Any Homeschoolers got admitted to UCLA or other University of California campuses ?

[HOPE888]

Hello, Parents of Homeschoolers or Homeschooled Students,

1. Are there any home-schooled students got admitted to UCLA or other UC campuses this year 2019 ? or any years before ? 

2. How do you fulfill the requirement of a-g high school courses for UC admission particularly the requirement of "Geometry" course due to there are no existence of SAT subject test of Geometry ? 

Thank you!

[daijobu]

1.  UC Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD so far in 2019.  (Not sure if she applied anywhere else.)

2.  Dd studied geometry from an AoPS textbook at home with me as a teacher in middle school.  So I guess you could say we didn't.  

[HOPE888]

@daijobu Thank you very much for your reply and info!

By any chance, do you have the thread links to those homeschoolers applied and admitted to UC Berkeley, UCLA and UCSD ?

I appreciate it very much for your tips and info.

Thank you!

[8filltheheart]

Several people on the hs2coll yahoo loop have had kids accepted to UCs. I would suggest joining that group bc it is helpful and more high school to college focused than these forums.

[daijobu]

12 minutes ago, HOPE888 said:

@daijobu Thank you very much for your reply and info!

By any chance, do you have the thread links to those homeschoolers applied and admitted to UC Berkeley, UCLA and UCSD ?

I appreciate it very much for your tips and info.

 

 

I'm not really sure what you mean here.  I guess my only advice is to treat UCB and UCLA the same as you would treat any competitive university.  Do impressive work in your classes and extracurriculars in order to be admitted.  Dd had a bunch of APs and high test scores on everything, so I think she mostly covered all the a-g except geometry.  I'm not sure about arts...we accidentally got P/F credit at a local CC without ever setting foot on campus because of some weird thing with a local children's theater group.  

And forget about a-g, except insofar as you want to get some AP exams and SAT subject tests and other validation for your schoolwork.  It isn't even clear to me that you need to worry about a-g at all if you are homeschooling with a PSA.  The quote that follows suggests this is the case, but it still isn't very clear to me.  Pretend to be a student applicant and look at their online application portal.  There really isn't a way to indicate your classes are a-g, so what's the point?  

From  http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/freshman/homeschool/index.html :

If your home schooling curriculum is not provided by a U.S. regionally accredited school (or approved by the State Board of Education) and you will not receive an official transcript and high school diploma from a U.S. regionally accredited school: 

• You can be eligible by meeting requirements for admission by exam. 
• If you do not meet the requirements for admission by exam, you may still be considered for admission by exception. 

 

[HOPE888]

36 minutes ago, 8FillTheHeart said:

Several people on the hs2coll yahoo loop have had kids accepted to UCs. I would suggest joining that group bc it is helpful and more high school to college focused than these forums.

@8FillTheHeart I will check out the hs2coll yahoo group. Thank you very much for the info!

[Jilly]

Many, many homeschoolers get accepted to the UCs every year. If you are applying as a PSA student you do not need to worry about a-g at all. Instead your student would either be admitted by exam or by exception as stated already in the thread. My own son was admitted to UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, UC Santa Cruz, and UC Merced with his homeschool transcript and his ACT score. No AP scores, no SAT subjects tests so it is possible. My best advice would be to have your student have a strong transcript with some AP courses and/or cc courses, strong test scores, and great essays. 

If you are looking for a support group of other CA parents you may want to join CA Homeschool College Seekers on Facebook. I am one of the moderators of the group. It is a wonderful resource for parents of homeschoolers in CA. 

Edited March 25, 2019 by Jilly

[HOPE888]

21 minutes ago, daijobu said:

 

I'm not really sure what you mean here.  I guess my only advice is to treat UCB and UCLA the same as you would treat any competitive university.  Do impressive work in your classes and extracurriculars in order to be admitted.  Dd had a bunch of APs and high test scores on everything, so I think she mostly covered all the a-g except geometry.  I'm not sure about arts...we accidentally got P/F credit at a local CC without ever setting foot on campus because of some weird thing with a local children's theater group.  

