Gaining College Credit in High School

by Juliana, Summer ‘24 Intern

For many homeschooled students, the prospect of college after high school is one shrouded in doubt, anxiety, and very realistic financial concerns. The potential culture shock inherent in going from being a teenager on the somewhat-sheltered scale to becoming a college student is a bit scary. But more important is the knowledge that most four-year universities will require you to shell out ridiculous amounts of money for basic courses like English and Biology, even if they haven’t got any direct relevance to your major. In this article, I will expound upon the possibilities open to homeschoolers for obtaining college credit while still in high school and give some advice based on my personal college-in-highschool experience.

Let me start with AP courses. They are probably the best-known of all the options out there, due to their popularity. The end-of-year exams have both free-response and multiple-choice questions (the language exams often have speaking and listening portions, and the computer science exams, naturally, have a programming portion, but those are in the minority). In order to obtain credit, you will need to 1) take and pass the course at an accredited school (online or brick-and-mortar), 2) sign up for your exam on time (usually by October; if you call your local public school, they will often allow you to take the exam there. If no students there are taking it, you can offer to pay the proctoring fee), 3) show up for and take the exam, and 4) pass with a 3 or higher.

A 3 is generally considered a passing score, although some colleges will only accept a 4 or 5 for credit purposes. Regardless of your score (or whether you even took the exam!), having an AP course on your high school transcript is indicative of high performance and motivation, as the entire course is college-level material (usually, one college semester spread out over two high school semesters). It also is an example of how Exams. Are. Your. Best. Friend. (I say this a lot, so prepare to read it many, many more times!) There is absolutely no way for a doting parent to give you an A and a passing score of 4 on your AP Biology exam just because they felt like you “put in lots of effort,” or “deserved the credit.” It simply cannot happen. When a college (or anyone you want to impress, for that matter) sees that A and a 4, they know that it represents the willingness to put in hours of hard work, as well as a strong work ethic and good test-taking skills. There’s no way to fake it. Homeschoolers’ achievements are often doubted. Yes, it’s gotten better since the ‘80s, when my mom and her sister were asked basic math questions in public, but many people are still very skeptical. Having a solid grade in literally anything from a trusted institution (whether it’s an accredited school, the College Board, or any university) cannot be made up and will help you tremendously.

But I digress – can you tell I’m very passionate about this subject?

The next set of exams I want to tackle are the CLEP exams. These are mostly multiple choice (a few also include an essay portion) exams that, like the APs, are offered by the College Board. Most public schools do not offer them, but because you can study at home (at your own pace!) and take the exam itself at your local community college, they are amazing for homeschoolers. For no money, you can obtain an exam prep book and a video course from Modern States Alliance, a nonprofit that helps college students finish their freshman year for free. If you finish all the videos and exercises with a high enough grade, Modern States will cover the testing fee (tip: there are 5 options for each question and you get 5 attempts, so you should be good! Just, you know, remember what your previous answers were). You will have to pay a proctoring fee, though: in my experience, it’s usually between $15 and $40. CLEP exams are great because you can treat them like the final exam for a course that you did entirely at home. For instance, when I was doing US History, my parents were really the only instructors. They picked out a textbook, had me take notes & answer comprehension questions, and picked out supplemental reading. Once I neared the end of the school year, I worked with the Modern States Alliance book to fill in any gaps in my knowledge, took practice tests, and was able to walk into the testing center and pass the exam. It’s awesome if you want to make your history / biology / psychology course fun and interesting with an added layer of credibility (and, of course, avoid harmful and/or radical moral ideas that might be pushed in some classrooms). Plus, you might get some gen-ed courses out of the way! Win win.

I should note here that many four-year colleges do not accept CLEP exams; I think this might be in part due to the fact that they are mostly just multiple choice, and thus, without the free response portion, are inherently easier. However, most community colleges (more on those later!) do accept them. And, even if a college won’t accept your, say, CLEP Biology exam, it’s a great thing to have on your transcript, and says a lot about you that you passed that exam in high school. Like I said: Exams are your friend.

The third method for obtaining college credit in high school is DE, or Dual Enrollment. This is a fancy way of saying that you take a class through a university that counts as a high school class as well. So basically – double the credit!

There are two main ways to do this. The first is to enroll in an online class from a school that has a partnership with an accredited university. Online schools like the CLRC, the Potter’s School, and Veritas Press will sometimes team up with a college so that a class you take through them also counts as a college level class through that specific university. For instance, I took an English class through Veritas Press, which collaborates with Cairn University. Once I’d finished, I had, for all intents and purposes, completed 1) a high school English course, and 2) an junior-level English class at Cairn University.

The second way to obtain dual enrollment credit is to enroll in a class directly through a university. Yes, that’s right, you’ll be going to a real classroom, with a real teacher, and classmates in real life! I know it sounds scary, but honestly, take it from me: You’ll be fine. Some states have programs where homeschooled students are allowed to take courses at local universities, but this is not universal; check to see what is available in your area. However, many community colleges allow homeschooled students to take classes there – often for free or a discounted price. This is a really nice deal if you want to get the credit, but don’t want to do every single course at home.

All of the on-ground community college classes I have taken so far have followed the format of 1-2 days on campus per week. This means that you have your lecture/lab/exam/ whatever else you’re doing, receive your assignments for the following meeting, and disperse. If you were homeschooled for all or much of your academic life, this probably sounds rather familiar. As I had self-studied and done online classes for all of high school, the academic transition to community college was not too difficult.

