Wisdom from a Homeschool Graduate

As I stated in my post above the second most important aspect of your kids’ college application (the first being their SAT or ACT score) are their extracurricular activities. The word “diversity” is a bit of a buzz-word among universities right now, especially larger universities. Schools want a diversity in the type of students they accept, but they also want the individual student to be diverse in his or her interests. Another way they pitch this is describing it as “being well rounded”. Universities want to know that not only are you academically driven, but that you have passions and pursuits outside of school.

For me this manifested in church planting trips to Uganda, Boy Scouts, playing the bass guitar in the worship band, teaching kids art lessons, etc. Every child will have different passions and different activities they love and excel at (those two things typically go hand in hand). In no way am i saying you should force you kid to do a ton of activities just so it looks good on their college application, but what I am saying is encourage them to pursue what they love. If your kid is an athlete let him/her pursue sports, if they enjoy music get them an instrument. Notice what they naturally gravitate toward and encourage it. One small caveat to this is that it is very important for schools to see that they complete things they begin. So if your son is in Boy Scouts encourage him to get his eagle (the highest award in scouting), if your daughter takes piano lessons encourage her to take them until she graduates, and so on and so forth. Graduating from high school is a sign that your kid has the drive to finish what he/she starts, but demonstrating it in other areas of life will be all the more convincing to the college your child applies to.

God bless,

Tripp Lybrand

How do you as a homeschooling parent help your child get accepted into a good university? As the oldest child I had to figure out the answer to this question myself (of course when it was time for the next kid in line to graduate my parents came to me and asked what did to get accepted:). Homeschoolers face unique challenges in applying to college because we don’t exactly fit into their standard way of accessing applications. I’ve got good news though, times are changing! Coming from homeschool to college is becoming more and more common.

Having good grades and completing the expected subjects are both extremely important in getting accepted (these both have to do with your transcript which in the future I’ll explain how to make one for your graduating senior. All colleges that I’m aware of require a transcript from homeschoolers). There are two things more important than this though, the first being your students SAT or ACT score, and the second being he/her extra-curricular activities. I’ll talk about the SAT in this post and save extra-curricular activities for my next entry.

Standardized tests allow for a “non-biased” way of measuring your intelligence and education level apart from how you were educated. Now if I’m being honest I don’t think a standardized test will ever be a completely non-biased way of measuring intelligence, but that’s the system we have right now. Instead of complaining about the system I just decided I’d use it to my advantage. I knew if I did well enough on the SAT my score couldn’t be argued with. Regardless of if you attend a public school, private school, or are homeschooled, a good score on your SAT or ACT speaks for itself.

So how as a parent do you insure that your kid makes the best grade he or she is capable of? Here is the secret answer, the SAT is a game. It has rules and a structure which when you play according to them you do better. As much as it’s testing your intelligence, it’s also testing whether or not you know how to take their test. As dumb as this may sound, it’s true. So what I did to understand the system is went out and found a book on how to study for the SAT. I read it cover to cover and I took every practice test the book came with. If your kid will take a practice test ever week or two of the months preceding the real test they will be more prepared than any other student at the testing center. Additionally a study book like the one I used will show you short cuts and helpful tips and methods to take the test faster, and improve your grade. I used a study method called Kaplan which you can learn more about by clicking here. A solid SAT or ACT score will give credibility to your educational background as a homeschooler!

The best of luck,

Tripp Lybrand