COLLEGE SEARCH

By Erin Chianese

Diffidently browsing through The College Board College Handbook 2007 at my local library, I was surprised to find homeschooled applicants specifically addressed on many of the institutions’ entries. Under “Basis for selection.” homeschooled is in bold type.

Some colleges are standardizing homeschoolers for evaluation, while others are reviewing them on a case-by-case basis. The requirements run the gamut.

For example, Berklee School of Music and Marietta College require an explanation of the student’s homeschool structure and “mission statement.” Connecticut College and Pacific College both require letters of recommendation from teachers other than parents. Smith College wants a paper by the student with the “evaluator’s comments” on it. Carnegie Mellon University would like homeschoolers to jump through hoops to send them a recommendation from a representative of the student’s state Board of Education, as well as the syllabi of courses studied. Reed College considers waiving a high school diploma and Chester College of New Hampshire does believe in SAT scores.

Finding a list of colleges to apply to is a major research project! The place to start is with the hopes of the applicant. What are the student’s requirements and what does the college have to offer? There are large universities and very small colleges. They are in cities and rural areas; they have different special facilities and they are at varying prices.

The priority will be what the college offers in a particular major. Collegeboard.com has a good list of criteria to personally set, before it does a search for potential schools. The individual college website will show Major Requirements, Course Descriptions, and Current Class Schedules. It is hard to know what a department or program is really like. An internet search will reveal if a college department has been in the news lately or has been published recently.

An engineering student can call the college’s engineering department and ask what specific research or projects are in the works and what opportunities are available for undergraduates to participate in. My younger daughter is looking at creative writing programs. Some student writings are on college websites and most departments publish student writing collections. She has checked out books at the library written by professors, hoping to get a clue as to their writing styles or expectations.

Other helpful websites are Rateyourprofessor.com, studentsreview.com, collegiatechoice.com (this company offers videos of general campus tours of several institutions, all led by students), and -- believe it or not -- MySpace.com, where you can find current students of a particular college and major and email them directly to ask specific questions. After finding colleges in my older daughter’s majors, she asked students on MySpace about weekends on campus, fearing a commuter campus where she might be alone, far from home.

If your homeschooler has attended community college, 12-15 units already taken can mean that the student is considered a transfer student. The requirements for transfer students are different than those for freshmen. My daughters were both adamant about finding a college that does not require transfer students to submit SAT scores. As a transfer student, homeschooling is not such an issue of proving academic rigor. In most cases, a high school transcript is all that is required. Consider requesting freshman dorms if the student is only 18, so that lots of friends are available that are also new to being away from home. The one disadvantage my older daughter found as a transfer student is that there are less available spots than those allotted for freshmen.

Parents can help tremendously at all stages of this daunting process. Narrowing down a list can be easy or difficult, depending on the student’s criteria, but once made, the next step is to get all the paperwork ready for the application deadlines. Just organizing the papers needed and the different deadlines is a huge help for the student. Some colleges have their own applications while others use the “Common Application” found online. There are essays to be written by the student and Letters of Recommendation to request; transcripts to be ordered or completed; test scores to send for and any other requirements of the colleges. Student procrastination may be hard to disturb, but Letters of Recommendation need to be asked for before the last minute.

Deadlines are for submission of the application and its fee. The other required papers can trickle in, but the application is not reviewed until all requirements are received. Scholarship applications have deadlines, too, and these are easy to miss when concentrating on the applications. If financial aid is needed, parents need to fill out the FAFSA beginning January first.

Do not let the cost of the college deter the student from applying. Each college will offer a different financial aid package. For instance, our older daughter was awarded $20,000 from a private school that cost $30,000; $7,000 from an out-of-state public school that cost $25,000, and nothing from a private school that cost $40,000. Notice how these figures seem to make no rhyme or reason financially, but probably were determined by how much the school wanted the student. Parents can always negotiate with the Financial Aid Office if they would like a better package and oftentimes the school will offer a bit more. Financial aid is based on need and comes in the form of grants, loans, and work-study. (Scholarships are a completely different matter, being based on merit.) College loans are also available from other sources than the college and the federal government (e.g.. Sallie Mae). My husband hired a service, Meier and Associates, located in Michigan, to help us with the financial aid aspect. They offered help in finding colleges, filling out the FAFSA and filing it, filling out “Profiles” and sending them to the colleges that want a more in-depth look at the family’s finances and assets, negotiating with the financial aid offices (although schools prefer to deal with the family directly), and practical financial advice on paying for college.

You never know which college will offer the most, financially, academically, and socially; it could be that any of the potential colleges will be fine. As a double major, my older daughter had to find a college that had good departments in both her majors. It took her five months to go through the process from searching to applying. She applied to seven colleges and got into five. The university she ended up attending was the one she originally had on the bottom of her list of choices. I must tell you that after one week there, and now into her second year, she could not be happier with her experiences.

Homeschoolers may be confused when Princeton University says it does not accept the GED and the State University of New York at Potsdam says the GED is required. But delving deeper, the admissions requirements are not as frightening as first imagined. An excellent essay will dispel most of the college’s fears of an academically-unproven homeschooler. Many institutions are obviously open to homeschooled students. Stanford University considers “personal qualities,” Temple University says they look at applicants holistically, and Bard College prizes “dedication to activities” and “a love of learning.” Swarthmore College actually understands and describes homeschooling beautifully in its requirements: “Homeschooled: Include supplementary materials giving evidence of intellectual passion, personal commitments, special talents and interests. Additional essay on reason for decision to home-school and its consequences would be helpful.” I couldn’t have said it better myself. E.C.