Get Your Teen into College in 5 Easy Steps

Summary:  How to get your homeschooled teen into college, in 5 easy steps.  From an expert who is also a homeschooling mom to 1 college grad. #homeschooltocollege #getyourteenintocollege #homeschoolhighschool

Something wonderful came in the mail this week......A college acceptance letter to my teen's top college choice, a tier one University. 

For those of you who are aiming towards a four year college for your teens....Be encouraged!  

There are many homeschool friendly colleges out there.  And many colleges are looking for self-motivated learners....like homeschooling produces!

In fact, this U just changed their admission policy to make it more homeschool friendly.

My daughter as most of you know, is has always been homeschooled. I was not experienced with the current college application process when we first got started.  

But through a step by step process, we applied to four colleges and she got accepted by each of them.  

We were able to continue our own eclectic style of homeschooling, with the addition of some key steps for....and they are not hard to do.

From a college visit.

Here are 5 important steps that are key to getting your homeschooled teen getting into college.  First, let's talk about those college entrance requirements....

1.  Researching College Entrance Requirements

Each college will show their admission requirements with just a click of the button.  This information is easy to find, just by looking at college websites, under freshman admission requirements.  Be sure and check for any special homeschool applicant requirements as well. 

My book has a chapter on this topic.

Next, let's look at making a 4 year homeschooling plan....

2.  Making an Overall Plan

Making an overall plan for the high school years, helps to make sure you fit in the requirements.  We were able to do this and still keep nurturing homeschool style, with plenty of time for electives.  

Once you know your teen's entrance requirements, it is then easy to map out their high school years.  With paper and pencil, or online, just sketch out your best guesses of what you want them to do, and when you think they would do each course.  Then, the fun part.  Fill in those high school electives!

We did this, guessing and noting our prospective plans, then we put our 4 year plans away, and just took it one year at a time.

If you want more on planning, my second chapter has more tips and also planning printables available, too.  

Then there is the record keeping that's needed for making your teen's transcripts....

3.  Keeping Records for Transcripts

There are so many resources for high school transcripts, record keeping and writing course descriptions.  Our favorite one was at Let's Homeschool High School, which offers free downloads and plenty of helpful forms.

My book, below, also has printables for making your transcripts, and lots of tips for doing that as well.  

Now, let's look at your teen's special interests and how they can be a help in getting them into college...

4.  Encouraging Interests/Activities

Your student's interests and activities will be crucial to a solid college application.  And we as homeschoolers, know just how to encourage and support our teens as they explore their interests, whether it might be in leadership, science fairs, STEM, art, etc...  

The colleges want to see that their applicants have worked to develop their interests over time, have shown motivation, and have some leadership skills as well, in my experience.

One of the beauties of homeschooling is that we get to encourage our teen's interests.  My teen got involved in Youth and Government, volunteered at a local museum, and developed her special interest in film production, which was done through a homemade course.  

I loved making homemade courses for my teen, and our favorite one was the one that we made for video-making above.  

They are easy to do, following the guidelines in my post on assigning credits. My book also has a chapter that includes printables for your homemade courses, if you would like those.

Having helped my teen to develop her electives and activities was key to her receiving merit scholarship offers, along with her GPA and her test scores. 

Yes, electives, GPA and test scores..... That seems to be what the colleges are looking for, as far as merit scholarships.  (One mama's opinion.)  

So next, let's talk about that pesky issue of test scores.  Since my daughter was not a natural test taker, we started building in test practice in 9th grade or so.  And so we now have hit tip #5.

5.  Test Taking Practice

We began including some test-taking in our homeschool starting in 9th grade.  This was helpful when it came to SAT/ACT testing time, as she has built up her confidence with testing.  This was easy to do by just choosing a curriculum from an established publisher that had tests and quizes included in their courses.  

We just used SOS from www.aop.com, which is a well respected homeschool curricula provider who had regular testing included in their courses.  

By doing quizes and tests, my daughter built up her confidence and no longer thought of tests as something to be afraid of.  We did not normally rely on tests in our homeschool, but I am glad that we build them in during high school.

If you are interested in more information on planning for high school with college in mind, feel free to browse around my site. 

Do you have a college bound teen in your house?  

Have you seen my facebook group called Homeschooling Through High School?  

Join us!

After helping my homeschooled high schooler get into each of the colleges she applied to, I wrote this guide:

Homeschooling High School with College in Mind - 2nd edition, 

Paperback is at Amazon $11.99

For more info: Homeschooling High School with 

College in Mind - 2nd Edition

Thanks for stopping by BJ's Homeschool,

Betsy

Betsy is mom to her now college grad, whom she homeschooled through high school.  She blogs at BJ's Homeschool, about the early years, highschool, 
college, gifted/2e and wrote -Homeschooling High School with College in Mind, 2nd Edition,   She offers homeschool help through messages at BJ's Consulting,  and has had some of her articles picked up by the Huffington Post.

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