College admission begins in high school with the student completing a college prep program focusing on core academic subjects surrounded out with elective courses. You can also consider having your teens take advance placement under a community college courses. This will not only add weight to their transcripts but will provide objective evaluation for colleges of the work your teens can do.
College courses taken as dual enrollment in high school may provide the benefit of allowing home schoolers to make a slow transition from home based education to the classroom. In addition, they may also earn college credit. In fact, some teen are able to receive their associate degree along with their high school diploma.
It is important though to keep track of the number of college credits your teen is accumulating if he or she desires to enter college as a freshman and apply for a freshman scholarship.
However, if your teen decides to be in a four years school, then these numbers are not as critical. Make sure you have checked whether the dual enrolled course your teen has is acceptable for transfer to the college or university of their choice.
Note that records of high school are necessary for transcript preparation. Transcripts generated by parents are generally acceptable these days. There is no standard template for transcript used across the US. Therefore, homeschoolers should not worry that their document might be rejected.
It is important for teens to become familiar with college websites in as early as in their high school years to know and prepare for the admission requirements. Many of the college websites have special pages for homeschoolers as well as for admission counselors familiar with the homeschoolers’ credentials. For example, some colleges require homeschoolers to take ACT subject test. This is best taken after completing a course in a subject. Therefore, having this information upfront is helpful to parents and teens. These courses are often used by colleges for placement purposes.
The ACT test scores will be important for both college admission and scholarship awards. Therefore, students should consider taking this test more than once to increase their scores. It is a wise move to prepare prior to taking this test.
Homeschoolers are not only known for their academic prowess but also for their diligent work ethic. Because many homeschoolers have already blazed the trail, your teen can apply for college with confidence.