Homeschool student GPA requirement--anyone seen this before?

[cintinative]

Has anyone seen this at another school? I was on this website out of mostly curiosity--they have a major that my son *might* like and they handle Celiac well. It's from Iowa State. The odds of my oldest ds attending there are really, really slim anyway.

ETA: my oldest is rising 9th, so I am not in a hurry to apply anywhere. Just doing some research.  😃

GPA policy for home school students

When calculating a home school applicant's high school GPA for admission, only those grades which have been assigned by an independent entity (e.g., the local high school, a college, or an accredited online curriculum) are factored into the cumulative GPA. Home school applicants must have earned independently assigned grades in at least 12 semester credits of college-level coursework or at least 5 Carnegie units of high school-level coursework (or a combination of both) before their independently assigned grades can be used to establish their high school GPA.

Home school applicants who have not earned enough independently assigned grades to have an established high school GPA will be considered for admission on an individual basis. This will include a holistic evaluation of the student’s entire academic record, including ACT/SAT test scores, high school core classes, and coursework taken through high school and local colleges and universities.

Edited July 28, 2020 by cintinative

[maize]

State universities in my state do this, they don't take grades for homeschoolers into account unless they are from an accredited source, and then only if a certain number have been accumulated.

In practical terms this means that standardized test scores are the major determining factor for homeschool admission and scholarship consideration.

One possible way around this is to use a program like NARHS that will review and grant credits for homeschool classes; I did that this past school year for my tenth grader. She is doing community college online for the upcoming school year.

[cintinative]

4 minutes ago, maize said:

State universities in my state do this, they don't take grades for homeschoolers into account unless they are from an accredited source, and then only if a certain number have been accumulated.

In practical terms this means that standardized test scores are the major determining factor for homeschool admission and scholarship consideration.

One possible way around this is to use a program like NARHS that will review and grant credits for homeschool classes; I did that this past school year for my tenth grader. She is doing community college online for the upcoming school year.

 

Maize, what state are you in, if you don't mind sharing?  

I have not heard of NARHS. I will look into this.

[8filltheheart]

I haven't encountered it, but I would take the concluding paragraph at face value and would submit the same application package that I submit to other colleges.  Our course descriptions, my counselor letter, and our school profile do a good job of establishing our academic focus and their test scores back up their levels of achievement. 

If I were worried about it, I would ahve my kids possibly take a couple CLEP exams.  I did a quick search and they accept CLEP https://www.admissions.iastate.edu/cbe/clep.php . My kids take the micro and macro exams when their school takes CLEP.  THey have scored very high after using Thinkwell's econ course. My dd who wanted to place out of cal took the CLEP.  Foreign language would be another easy one (and a fairly low score grants 6 cr hrs.)  Those CLEP exams don't impact how we study the material.  

But there are plenty of schools where it isn't an issue, so I wouldn't add the CLEP's unless my student wanted to take them anyway and apply and see what happened.

[EKS]

I believe BYU has something similar to this in that they only want to see transcripts from accredited institutions--no homeschool transcripts.  

[8filltheheart]

FWIW, I looked at their CDS, if I had a student with decent test scores, I wouldn't be terribly concerned.

[Lori D.]

BTW -- A few dual enrollment courses would also fill that college credit requirement... so if that was something you were planning on later in your student's high school course of study, you're covered.

Agreeing with 8FillTheHeart -- that last paragraph is key for you. And she already looked up test scores for you, which is what I was going to suggest. 😉 Keep good records, make a course description document, prep for tests, and I don't think you have anything to worry about. 😄 

Edited July 29, 2020 by Lori D.

[catz]

I really wouldn’t sweat this too much if your student can come up with a decent essay, appropriate standardized test score and you have good records.  I think schools that don’t say this are likely thinking the same way and don’t significantly weigh homeschool issued grades. 

Edited July 29, 2020 by FuzzyCatz

[Sebastian (a lady)]

It makes some sense in the context of admitting all students with a high enough calculated Regent Admission Score.  (See below)

For students who don't have enough courses from outside sources, admission would be based on an assessment of available factors. Test scores would weigh heavily, but I don't think they would have to be super high.

I think it might be worth talking to them. Sometimes a school that admits based on an assessment like this comes off as being more closed to homeschoolers than they really are. 

 

Regent Admission Index

Students who wish to enter Iowa State University directly from high school will be admitted based upon their Regent Admission Index (RAI) score. Below is the mathematical formula for calculating students' RAI scores:

RAI Formula
ACT composite (or converted SAT) score x 3 + Cumulative GPA x 30 + Number of years of high school core courses x 5 RAI score

Note: For purposes of calculating the RAI, SAT scores will be converted to ACT composite equivalents; high school GPA is expressed on a 4-point scale; and number of high school courses completed in the core subject areas is expressed in terms of years or fractions of years of study.

Applicants who achieve at least a 245 RAI score and who meet the minimum high school course requirements will automatically be offered admission. Applicants who achieve less than a 245 RAI score and who meet the minimum high school course requirements may also be offered admission, but their applications will be reviewed on an individual basis

[BlsdMama]

On 7/28/2020 at 5:17 PM, cintinative said:

Has anyone seen this at another school? I was on this website out of mostly curiosity--they have a major that my son *might* like and they handle Celiac well. It's from Iowa State. The odds of my oldest ds attending there are really, really slim anyway.

ETA: my oldest is rising 9th, so I am not in a hurry to apply anywhere. Just doing some research.  😃

GPA policy for home school students

When calculating a home school applicant's high school GPA for admission, only those grades which have been assigned by an independent entity (e.g., the local high school, a college, or an accredited online curriculum) are factored into the cumulative GPA. Home school applicants must have earned independently assigned grades in at least 12 semester credits of college-level coursework or at least 5 Carnegie units of high school-level coursework (or a combination of both) before their independently assigned grades can be used to establish their high school GPA.