And forget about a-g, except insofar as you want to get some AP exams and SAT subject tests and other validation for your schoolwork.  It isn't even clear to me that you need to worry about a-g at all if you are homeschooling with a PSA.  The quote that follows suggests this is the case, but it still isn't very clear to me.  Pretend to be a student applicant and look at their online application portal.  There really isn't a way to indicate your classes are a-g, so what's the point?  

From  http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/freshman/homeschool/index.html :

If your home schooling curriculum is not provided by a U.S. regionally accredited school (or approved by the State Board of Education) and you will not receive an official transcript and high school diploma from a U.S. regionally accredited school: 

• You can be eligible by meeting requirements for admission by exam. 
• If you do not meet the requirements for admission by exam, you may still be considered for admission by exception. 

 

@daijobuIt seems like my kid will go for the admission by exam route. Again, thank you very much for your valuable info!

[HOPE888]

9 minutes ago, Jilly said:

Many, many homeschoolers get accepted to the UCs every year. If you are applying as a PSA student you do not need to worry about a-g at all. Instead your student would either be admitted by exam or by exception as stated already in the thread. My own son was admitted to UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, UC Santa Cruz, and UC Merced with his homeschool transcript and his ACT score. No AP scores, no SAT subjects tests so it is possible. My best advice would be to have your student have a strong transcript with some AP courses and/or cc courses, strong test scores, and great essays. 

If you are looking for a support group of other CA parents you may want to join CA Homeschool College Seekers on Facebook. I am one of the moderators of the group. It is a wonderful resource for parents of homeschoolers in CA. 

@Jilly Thank you very much for your reply and info! My kid will probably go for the admission by exam route. I will check  out CA Homeschool College Seekers on Facebook. Thank you!

[...................]

If you are applying as a psa filer or a private homeschooler through CA private umbrella type school you definitely DO NOT need to do A-G. There was so much misinformation about this about four years back, due to the charter homeschoolers confusing everyone about everything (I am all for options and not against charter schooling but it really threw everyone into a tail spin for several years.) Last year in 2018 the UC's met, in person with all of the homeschooling leaders from California and one of my personal friends and our cover school person emphatically stated that you DO NOT need to follow A-G as a private homeschooler.  

Here are some things you SHOULD do however:

Try to fulfill Admission By Exam

Try to have several AP's and DE's especially if you're aiming for the top 4 UC's.  The more APs and DE's the better.

If your kid has a passion, be sure they stick with it, if possible because they are looking holisticlaly at your kid, and seeing them involved is a good thing.

If your kid has community service that's good.

Don't worry about "doing everything" - most colleges are looking for real kids that join real stuff becuase they're truly interested and engaged- they can totally tell when you're just checking boxes.

If anyone encourages you to apply as a young transfer student after ultiziing community college, don't do it.  You can PM me if you want more info on that, but I think kids need to stay in the age and sphere that they're in.

[SoCal_Bear]

I think the charter school folks confuse the information that is out there because they think they are classified as homeschooled. If your child is using a charter, you are considered a public school student and are subject to a-g requirements. When people ask this question, it's important to know what their status is. I do remember that people who attended some UC admissions workshops said that you should not attempt to do admission by exam or exception if you are a public school student.

Somewhere on here at some point, I had posted text from a letter from the UC Office of the President that Laura (one of the mods at CA Homeschool College Seekers) got which explicitly stated that homeschoolers (PSA/PSP) do not have to adhere to a-g requirements with a-g approved courses. Of course, the expectation is that your coursework should reflect your interests and a rigorous course of study. Ideally, a direction in your studies & activities that shows how you took advantage of being homeschooled to pursue XXX (insert whatever that student's interests ar
 

Edited March 26, 2019 by calbear

[Mabelen]

1 hour ago, calbear said:

I think the charter school folks confuse the information that is out there because they think they are classified as homeschooled. If your child is using a charter, you are considered a public school student and are subject to a-g requirements. When people ask this question, it's important to know what their status is. I do remember that people who attended some UC admissions workshops said that you should not attempt to do admission by exam or exception if you are a public school student.

