need-based aid. My kids found their least expensive choices when all was said & done were MIT and Stanford. Their most expensive choices were our state schools. So don't rule anything out till you've looked into the details!
  

 

 

The good news for your friend is she has time on her side. Eighth grade is still young. I'm sure that I wasn't all that prepared with my first child...a lot got done at the deadline. Enjoy him, too! I turned a blind eye to the whole college process till my oldest hit tenth grade. We enjoyed the homeschooling life and refused to worry too much till then, and everything ended up well enough. :-)

 

~Kathy

[homeschoolally]

I've really enjoyed reading these posts---thanks so much for taking the time to write down your thoughts!

 

Very interesting about MIT and Stanford coming out less than state schools---I wouldn't have ever considered that!

 

Thanks again!:001_smile:

[Jenn in CA]

Kathy had a lot of great advice.

 

For us, the "easiest" way to keep increasing the rigor is to use CC classes. Then my role changes from teacher/planner/grader/"the buck stops here" to administrator, supervisor and encourager.

 

I think one great prep for engineering/math/sci field is to get ahead in math. Use the CC if necessary/possible. The stronger math, the better. Also, start taking lab sci's at CC. Our preferred path is Calc for engineering majors, then Physics and/or Chem.

 

I don't know how great the lit is at Caltech or MIT... since you can't be an English major there I'm guessing it's pretty basic. Perhaps a more broad-based school, not strictly science, would be better if he wants to dive into both math/sci and lit.

 

Also for ex., Caltech is very theoretical. My son is planning on computer sci but doesn't want theoretical, he wants a job. So there are many things to consider, not just the name or "elite status" of a school.

 

PS. Kathy, what college do your kids attend? That's great that they got accepted by both Caltech and MIT!

Edited October 5, 2010 by Jenn in CA

[Kathy in Richmond]

Jenn - My son just graduated from MIT. He's working on his Masters in Engineering in computer science there now. My daughter just started college at Stanford as a potential math major & Latin or fine arts minor.

 

I'm not sure about Caltech, but you can major in literature at MIT these days. Most of their humanities majors are actually double-majoring in a science or engineering field at the same time. Nevertheless, the humanities offerings there are surprisingly strong. Classes are usually small, so there's lots of interaction with the professors.

 

And yes, math is the key to all engineering fields.

 

~Kathy

[Halcyon]

Thank you for all these resources! She is going to be thrilled, and I am personally going to print out this thread--my oldest is only 8 but it doesn't hurt to learn a bit for down the road. Incidentally, my friend's son also excels in Latin. He's quite young, so who knows, maybe he'll go in a different direction and want to study Latin ;) He is a well-rounded boy with lots of interests, so you never know. Keep the advice coming!

[Brilliant]

If I were in your friend's situation, I would look into using K12 through a charter school. I have friends who have done it through high school, and it's rigorous but easy to use (for the parent - as the student is assigned a teacher by the school). Having records kept by a charter makes it easier to get into some universities - for example, in California, it's hard for privately homeschooled students to go directly to state universities. But K12 charter school students can do it.