So What About College?

  

  Whether or not someone attends college hinges on personal choice. Home educated and unschooled students must choose, just like their institutionally educated peers. Most colleges and universities now welcome home educated students. Getting admitted to college as an unschooled or home educated student follows the same steps and processes. One must complete the necessary exams, either the ACT or SAT, or both if they are required. Unschooled and home educated students can easily register for, access study resources, and schedule these exams with online information on the College Board website. 

For both homeschoolers and their public school counterparts, this information is readily available to anyone considering applying to the majority of colleges and universities in the United States.   Unschooled students can study for both exams through online prep courses, preparatory books on loan from the library, buying books from local bookstores, and practice exams from a wide variety of sources, many of which are online and free. Several websites offer both free study guides and practice tests and those that you can purchase.  Most public libraries and bookstores keep their shelves up to date with the latest versions of the ACT and SAT official preparatory books. But I advise that students plan well ahead, since these books may fly off the shelves right before official test dates in October through May each year.

    When I started college in the fall of 2006, I didn't sleep before my first day of classes because I hadn't stepped foot in a classroom environment for nine years, I didn't know what to expect. Would I find my classes? Would people notice anything different about me? Am I as smart as the other students? I often asked myself that last question. At the end of my first week of classes, I knew the answer. I had arrived just as prepared for college as everyone else. I scored very well on my papers, passed my tests, and actively participated in discussions. 

    When I graduated from college in the Spring of 2010, I had earned a B.A. with a focus in Art. I was proud that even though I didn't go to public school, I attended college and graduated in four years. My accomplishments pale compared to those of some other home educated students who have received honors, awards, and recognition for their academic achievements. I'm sure you've read news stories about home educated students who win spelling bees, or chess matches, or even the MacArthur Genius Award.  

    Transitioning from unschooling to attending college classes came easily for me, and I enjoyed listening to lectures. During my first few weeks in college, I noticed my peers rarely attended lecture classes, except on exam days. Since I hadn't spent all those years sitting in a classroom, I wasn't bored in the lecture halls learning from my professors. It appeared, however, that my peers were. In my sophomore course, "Microbiology of Diseases", only a handful of students bothered showing up for the late afternoon lectures three times a week. While a sophomore, my class schedule needed the approval of my adviser in my major to ensure that I fulfilled my required core courses. My advisor advised me against taking the microbiology course, and instead recommended the course that was fondly referred to as "rocks for jocks."

   By my third week of classes, the lecture halls, which could hold around 100 students, looked like small study groups with a dozen or fewer students. I figured other students dropped the course out of disinterest; however, on the first exam day, the lecture hall quickly filled with students in nearly every seat. 

  This pattern of skipping classes repeated in every course I took, and on every exam day, the lecture halls grew crowded with unfamiliar faces. Yet, there I was, the unschooled student, who had never spent much time in a classroom, regularly attending all my classes. Completely confused by this phenomenon of students only showing up for exams, I soon learned that missing an exam meant failing the class. However, students could still eke out a passing grade by showing up and taking all the exams. I wondered why my peers readily accepted this level of mediocrity or near failing grades that they would most likely receive from missing out on the lectures. One of my friends cleared up my confusion with a short statement, "Once you graduate from college, no one looks at your GPA, so it doesn't matter whether you have a C average or an A." It turned out that many of my peers who attended school at public or private institutions cared less about their academic success than I did. Despite not receiving a single graded assignment in nine years of unschooling, I cared a great deal about my college grades. When a parent is your only official teacher, you know firsthand the effort required to put together learning materials. You realize just how much effort the professors put into writing lectures and exams. Granted, some are better than others at this, but still, I could sense how disillusioned about teaching my professors felt when noticing that 50-80% of the students would only show up on exam days.

    If I wanted to attend college, I needed to prepare for getting into college. But I could study and participate in a multitude of activities and subjects. If I planted a garden, I needed to learn how to do that. If I needed to fire a piece of pottery in a kiln, I needed to learn about the chemistry of glazes. Unschooling taught me to love enriching my life through learning, and that love accompanied me to college, where I selected courses that interested me. 

    I couldn't understand why my supposedly better educated and better-prepared peers, those who attended school and followed a curriculum, always stuck with courses in which they held little to no interest. Most home educated students search for new learning opportunities and proactively play a role in their education. This often translates to the home educated and unschooled student excelling while in college. 

    An unschooled student, armed with self-motivation and a proactive attitude, will seek out challenges, a characteristic of college students who excel both in college and later in their chosen field of work. You might assume that the unschooled student would turn out lazy and the least likely to qualify as a responsible and successful college student since we don't have teachers or exam dates that dictate when we must show up or turn in specific assignments. Though no one measures self-directed academic success against specific guidelines and rubrics during compulsory attendance years, the unschooled student must always measures him or herself against his or her own highest ideals, goals, and aspirations. And since unschooled students don't follow timetables, fixed curriculum or standard subjects, some may begin to fulfill a college curriculum, earn college credit, as early as 14 or 15 years of age. 

    If a home educated student so elects, he or she can study for and complete College Level Examination Program (CLEP) courses for college credit during their high school years. Due to this, they are better prepared to attend college, and some will even graduate early. I've been told by many families that their children transitioned easily to college life and that professors, roommates, and friends of home educated students never wondered about their educational background. The majority of my professors had no idea that I was homeschooled, let alone unschooled, and they never asked me about my pre-college schooling. 

    Unlike many of their publicly educated peers, home educated students often enjoy greater access to Internet resources at home, frequent trips to museums, volunteer activities, and early work experiences. Home educated and unschooled students can concentrate on specific subjects for more extended time periods, especially those topics that interest them, thus developing academic abilities and excelling at a much faster rate than many publicly schooled peers. 

    For the unschooled or home educated student, college represents the cumulative sum of years spent as a self-motivated individual. Attending college fulfills the student's possible need for self-affirmation from someone other than their parents. It provides insight into how much they did or did not learn and opportunities to pursue careers that require a college degree. When I graduated from college, I demonstrated that a non-traditional education could provide a solid foundation for higher education.

-Merridith