Somewhere on here at some point, I had posted text from a letter from the UC Office of the President that Laura (one of the mods at CA Homeschool College Seekers) got which explicitly stated that homeschoolers (PSA/PSP) do not have to adhere to a-g requirements with a-g approved courses. Of course, the expectation is that your coursework should reflect your interests and a rigorous course of study. Ideally, a direction in your studies & activities that shows how you took advantage of being homeschooled to pursue XXX (insert whatever that student's interests ar
 

 

Why shouldn’t public school students attempt admission by exam? I know that some public schoolers fulfill the foreign language requirements by exam. In fact, this is something that I am considering for my younger daughter for Spanish. With marching band, and 4 years of science, she has no room for Spanish. 

[...................]

17 minutes ago, Mabelen said:

 

Why shouldn’t public school students attempt admission by exam? I know that some public schoolers fulfill the foreign language requirements by exam. In fact, this is something that I am considering for my younger daughter for Spanish. With marching band, and 4 years of science, she has no room for Spanish. 

 

Its not that PS students shouldn’t take any exams they want to,

it’s that they must apply through the regular route because doing otherwise would be sabatoaging their own applications. The system was designed for them and for their schools so, not using the system would look very odd indeed. All public schools offer certified a-g courses so there’s no reason to apply via admission by exam. 

Obviously they can take all the exams they want and present them on their app as extra good stuff, more power to them. 🙂 but they should apply through the regular path.

[...................]

21 minutes ago, Mabelen said:

 

Why shouldn’t public school students attempt admission by exam? I know that some public schoolers fulfill the foreign language requirements by exam. In fact, this is something that I am considering for my younger daughter for Spanish. With marching band, and 4 years of science, she has no room for Spanish. 

 

For you and for your dd, If she passed an AP Spanish exam I’m sure that would look awesome, I would definitely get some info on how to present that on your app if your dd is fluent, I believe you can just have her take a Spanish writing course and call it Spanish for Native Speakers. But if she passed an AP maybe that would count for several (maybe four?) years of foreign language....?  

[SoCal_Bear]

@Mabelen  I think you may confusing admission by exam and satisfying a-g requirements via exam (subject SAT or AP score). Those are two completely separate things for UC. Admission by exam is a completely separate process from a-g. 

This is the public school student option. This is not at all the Admission by Exam process that we are talking about for homeschoolers. This is what the UCOOP offered clarity on that homeschoolers did not have to go through this process.
http://msa2.magnoliapublicschools.org/Documents//College Center/UC Options for Satisfying A-G Requirements For Freshman.pdf

 

Edited March 26, 2019 by calbear

[SoCal_Bear]

Here is the language about Admission by Exam. The phrasing would line up with UC Admissions advice I mentioned above because public school students do have access to meet the regular subject requirements because they are in a public school. Hopefully, this makes more sense because they will look like they did not utliize the resources they had available to them. 

Homeschooled students generally would not have access to these same resources. Though generally speaking, homeschoolers aiming at UC admissions are usually getting the similar type of courses that they are looking for broadly speaking like English, math, science, foreign language, etc. How they are doing it is where the path diverges from the public school path and that's where things could get very interesting and unique to the student.

Students who don't meet the minimum requirements may be considered for admission to UC on the strength of their test scores as part of the comprehensive review process.

In general, this method of consideration is designed for students who, through no fault of their own, have been unable to meet the regular subject requirements and/or earn a high school diploma.

