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Is Your Homeschooled Teen Prepared for College?

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Homeschooling high school can be intimidating and there is so much to do to prepare for college. It can be, in a word, overwhelming. If you’re currently homeschooling a high school student or will be at some point, I can’t recommend highly enough The Homescholar Guide to College Admissions and Scholarships.

The Homescholar Guide to College Admission and Scholarships A must-have guide for homeschooling parents

Lee is a recognized authority on homeschooling high school, preparing transcripts, and helping parents of homeschooled teens navigate the waters of the college admissions and scholarship process. She regularly shares her expertise on her blog, The HomeScholar and now that same practical wisdom is available in her latest book.

The Homescholar Guide to College Admissions and Scholarships is available on Kindle, too, but I loved having the paperback version…and my handy highlighter. I might need to buy a new highlighter now, though. It got quite the workout as I was reading this book.

Preparing your homeschooled teen for college

If you’ve ever read Lee’s blog, you’re going to recognize her down-to-earth, conversational tone in this fantastic resource guide. Although the college application process is daunting, Lee breaks it down into easy-to-understand language and ends each section with an “Executive Summary for Busy Parents,” a bullet-point guide covering the take-away and action points for each chapter.

Lee covers important topics such as:

  • Preparing for college from planning a rigorous academic schedule for high school to when to take which tests
  • Finding the right college, whether your student wants to attend a private, public, or Ivy League school
  • How and when to apply to colleges
  • Taking the right steps to apply for financial aid and scholarships
  • Practical considerations like a gap year, cutting costs and dealing with colleges who aren’t homeschool-friendly

Because I have two dyslexic students, I really appreciated the chapter on College for Struggling Learners, which introduced me to the fact that there are colleges that specialize in students with learning challenges.

What if my homeschooled student isn’t going to college?

I sincerely believe that every homeschooling parent needs to read this book, even if you don’t think that your child is going to attend college because, as Lee says on both her blog and in her book, kids change their minds. I love her philosophy of providing all homeschooled high school students with a college prep education because either they’re going to go to college and they need to be prepared or they aren’t going to go to college and the high school education you provide them is going to be their highest level of education – so make it count.

Rather than try to tell you why I think you need this book, I’ll let The Homescholar Guide to College Admissions and Scholarships speak for itself. Here are some of the insights that I highlighted:

“…give you student a sample test in both the SAT and the ACT. Take the test at home, and the score will tell you where they stand in relation to most of the students on each college campus. This will also give you an idea of whether your student can handle the academic load typical of that college.”

“Sometimes [colleges] get frustrated when homeschoolers demonstrate an over-emphasis on classic literature, and they prefer that students also include popular literature.” (Check out Lee’s suggestions for college-bound reading lists.)

“Read to [struggling learners] their textbooks and the classics, and use audio books if possible. Even in college, they can be allowed help with reading.”

Helpful resources for homeschoolers planning to go to college

The whole book is filled with these kind of practical tips and encouragement. It also includes a helpful resource section with tools such as:

  • A high school planning guide to help you make sure you cover the courses that will expected on a transcript
  • A guide to planning and comparing college costs
  • A college application check list
  • College-bound reading list (including a list for struggling readers)
  • Leadership and community service ideas
  • A helpful glossary of college application vocabulary to make sure you understand terms on college applications that may be unfamiliar

Because I’ve got a whole list of things I wish I’d done differently with Brianna’s high school years, I’m relieved to have a copy of Lee’s book as I prepare for The High School Years, Round 2. I’m also excited to have a copy to give away!

Follow the directions on the RaffleCopter widget below to enter.

Rules: This giveaway is open to United States residents, ages 18 years and older only. Giveaway ends on Monday, September 23. The winner will be selected at random using Random.org via RaffleCopter.

The winner will notified via email and given 72 hours to respond. You must enter a valid email address to win. In the event that the winner cannot be contacted by email or does not respond within 72 hours, the prize will be forfeited and and alternate winner selected.

Click to read the complete rules. By entering this giveaway, you indicate that you have read and agreed to abide by these rules.

This post is linked to the Homeschool High School blog hop.

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Kris Bales is a newly-retired homeschool mom and the quirky, Christ-following, painfully honest founder (and former owner) of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. She has a pretty serious addiction to sweet tea and Words with Friends. Kris and her husband of over 30 years are parents to three amazing homeschool grads. They share their home with three dogs, two cats, a ball python, a bearded dragon, and seven birds.

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29 Comments

  1. Great post. I really can’t agree enough. Having a kid prepared to take test (oh my!) do homework (yep) and study subjects they may not like (yessir) also makes a difference if you want to pave a road to college for your student.

  2. I feel a little bit overwhelmed about my 9th grader. It is his 1st year homeschooling & I want to make sure I am preparing him for college & beyond. I would love to have this book 🙂

  3. We are just starting to look ahead to the high school years and I find all of it extremely intimidating. This book sounds like a wonderful resource in helping us enter these years well informed. Thanks for the review!

  4. Since my daughter doesn’t know exactly what she would like to do, trying to be prepared for generic college admissions intimidates me on a daily basis.

  5. We are really trying to decide if we can homeschool high school, but it seems a bit intimidating. Our daughter is college bound, but I’m just not sure how that works out for homeschooled high school. So, we find the course planning the hardest right now.

    1. That is covered in great deal in Lee’s book. I think that is one of the most important aspects of high school planning, regardless of whether or not your student thinks he/she is college bound. I did lots of highlighting in that chapter. 🙂

  6. One of the most intimating tasks about homeschool high school is getting my child on the right path so he is best prepared for the path that God has planned for him. Also getting him set up to receive scholarships so that we can afford the costs of college seems a daunting task.

  7. Hmmm…the part I find the most difficult is how to make our homeschool & learning translate onto a transcript. We don’t necessarily study all of the “traditional” subjects in high school. We do some delight directed, off the beaten path learning…so how to keep true to our philosophy of learning & meshing it with how to present that on a transcript is my biggest challenge!

  8. I am super interested in reading this book even though I have two done with college, I have a middle schooler. A lot has changed through the years!

  9. The whole college prep thing is scary to me. Mine aren’t in high school yet, but it’s coming fast. I still haven’t even figured out how to do transcripts, so this would be a huge blessing to me!

  10. Are transcripts really as scary as everyone makes them out to be? I’m afraid of them for sure…but hoping this book will make it look easier than it sounds. 🙂

  11. I loved this quote..

    “I love her philosophy of providing all homeschooled high school students with a college prep education because either they’re going to go to college and they need to be prepared or they aren’t going to go to college and the high school education you provide them is going to be their highest level of education – so make it count.”

  12. Everything is intimidating! I was the first person in my family to ever attend college, that I know of. I have changed the cycle of our family life style. Our son is getting ready to turn 16 and has 2 1/2 half years before college. Thinking about it makes me cry! If I win the book GREAT, if not I REALLY need to buy it. Thanks for sharing this info. God Bless!

  13. Seeing how quickly we got to 7th grade makes me realize how fast the next few years will go. As much as I don’t want to think of her going off to college (well actually the emotions are very mixed), I know we need to start thinking ahead. This book looks like a great start.

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