Sending A Homeschooling Child Off to College-- 3 Ways That Worked for Us

Going through the process of touring colleges I was asked a lot of questions about how homeschoolers get their kids into college. I promised to write a post but wow! I had no idea it would be so long! This may be more information than you care to read but I didn't know how else to break this down. 

See, of my 3 boys, not one of them got into college the same way!! 

When I began homeschooling my boys they were in preschool (Evan), kindergarten (Alec), and 2nd grade (Ian). Thoughts of college were a long way off and we mostly focused on day to day living and learning. 

Newport harbor boat tour; learning about the history of the area

At most I planned out our year but often we flew by the seat of our pants and I relied heavily on unschooling practices, field trips, and hands- on exploration of actual life for our early years. 

Field trip to the zoo

We settled down a bit more when they reached middle school and we at least had workbooks for things like grammar, math, and writing-- those core subjects I wanted to make sure they had mastered. By the time Ian was in 8th grade he was toying with heading off to our local technical high school. We went to tour it and we weren't impressed with the two programs he was interested in pursuing but when we came home talking about all the programs they had, Alec, who was in 6th grade at the time, heard they had a culinary program and announced that he was going to be going there. 

Learning Chemistry at the dentist's office (they saw how much he was into this book and let him take it home for however long he wanted!). To this day Alec loves learning anything science based. 

But back to Ian. Knowing he was going to tackle high school at home we reached out to local families that we knew had homeschooled through high school and got their kids into college asking what methods they had used.  

Turns out they all used a totally different approach so once again we just dove in and did things our way. 

I first headed to our state's graduation requirement page that lays out what our local school are required to teach and even though I knew I didn't have to follow them (because we fall under the category of private school). I figured we'd use them as a general guideline since those are the things colleges are looking for. I kept meticulous records and made sure to create a transcript for him starting his Freshman year of high school. Now the whole time Ian was pretty adamant he was not going to go to college but I wanted to keep his options open just in case. 

I bought this book to help me figure out HOW to make a transcript and have since passed it on to other homeschooling families. It was wonderful and gave lots of different examples; turns out there are MANY ways to create a transcript too. 

While Ian was enjoying his high school years at home, Alec KNEW he wanted to go to high school so when Alec was in 8th grade we took him back to that same technical high school and he knew he wanted to study culinary arts. We called the school the following week to find out what the process was for homeschooling students and see if he could spend a day shadowing to get a real feel for the work. Sadly by the time his shadow day came around the pandemic had hit and that wasn't possible. He was able to take the placement test though and scored off the charts. 

He was accepted and began attending his freshman year in the fall of 2020 with a hybrid schedule that actually worked out rather well for us with him doing school at home a few days a week for the first few months. He didn't remember public school so adapted easily to everything and getting to sit silently "in" on some of his classes on those days he was at home I was able to guide him into being an advocate for himself and speaking up whenever there was a problem with an assignment or a grade or if he just needed clarification. 

First day of school- fall 2020

Most days he worked from here-- the room next to where I was teaching the other two so I could pop in and out

First day of Culinary January 2021

That exact same fall that Alec began at the high school was Ian's senior year of homeschooling and I was running out of things to teach him so I suggested he take one class through our local community college just to try it out. He too had a hybrid class and again we found that worked to our advantage as I also taught him to speak up and get clarity. 

 

He did so well in that college course that I talked him into letting us graduate him early and having him start college full time in what would have been his spring semester of senior year. I had his transcript all set and ready... but the college never even asked for it! (They did eventually ask for proof of graduation but happily accepted a photo of his diploma that I had ordered here). 

Ian's high school graduation cake-- December 31, 2020

The college pulled him in as a full time student and he did great. Though he didn't go full time for very long because as soon as he turned 18 he went to work full time and just took 1 or 2 classes a semester around his work schedule.  He got his associate degree in business management but has no desire or plans to go on in school. He's currently busy building up his own business in the construction field.... like we pretty much figured he would. Ian has been driving heavy equipment since he was 11 and not only loves it but has a real aptitude for it. He just bought his second piece of equipment this November. 