Home school applicants who have not earned enough independently assigned grades to have an established high school GPA will be considered for admission on an individual basis. This will include a holistic evaluation of the student’s entire academic record, including ACT/SAT test scores, high school core classes, and coursework taken through high school and local colleges and universities.

My son in law attended Iowa State and we know several homeschoolers who have attended Iowa State.  They are definitely homeschool friendly if that's any consolation.  Our two oldest have gone to U of Iowa and while I've never seen it explicitly stated, it is fairly well known that mommy grades aren't considered.  I suspect that Iowa colleges might have a greater expectation of outside validation because many of our dual enrolled classes are free here for homeschoolers so we see heavier homeschool participation?  I have no experience with scholarships, the homeschool student, and ISU (that's going to be my current senior - sorry!) 

[cintinative]

1 minute ago, BlsdMama said:

My son in law attended Iowa State and we know several homeschoolers who have attended Iowa State.  They are definitely homeschool friendly if that's any consolation.  Our two oldest have gone to U of Iowa and while I've never seen it explicitly stated, it is fairly well known that mommy grades aren't considered.  I suspect that Iowa colleges might have a greater expectation of outside validation because many of our dual enrolled classes are free here for homeschoolers so we see heavier homeschool participation?  I have no experience with scholarships, the homeschool student, and ISU (that's going to be my current senior - sorry!) 

 

Good to know! It's SO far away from us but they do have a major my oldest might be interested in, and I have heard good things about how they handle Celiac disease food issues.  I shared this requirement with a friend and she thought that this policy expressed that they were not-homeschool friendly.  It was good to hear several on here say they didn't think it was really an issue. And honestly by the time we get to his senior year I believe he will have enough outsourced classes to meet this anyway.  

[MamaSprout]

16 hours ago, cintinative said:

 

Good to know! It's SO far away from us but they do have a major my oldest might be interested in, and I have heard good things about how they handle Celiac disease food issues. 

And really? The food issue is a thing! I know my dd's college decision is going to come down to professors she's connected with and where she can eat, unless a school really surprises us one way or the other financially.

[cintinative]

1 hour ago, MamaSprout said:

And really? The food issue is a thing! I know my dd's college decision is going to come down to professors she's connected with and where she can eat, unless a school really surprises us one way or the other financially.

 

Since I am just starting this research for him (he is only a rising Freshman in high school), I am so confused how to go about it.  At first I started with a major and cross-referenced it against online reports about how food allergies were handled. But then I realized I have no idea if this will be his actual major or not (it's a shot in the dark, really). So I am wondering now if I should just start locally looking for food-allergy friendly colleges and then later determine if any of them have the major he wants (whatever that is).  It's so confusing. How did you tackle it?

ETA: for those who might ask why I am looking so early--it is mostly to make sure that we meet all their admission requirements course-wise. 

Edited August 9, 2020 by cintinative

[Miss Tick]

On 8/9/2020 at 8:14 AM, cintinative said:

ETA: for those who might ask why I am looking so early--it is mostly to make sure that we meet all their admission requirements course-wise. 

Would anyone really question you for looking "early"? I can't imagine it, on here anyway. I think you are on the ball! I keep staring across the table at my rising 10th graders thinking "show an interest in something, anything!" Most (all?) of the advice about what classes or tests they should take starts with asking the colleges or Uni's they might attend. 😯

Edited August 10, 2020 by SusanC
always the same swye-y mistakes

[MamaSprout]

8 hours ago, MamaSprout said:

And really? The food issue is a thing! I know my dd's college decision is going to come down to professors she's connected with and where she can eat, unless a school really surprises us one way or the other financially.

Dd has a pretty good general idea about what she wants to do, so we're starting pretty traditionally (looking at major and anticipated cost) and narrowing-down from there. Dd has done some away camps at potential schools, so we've already started to vet those food services. Someone on this board posted a link for checking colleges and food allergies, and I can't put my hands on it right now, but it was correct for the schools I knew.

Anyhow, it will be a conversation at any visits we do. I work at small university- and she wouldn't reliably be able to eat there. Freshman and Sophomores must live in the dorms and there's only one with a communal kitchen. The dining services wouldn't work for three meals a day. They "cook fresh", but what that translates into is that menu is subject to change and there's no "allergy" station. It's a big company for doing campus dining- but it seems to vary from campus to campus where they are.

[katilac]

We didn't run into that particular one, but we did a variety of home school requirements. 

fwiw, my kid was accepted at schools where she didn't meet the 'requirements,' including subject tests and specific courses. 

On 8/9/2020 at 9:41 AM, SusanC said:

I think you are on the ball! I keep starting across the table at my rising 10th graders thinking "show an interest in something, anything!" Most (all?) of the advice about what classes or tests they should take starts with asking the colleges or Uno's they might attend. 😯

Agreed that it's not too early to be looking, but I also think it's fine for the parent to be doing the preliminary looking at this point. I had one kid who was delighted to be making color-coded college spreadsheets in 10th-grade, and another kid who had no interest in 10th-grade. They both got into colleges that suit them. It can be good for parents to go ahead and poke around a bit, because then they can help guide the student a bit (and don't let people tell you that the student should need no guidance, it's a complicated process that can make adults weep). Also, it gives them time to get over the sticker shock and figure out what they can reasonably afford. 

[AEC]

early in the process, I think your goal should be to close as few doors as possible....because honestly, you just never know.  Being informed never hurt anyone.   good for you.