Advice for Homeschoolers

Advice for Homeschool Parents

I’ve often been asked how homeschooling parents should go about preparing their students for college.  Often, the concern is not academic in nature, but relates to information - “How do we find out about college applications, scholarships, and financial aid?” While I realize autonomy and individuality are among the things homeschoolers like best, I suggest you re-think that for this topic in particular.  You need to organize a number of like-minded parents into a college prep parents group, whether formal or informal (much of what I suggest could be carried out electronically, and the idea of a slightly modified group could work for non-homeschooling parents too).

I suggest organizing because there are a number of different facets of the college selection and application process, and each is probably a big unknown to you right now.  It’s unrealistic to think you can make yourself an expert on scholarships, financial aid, applications, campus visits, and majors (maybe one area, but likely not all).  If you help to organize others, and share information with one another, you will have much more broad expertise, and have help figuring out the parts you don’t know about.  In addition, you could divide and conquer – have different people research different facets of the process, and inform the rest of the group on what they find out.  And while you may have other kids at home to keep you busy, there will undoubtedly be “empty-nest” issues, and you could definitely use other parents to go through them with.

Too, if you have a group of college bound students, you’ll stand a better chance of getting colleges to come to you and/or offer programming specifically for you.  I’m talking about maybe getting a college to come and give a presentation about admission, or put on a financial aid workshop, or schedule a special tour of campus.  Or you might hire a college or educational consultant to advise your group – use Google to find them.

Go through the homeschooling organization you’re probably already a member of to identify other parents who have high school students.  Contact them individually or try to get the organization to use its broadcast capability to seek others interested in working together to gather information on college.

Once you have a group (the bigger, the better), you need to schedule a meeting.  First, find some parents who have been through the college prep ‘thing’ before and invite them to talk about what they did– and have them come back in late spring to talk about supporting their college students, and “empty nest” issues.  Meet monthly and invite an outside speaker each time – college reps to give presentations to your students, maybe a high school counselor who is willing to come talk to you, do an ACT/SAT prep workshop for your students, a financial aid professional, organize group tours of nearby colleges (you may be able to get a special tour or presentation, if you’re persuasive…), etc.

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