preparing for college experience?

[Laura O.]

I know I'm probably thinking way ahead which is VERY unlike me But my mother (who really means well!) is insistent that I need an accredited school and official transcripts for my dcs. To be honest, until I started looking into HOD, I really wasn't aware you could "make them" yourself. But I am finding the idea a little intimidating Has anyone had experience with this yet? Was it hard to "get the hang of"? Was it really time consuming? Did you get a diploma too? How did it go when applying to colleges? I know this is a lot of questions sorry! I would love any and all experiences and advice you have!!

Thanks so much for all your help! This is the most excited I have been about our homeschooling in a long time

[GinainMD]

Good question. I can't offer any help but I am curious as well.

[Kims]

Most colleges accept homeschoolers diplomas with no problem. You would need to check with the school first.
I live in TN so I use and umbrella school so they do that all for me. You could do that when the time comes. I use Homelife Academy ( I hope that's ok to put here) They do transcripts for you and you get a diploma from them. It is pretty inexpensive and you use your own curriculum.

One of the local colleges here was at one of our homeschool meetings and when asked what a homeschooler needed he said just for you (mom) to say they graduated.
I would not worry too much right now.

[countrymom]

The HSLDA website has a lot of information on creating transcripts. If you have trouble finding the exact pages just google high school transcript + homeschool and that site will come up with the link. I also wanted to add that many colleges, including Ivy League schools are courting homeschoolers, so not to worry.

[raceNzanesmom]

I have a college freshman that graduated from home. I used teascript.com to keep track of his transcripts. I saved each year to the computer, then at the end of his senior year I paid the $5 to put them all on one page. You can group them by year/grade, or the newer way is to group according to subject (all english together, all math, etc).

My ds has decided to complete his first two years at the community college to save money. All they wanted was his ACT scores. Other colleges he applied to wanted a copy of his transcript and his ACT scores. His being hs'd was never an issue.

ETA: We made his diploma (no school asked for it). You can also buy nice ones in the diploma folder online. You can also buy caps/gowns and just about anything you'd want for graduation.

[LynnH]

Since I have a Junior in High School I have done lots of research on this subject. Of all the colleges I have looked at for my dd none of them require a transcript from an accredited school for homeschoolers. The only thing they might require of a homeschooled student is a course description and also they want a reference letter from someone that isn't the parent. The most important thing to them is your ACT/SAT scores. These are some very highly ranked Christian colleges. We are already seeing how the colleges recruit homeschool students. One college had a current student call her that had been homeschooled himself and told her how homeschool friendly the school was.

[raceNzanesmom]

Since I have a Junior in High School I have done lots of research on this subject. Of all the colleges I have looked at for my dd none of them require a transcript from an accredited school for homeschoolers. The only thing they might require of a homeschooled student is a course description and also they want a reference letter from someone that isn't the parent. The most important thing to them is your ACT/SAT scores. These are some very highly ranked Christian colleges. We are already seeing how the colleges recruit homeschool students. One college had a current student call her that had been homeschooled himself and told her how homeschool friendly the school was.

This was the #1 thing for our ds. It's what they want before anything else.

We have private schools in our area that aren't accredited.

[Laura O.]

Thank you SO MUCH for all your advice and experiences I am so glad I asked Everything you said made me feel so much better and not stressed about it now. I think I will just look into the schools that they are most likely to attend and see what they want from homeschoolers.

Thanks so much for sharing your experience


Laura

[Carrie]

What a wonderful thread with so much wisdom! I wanted to chime in and mention that as far as the transcript and diploma go, we really like Janice Campbell's book Transcripts Made Easy and are looking at likely carrying it on our website to guide you step-by-step through the transcript/diploma process when you get there. It is a wonderfully laid out book that is easy-to-follow and produces professional results using a free software program. It has various starting points in the book too as to when you are beginning to use the book (as in middle school, early high school, or the night before you need a transcript)! Its filled with guidance and tips too.

Blessings,
Carrie

[deltagal]

What a wonderful thread with so much wisdom! I wanted to chime in and mention that as far as the transcript and diploma go, we really like Janice Campbell's book Transcripts Made Easy and are looking at likely carrying it on our website to guide you step-by-step through the transcript/diploma process when you get there. It is a wonderfully laid out book that is easy-to-follow and produces professional results using a free software program. It has various starting points in the book too as to when you are beginning to use the book (as in middle school, early high school, or the night before you need a transcript)! Its filled with guidance and tips too.

Blessings,
Carrie

Campbell's books is a great resource! Her website is also quite helpful. If you have a chance to attend one or her workshops - go for it. I was a little unsure about what to do until I tapped into her wisdom, now I feel quite confident about the high school/college process.

[holdinon]

I'm not the OP, but thanks for this resource. I am just starting to look beyond middle school and onto post highschool, so this thread was great timing! I feel quite certain that all of mine will do the 2 year junior college first (we have 2 different ones close enough to commute), so we will probably not need anything more than the ACT. However, I would like to be prepared just in case
Angie