Military Academies & Homeschooling?

[Jamauk]

My son is determined to go to West Point (granted, he's 8.5 yo). I understand anything could change over the next 10 years, but he's been obsessed with all things military since he was old enough to talk.

 

We live in a very heavily populated military area and I'm sure this contributes a lot to his interest.

 

Anyway, does anyone know how the military academies view homeschooling? We've checked the local recruiting offices and overall, they are fine with homeschooling, but I was wondering specifically about the academies. Anyone have any experience dealing with this?

 

Thanks!

[Ria]

I believe Margaret in CO's daughter went to USNA; I hope she'll chime in, or you can PM her. The academies do take homeschoolers; I think they have information on their websites. On thing I remember from M's daughter is that the kids need lots of sports and other activities during high school.

[Mrs Mungo]

http://www.west-point.org/academy/malo-wa/educators/HomeSchool.html

 

http://www.hslda.org/docs/nche/000002/00000240.asp

 

You might also ask about this on the high school and college boards.

[LibraryLover]

another redunant post by me. lol nm

Edited September 4, 2011 by LibraryLover

[Anne in CA]

Just for anecdotal evidence, I know a young man from my ds's Boy Scout troop who was the top candidate to West Point and Annapolis two years ago who never went to school a day in his life. He was completely home schooled. Now his dad is one ball of discipline and determination, and I know he worked his butt off to get it, but a home schooler can be accepted to those academies. He ended up at West Point.

[Misty]

Poke around at http://www.militaryhomeschoolers.com/ .

[Spryte]

My aunt and uncle are very involved with the Naval Academy (their son, my cousin, attended, and later taught there), and they are some sort of ... not recruiters but they do preliminary interviews or something along those lines.

 

They are always very interested in homeschoolers, and find that home schooled students are very desirable. They are primarily looking for students with broad experiences, leadership type experience being very desirable, and they feel that homeschooling offers great opportunities.

[In The Great White North]

There have been quite a few on these boards who successfully applied to an academy and a few grads.

 

The Academies are totally separate from the local Recruiting Office. They have virtually no info one the Academies, but if you tell a persistent Marine Recruiter you have applied to one, he will never come back. :D

 

DS, who homeschooled high school, is at USAFA and was also accepted at USMA. He has at least one classmate on these boards.

 

The Academies are looking for well rounded candidates. They want good academics, a sport, and leadership experiences.

 

For academics, homeschooling was not an issue. They accepted ds's mommy transcript and mommy grades. DS had one AP test score, one b&m grade and the SAT. He had no dual enrollment or community college.

 

He had the "standard" college prep coursework

 

Ds says more algebra would have helped (after algebra 1 in 8th at school, again in 9th at home and alg II in 10th.)

 

For leadership, he was an Eagle Scout and made Mitchell in CAP. Claims CAP really helped him in Cadet Basic Training. He volunteered at Church and at the pool. He is a good talker and interviews well. This is important.

 

For sports, he swam competitively all through high school, on both the local ps team and a USS club. He was not recruitable. He did do well on the Physical Aptitude Test.