Celebrating Ian's college graduation from December 2024 in January 2025 when we got back from Hawaii

Alec, meanwhile completed his 4 years at high school and applied to colleges like any other high school kid. We toured 2 universities his junior year (yes, he only applied to 2-- Johnson and Wales University and Culinary Institute of America; knowing he wanted to continue in the baking/pastry arts field). He was accepted at both colleges. Ultimately he picked JWU since it was closer to home and had more than just culinary to pick from. Good thing too as he's not really technically a culinary student anymore (I plan to do a post on that soon too!). 

Touring JWU Spring of Junior year

Touring the CIA (not that CIA: the Culinary Institute of America) Junior Year 

High school graduation June 2024

His dorm at JWU August 2024

As soon as we got Alec settled in his dorm, we turned our attention to Evan. He was a junior in high school and we started touring various universities. At first we really thought he'd complete 2 years at the community college like Ian and then transfer to a 4 year university but he surprised us by expressing an interest in living in a dorm and going away; even wanting to have a study abroad experience. 

 

After we began touring he was concerned that he should have gone to a "real" school like Alec but I assured him that I was confident we could still make this work. At each college we met teachers and professors and asked lots of questions. I checked homeschool requirements for each school on their webpage and even asked an academic advisor or two if there was anything special or different we needed since we homeschooled and each time we were assured we did not. 

Touring Clark University

Touring University of New England

Just like I had with Ian, I began a transcript for Evan as soon as he began his freshman year of high school. We also had him start taking a few classes at the community college in his junior year. I knew those dual enrollment credits would work double time to not only give him a few bonus credits when starting college but would also beef up his transcript with proof that he could handle college courses. Plus it gave us a few teachers he could ask for letters of recommendation; otherwise I have no idea what we would have done about letters of recommendation! 

Once we narrowed Evan's college choices down we began filling out the Common App in the fall of his senior year. While we struggled a time or two with the common app since some of the questions didn't really apply to us, it wasn't really a difficult process. This Website was a godsend in navigating the Common App as a homeschooling administrator. The most stressful part for me was making sure all the paperwork on my end was ready to go. I had our community college send over this transcripts and were able to get his teachers to upload their letters individually so I was in charge of uploading his homeschool transcript and writing a counselor letter of recommendation for him as well as filling out a school profile. 

We set up interviews and shadow days with those colleges that offered them. 

waiting outside Clark while Evan went for an interview

Even though we toured 7 or 8 colleges, Evan was only interested in applying to 4 of them-- Clark, University of New England (UNE), Bryant University, & Nichols College. He just instinctively seemed to know which places were right for him and we cut several tours short when he just knew that wasn't the place for him. 

We only ended up applying to 3-- Clark, UNE, and Nichols since we found out (in November!) that Bryant required SAT scores for homeschool kids and he never took them. I know everyone is told to apply to 8 colleges and to have reach and safety schools and all that but as you can see we didn't follow that advice with any of our boys mainly because my boys decided that if they didn't get into one of their favorite schools then they'd just stay home and go to our community college to save money (in our state all community colleges are free for all residents that have never been to college before).  

Nichol's college

By late October Evan got his first acceptance letter to Nichols complete with a decent sized grant/scholarship and an invitation to join their honors program. I think he breathed a huge sigh of relief with that one! 

A week before Thanksgiving he got his second acceptance letter from Clark! 

Clark had been Evan's #1 choice from day 1 and oh boy did their merit scholarship offer blow us away.  So with that acceptance offer in hand with more scholarship help than we ever anticipated we put our deposit down on Clark. 

He did have a shadow day set up at Nichol's and since he had already taken the time off work to attend decided to go through with it anyway to get a better feel for college courses and college life even if that wasn't the campus he was going to be living on. We set up one more tour of Clark and signed up for their accepted student day celebration. 

Just a week or two later he got an acceptance letter from UNE too with another merit scholarship offer but he had made his choice already and still stood by it. But it was a great feeling as a homeschooling mom to know that both my boys got into every single college they applied to! 

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