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Home-Schooled Students and College Admission
Your Child's Unique Approach to the Process
In general, home–schooled students follow the same college admission process as students in public or private schools. However, they may have to fulfill some extra requirements. For example, some colleges may request additional application materials — such as several SAT Subject Tests™ — from home-schoolers. Some colleges admit many home-schooled students; others do not.
If your child is home-schooled, advance planning and attention to detail are especially important during this process. The steps below can guide you and your child.
Look for Friendly Colleges
First, your child should identify colleges that are a good fit. Then you or your child can get the details about each college’s policies on home-schooled applicants from their individual profiles in our free College Search.
Once the list is narrowed down, your child should contact each of the colleges to find out if there are any additional admission requirements that must be addressed.
Learn College Prep Course Material
There are certain courses that college admission officers expect all applicants to have completed. Just like traditional students, home-schooled students need to either take these college preparatory classes or learn the course material some other way.
Stay on Top of Dates and Deadlines
Without regular announcements from a school counseling office, it's up to you and your child to keep track of critical dates and deadlines. Make sure you both know the important dates for college admission actions, financial aid applications, SAT® registration and AP® Exams.
Get Letters of Recommendations
These are typically written by your child’s teacher and can present a challenge, since you yourself may be that teacher. Although some college admission officers allow parents to write recommendations, they may consider them biased.
Your child should ask at least one unrelated adult to write a recommendation — the leader of a club, an employer or the manager of a volunteer program. The best choice is someone who’s known your child a long time and can speak about your child’s character and abilities.
Learn more about letters of recommendation.
Go on a College Interview
College interviews allow your child to meet a representative of the college in person. Interviewers can learn more about a student in a face-to-face meeting than they can just by reading an application. Find out more about college interviews.