The following link leads to a list of all the resources I’ve mentioned in this article, information on several online schools based on my personal experience, and some other resources you might find useful. Please do note that this is anecdotal evidence; it might not hold true for you, but then again, it might be helpful. Also – please be aware that I haven’t personally checked all of the content on these websites, so if you come across anything inappropriate or blasphemous, I don’t condone it – do avoid it!

I will update this list as I have time and come across more potential resources.

Get the list here!

Applying for College as a Homeschooler

by Ilinca, Fall ‘23 Intern

“So, how will you get into college?” If you’re a homeschooling high schooler, you’ve heard that question. I did, and it worried me. Now that I've been accepted to college, I’ve learned the answer is: “Just like everyone else.” Homeschoolers have the same rate of acceptance as brick-and-mortar school students, and there generally aren’t any application requirement differences for homeschoolers. Nevertheless, the process will inevitably feel different sometimes. 

Requirements

Many parts of the college application process are the same for homeschoolers and their public or private schooled peers. It was actually college essays which took the most time for me. Contrary to myth, colleges do not require homeschoolers to send in their high school diplomas or take the GED. The application forms I had to fill in were usually homeschooler-friendly. When they weren’t, articles on how to answer them abound on the internet. No college complained about my homeschool transcript or my parent-written counselor recommendation. 

Deciding where to apply

The first step of college applications is choosing which colleges to apply to. First, I thought about what I wanted in a college: I wanted it to be close by, to have my major and a wide variety of others, to be co-ed, and not to be ridiculously expensive. I researched colleges (mostly through internet searches), consulted my parents, and took the opportunity to hear a variety of opinions when people asked me, “so, where will you apply to college?” (NB: Saint Emmelia’s has compiled a list of colleges that are Orthodox & homeschool-friendly. Check it out here!)

Standardized Tests

Even though most colleges are “test-optional” now, I took the SAT. It’s objective; no one could argue my score is the result of my adoring parents assigning me a good grade. Standardized tests also increase chances of getting admission or a scholarship. Finally, there was little risk involved: if I hadn’t scored well, I just wouldn’t have sent my scores. While the SAT is often given at a public school, it’s managed by the College Board, not the school system, so I had no trouble signing up as a homeschooler. I found practice tests online, and the time management I learned as a homeschooler helped me get through them. I chose the SAT over the ACT and CLT, the two other popular standardized tests options, because 1) all colleges accept it, which rules out the CLT and 2) it gives more time to answer each question than the ACT. 

Letters of Recommendation

The prospect of finding letters of recommendation was concerning. How could I rival a public school kid’s arsenal of skilled recommendation writing teachers and guidance counselors? I learned that I had more wonderful teachers and other potential recommenders than I thought. My biggest trouble ended up being choosing between them! As for the guidance counselor recommendation, I found out that is technically my mom. I was definitely grateful that, throughout high school, I took classes and did activities outside my home, because that gave me the opportunity to meet the people that wrote my letters of recommendation. I would definitely recommend doing that, because it’s best if at least one of your letters of recommendation is written by someone outside your family: colleges will see that all the wonderful things your parent-counselor says are confirmed by other people. 

Transcripts

While homeschoolers don’t need to hand colleges their homeschool diplomas or take the GED, they do need to send in their homeschool transcripts. Unfortunately, we didn’t realize how long this step would take, so, while we had always kept track of my classes, we procrastinated putting my transcript together until a month or two before the deadline. First, we checked state laws for transcripts on HSLDA. Because I follow a curriculum, all my classes were named and described. But when it came to actual organization, my family didn’t have experience there (I’m the oldest child), so we used Academicrecords.net, a transcript-making website. While we didn’t end up using the transcript it generated because it was rather rigid and couldn’t accommodate the high school classes I took in Middle School, it was very helpful. It brought our attention to grading scales, GPA (weighted or unweighted), class levels, and other important elements of transcript formality. We ended up using a SEM transcript template. GPA calculations turned out easier than we thought. As for choosing between a weighted or unweighted GPA, after doing our research and calling colleges to ask which they prefer, we decided to go with a weighted GPA because 1) it could highlight the higher level classes I took and 2) the colleges and scholarships I was looking at preferred it.

The Counselor Recommendation and School Report

Finally, there was the counselor recommendation and school report my mom had to write. We didn’t realize how long this would take either. Among other things, it required a letter of recommendation written by my mom, a descriptive list of all classes taken outside the home, and an explanation of our educational philosophy and grading scale. My mom and I looked through our curriculum and brainstormed together before writing. We made it clear in the school report that we are Christian and I was educated in a Christian way, even to secular schools. If a school isn't willing to put up with that, we would rather they turned us down early. But, surprisingly, it did not give us any problems. For the grading philosophy, we used the grading scale we put on the transcript. For class descriptions, I copy-pasted from my syllabuses. 

Conclusion

College applications as a homeschooler were easier than I had thought based on the amount of concern homeschoolers typically receive on the topic. If I could give my past self advice, that would be:

First, make yourself a schedule, and give each piece of the application a different due date, some well before the application’s official due date. Especially with college essays, it’s tempting to “just work on it one more day,” and procrastinate the rest of the application due to unnecessary perfectionism. 

Second, don’t be afraid to answer people when they ask where you want to go to college. They can give you a lot of good advice, and if they don’t, you’re not obligated to obey.

Finally, don’t worry! I was afraid to press the submit button for each college. There was still so much room for improvement! And what if ten more minutes of work spells the difference between rejection and acceptance? But really, if you worked hard on it, and checked it two or three times, go ahead and send it! Don’t worry! Admissions officers don’t expect anyone, not even homeschoolers, to have perfect applications. 

If you would like to ask Ilinca questions, email us at office@saintemmelia.com. Make sure to check out our “High School & Beyond” resources!