How Homeschooling is the Ultimate College Hack
In an era where college admissions feel like a game with no rules, homeschooling can be a powerful strategy for students aiming to get accepted at competitive colleges. By opening a less-competitive “side door” to admissions departments and allowing students to tailor education to their individual strengths and interests, homeschooling offers a compelling hack for the high-stakes college admissions process.
The Numbers Say It All
Stanford is an extremely competitive school with an acceptance rate of only 5%. However, for homeschoolers that rate is 27%—more than 5x higher. Partly this is simply due to the fact that there are many more traditionally-schooled students applying than homeschool students. Homeschooled students find themselves in a much smaller pool of applicants. But, it is also due to the fact that this smaller pool is also more rarefied. Although homeschooling is growing at 51% per year and there are more homeschooled students applying to college than ever before, homeschoolers still only represent 6% of school-aged children. And this is not a homogenous group. They come from a wide range of backgrounds with a staggeringly diverse experience in high school, which forces college admissions offices to build entire sub departments dedicated to reading and evaluating homeschool applicants. Traditional students are evaluated by an algorithm; whereas homeschoolers are reviewed by a human.
Telling a Homeschooling Story
Homeschoolers have a unique opportunity to tell a story about themselves, and if they can tell a compelling story their chances for acceptance increase. Parents must consider how their child’s application will go above and beyond what it could in standard school. For some it’s an alternative lifestyle that opens them to unique opportunities, for others it is self driven activities and extracurriculars that help their application. A critical piece of a homeschool application is the transcript, which is usually self-generated (as opposed to the standard transcript generated by a school.) As a homeschooler your transcript is a place where you can detail and showcase the amazing things you, as a student, have done during your high school career. It is your chance to tell your story.
Many colleges also allow homeschoolers to provide extensive additional information like a book list or a video. If students and parents think about this far enough in advance, they can put together a pretty incredible list of intellectually-challenging books, or even an amazing documentary about any area of interest or notable experience.
Experiences Not Grades
One of the best things about homeschooling is the flexibility and freedom it affords students, which gives homeschoolers the opportunity to have quite unusual experiences during high school. Colleges have been emphasizing the importance of extracurricular activities for decades, which is why there’s so much “extracurricular-stuffing” going on across the board. But, homeschoolers don’t have to stuff. They can weave non-academic experiences into their school journey in an authentic, real way.
Since homeschoolers generally have more time in their schedule than traditional students, and at unusual times like the middle of the day, it makes sense to think creatively about building real-world experiences—and even weaving these into their courses. For example, Cicero offers a placed-based learning program, in which it tailors courses to a student’s location and weaves in on-the-ground experiences to a syllabus. For example, past students who have studied marine science with Cicero have volunteered with citizen science organizations like Sea Keepers to measure plankton and salinity in the Malacca Strait.)
Beyond the Acceptance
Getting into college might be the ultimate goal, but it is also important to look past that event, and into a student’s success once they get to college. Homeschooling is not only the ultimate hack for getting into college, but it can also prepare a student for the college itself. Because homeschooling often involves self-directed learning, homeschoolers generally arrive at college better able to manage their time and workload, and with greater executive function skills. Studies have found that homeschooled students earn a higher GPA in college on average, and score 15 to 30 percentile points higher on standardized tests.
Maybe the most powerful differentiator, though, is intellectual curiosity. Homeschooling not only produces intelligent kids but also intellectually curious young adults, ready to learn more about the world, excited about their education and comfortable in themselves—all of which can be a powerful force for a college student. Homeschooling creates intrinsic motivation in a student, allowing them to begin to feel the importance of their own education and giving them a sense of choice and control that can help hone their decision making skills.
Homeschooling → Conquering the World
Homeschooling is the ultimate college hack. Though it is commonly thought of as a lesser form of education, more and more these stereotypes are being disproved. In fact it is becoming clear that it is easier to stand out in the admissions process as a homeschooled student. Part of this is its recent rise in popularity: homeschooling has become more mainstream and respected. It also provides students with a unique experience that gives them a jumpstart into the real world and prepares them to be life-long learners. You can think of homeschooling as the canvas that your child can paint themselves onto; whereas traditional school can sometimes feel like a box they have to fit themselves into. This new era of homeschooling has allowed kids to go above and beyond what was possible before, and colleges are catching on, they are shifting their admissions standards to not just accept but attract homeschoolers. Now, we can see students excelling where they may have failed before, gaining confidence, learning a lot, and getting into college!
