Applying For College And Scholarships

My husband was chatting with me one day about what it was like when he went to college - he is an engineer, but when he was applying to schools he had not bothered to take the PSAT. So, on his college application there were no SAT or ACT results, nor did he engage in a lot of varsity sports, and there was not a lot of community service on his resume…yet, he did manage to get into college. Now here we are today, it is a different world out there, and college admission has become much more competitive.

At a high school reunion, one of our friends exclaimed over how kids can possibly manage these days: they are in the middle of a failing school, they have to do community service, write AP exams, work on a job possibly supporting their family, or they have these incredible academic load, senior projects they have to do, and volunteer work that is required. These kids are required to "do it all" - so much that was not required when we were in high school.

It’s interesting, because as homeschoolers we are fairly used to scrutinizing the academic rigour of our curriculum and recognizing that we are doing a very good job in comparison. The statistics back that up; homeschoolers are doing an excellent job academically. The problem with college admission is that we are not competing with a failing public school - our children are instead competing against the shining star who is succeeding in a failing public school.

We have to rise above the lowest common denominator, we have to make sure that our children are real, that they are ready, and that they are right for any college where they apply. You can achieve this by providing thorough documentation of your homeschooling.

Now, there are people in the world who are incredibly wealthy. They either do not care at all about scholarship money because it is not important to their bottom line, or they will pay huge sums to college coaches who will coach their kid on how to get into college: how to do the essay, how to interview, and everything they need to know to get in.

On the other side of the spectrum are people with a low income - these are people who are highly deserving of scholarships and when they go before a scholarship committee, they are the ones that are going to get the money. They will get more of the money that is available to give away.

In the middle are 90% of the homeschoolers out there….we don't have a low income per se, but affording college...are you kidding me? So that is the difficulty, most homeschoolers are sitting here in the middle.

But you can be confident in your ability as a homeschooler. You can stand up against the best and the brightest in the public and private schools, and know that even if you’re not a high or low income person, even if you’re just an ordinary person, you can be confident in the college admission process. You can work through the college application process and submit a beautiful comprehensive record package that will wow colleges, get your child in and get them the big scholarships. For more information, check out my book, "The HomeScholar Guide to College Admission and Scholarships: Homeschool Secrets to Getting Ready, Getting In and Getting Paid".