Edited March 26, 2019 by calbear

[QumaCote]

Congrats to those admitted to a UC school!!  My ds applied for the 2017-2018 school year and was waitlisted at UCI & UCSD, denied at UCLA, and was accepted at Cal Poly SLO.  He was a NMF, had 4 AP exams, Math Level 2 Subject Test (800), Lit Subject Test (760), plus Medals for National Latin Exams and National Spanish Exams.  The top UC schools are obviously very competitive, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try!!  The admit/reject offers often do not make sense to me.  😉  Fortunately, ds was offered very generous scholarships at other schools which actually made them less expensive than a UC school.  

Big hugs as you navigate the college application process!!  I personally found it exhausting!

 

 

Edited April 17, 2019 by QumaCote
Wrong school year & wrong info on UCSD! Yikes!! Obviously, my brain is fuzzy!!

[HOPE888]

@QumaCote Sorry to hear that your ds is denied at UCLA & UCSD. Good thing that your ds was accepted at Cal Poly SLO and hopefully, UCI, as well. Do you mind to share which AP exams fields your ds took and what scores? Also, which major did your ds apply to UCLA ? School of Engineering or College of Letters & Sciences ? Thank you!

[QumaCote]

Sorry for the delay in responding.  Between sickness, taxes, and life, I didn't see this message until last night.

I apologize for the error in my original post!  My son is currently a college freshman, so this information was from last year.  He informed me that he was waitlisted at UCSD as well.  He applied everywhere as an engineering major but is currently a Data Analytics major.  His AP tests were in French, Spanish, Calc, & Physcis C Mechanics.

He turned down the waitlist offers.  We didn't want to jeopardize big scholarship opportunities at other schools for a "maybe chance" at a UC school.  If I remember correctly, it was going to be mid-July before he was notified if he made the cut which obviously is too late for other schools.  Because of his NMF status, he was offered full rides at 2 Texas schools and full tuition at 2 other Texas schools.  (He didn't apply at any other NMF schools.)  He was also offered the Presidential Scholarship at Chapman University which is where he decided to attend.  His second choice was probably UTD--they definitely made him a VERY attractive offer.

Best wishes to all of you as you make final decisions!!  It is an exciting yet stressful time!  

[daijobu]

On 3/25/2019 at 7:52 PM, Calming Tea said:

If anyone encourages you to apply as a young transfer student after ultilizing community college, don't do it.  You can PM me if you want more info on that, but I think kids need to stay in the age and sphere that they're in.

 

Would you mind sharing your experience in this regard on this thread?  (No dog in this fight; I'm just curious.)

Edited April 17, 2019 by daijobu

[QumaCote]

I would love to know more about this as well.  I was thinking of CC for my dd when she hit 11th or 12th grade.  I will send you a PM.

 

[Roadrunner]

2 hours ago, daijobu said:

 

Would you mind sharing your experience in this regard on this thread?  (No dog in this fight; I'm just curious.)

 

I am also curious since so many parents we know plan the transfer route.

[Mabelen]

On 3/25/2019 at 10:13 PM, Calming Tea said:

 

For you and for your dd, If she passed an AP Spanish exam I’m sure that would look awesome, I would definitely get some info on how to present that on your app if your dd is fluent, I believe you can just have her take a Spanish writing course and call it Spanish for Native Speakers. But if she passed an AP maybe that would count for several (maybe four?) years of foreign language....?  

 

I would not consider my dd a native speaker by any stretch of the imagination. I am a native speaker. I grew up in Spain to a Spanish speaking family, did all my schooling in Spanish. My dd is what I would call a heritage speaker for lack of a better term. I did what I could to bring her up bilingual, but my husband is not a Spanish speaker, we have zero Spanish speaking family in the U.S., and all her schooling has been in English. Despite my efforts, she is more of a passive than an active bilingual. Of course, that is a tremendous advantage, no doubt, but she still needs to do the work to learn the grammar properly to get there! We still are undecided which way to go. She might end up meeting her Spanish requirements at our local community college. An AP would definitely count for four years of foreign language at least.