Ok, so I figure I've spent enough time working on my profile and procrastinating on the actual task at hand: posting something that's... worth posting. I have no idea what paths this blog will take, but hopefully it will be of interest to someone out there.
One thing I will start off with is how addicted I've become to Yahoo! Answers. It's really pathetic; I get all excited when one of my answers is chosen as a Best Answer. I generally answer questions (Silly Monkey is my screen name) in the homeschooling section. I've noticed recently that there are college professors saying some things about homeschoolers getting into college that don't really "mesh" with what I've read and heard from the homeschooling community.
One example was chosen as the Best Answer to this question. When I read it, I felt compelled to get some accurate information straight from the horse's mouth - or in this case, the horses' mouths. So I sent the admissions offices of Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, and M.I.T this email:
To whom it may concern:
I am inquiring about your policies on admitting homeschooled students. As you may be aware, there is a plethora of misinformation floating around on the Internet, and I would like to get to the real truth of the matter.
The questions I have are:
1) What percentage of homeschooled applicants have been admitted to your university in the last three years?
2) Are homeschooled applicants admitted on their own merits or are they admitted under affirmative action?
3) How do homeschooled students perform at the university level as compared to their schooled peers?
4) Are homeschooled applicants subject to the same requirements as public/private schooled applicants, or are there additional requirements?
Thank you for your time and responses.
I'm sure many have done this before me, but I'm anxiously awaiting my responses anyway. When I get them, I will post them.
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15 comments:
Welcome to blogging! It is a lot of fun...
I hope you get answers to your questions. As to what college profs think about homeschoolers? I've heard everything. I'm always a little skeptical of answers, though, because there are so few homeschoolers. How many has any particular professor run into and do they always even know it?
I know a lot of public schooled social misfits, but I don't normally associate it with public school. I know a couple of "social misfits" who are homeschooled. The big difference I see, however, is that no one in our little homeschool groups seems to know. Those kids are invited to play right along with the others, even though they are a bit quirky.
The fact that there are quirky kids does not reflect poorly on homeschooling or public schooling. I think how severely they are ostracized in one system or another, however, does speak to the system, if that makes any sense.
But those are just my thoughts...I don't know all that many homeschoolers!
Hi Jenn! Welcome to blogging and thanks for the link!
It looks like you have a good start so far - I can't wait to see how it turns out.
Link to COD and have an instant following?! Welcome to blogging.
I hope you get responses to your letter. I know one state university that accepted my nephew (an unschooler from second grade through high school) on a full scholarship. That was enough "proof" for me.
Bummer. My link didn't work. Posting again to see if I can fix it.
Thanks everyone for the welcomes and the encouragement! And you make a good point, Dana, about whether people even know when they've met a homeschooler. I would think if we stood out that much, people would be asking me constantly if I homeschool my kids. As it is, no one has ever asked me. People do usually ask what grade they're in, though. I guess that means we fit in pretty well....
Welcome to the blogospere!
Jenn,
I picked up your blog on referral from Daniel's blog "Key Words." It looks like your off to a good start.
You really have me excited with your first post. I can't wait for you to post the replies you get from those universities!
Cheers,
Jim
I found a way around most of the college bs. Go to a community college get an associates(sp) and then go where-ever you want. If I had known this back in 19-whatever I would have probably be in a different place. Which might have been worse, so who is to say missing the boat is always a bad thing.
I am sure the ppl that missed their chance to be the first on the Titantic were pissed they missed the boat. But then, I bet they felt pretty good when it sank and they did not.
Yeah, a lot of people don't realize that pretty much anyone can go to college, regardless of what they did (or didn't do) in school.
Jenn,
I wanted to apologize - I read this article, but didn't click on the "answer" that had upset you so much. The person you are looking at there is one of two things - a troll or a strawman. His comments are designed to raise hackles pure and simple.
Interestingly though, his own facts don't support his case - that homeschoolers are unprepared for college. He stated that "only" two percent of new students are homeschooled - that's roughly the same as number of homeschooled students in the general population. Add to that the fact that he's not including students who transferred from community colleges or who came in under an "umbrella" school (simply because he CAN'T know which of these are homeschooled), then it becomes pretty apparent that, in terms of relative percentages, homeschooled students are MORE likely than their peers to go to college.
Oh, and he doesn't actually distinguish "college" from "good schools", which means he didn't actually answer the real question in the first place.
One more point, He gave another "best answer" to a question about an abusive teacher...
What can I do about my sixth graders teachers sarcasim?
My daughters 6th grade teacher makes sarcastic remarks to my daughter nearly daily. She is sensitive to those remarks and usually cries, then more remarks come. What should I do? I have already talked to the teacher. She admits it, and says my daughter needs to behave, but she is never disrespectful.
------------
Prof. Black
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker
See the principle and prepare a complaint to the superintendent. This teacher is the reason we have a school system in the situation it's in today. 20 years ago we had teachers who taught for a reason. Now we have teachers who work for 4 years to get student loans paid off and leave the profession.
Twelve is a perfect age to start teaching your daughter the policy of "Consider the source". If the teacher wants to talk down to the kids she's the one with a real problem. If your daughter learns that the source is a person who has problems (which is the norm for this bullying behavior) then learns to ignore it she's gained a valuable life lesson.
Good luck
"Consider the source" is very seldom bad advice.
True. And I don't give any weight to his opinions personally. It just frustrates me to know that this kind of prejudicial thinking is being propagated, and people think that because he is a college professor, he knows what he's talking about. I deal with the same thinking from my family, and it wears on me from time to time.
I was just hoping to get some answers from the source(s) to disprove his statements (and maybe show my mom that my kids aren't doomed.)
Our oldest will be going to the New School in NYC with a wonderful scholarship package.Her first choice. No extra requirements or questions asked. HS'd except for 6 weeks in kindergarten.
Great work.
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