Homeschool Transcripts – Strange College Requests
Homeschoolers sometime receive strange requests from colleges. As you start to apply to colleges you will more than likely start collecting some of your own strange college requests.
One of the strange things that I have been asked for was a graded English paper. That was pretty easy because I went to the computer and I printed their English paper and then I wrote a big A on it and then submitted it. When they asked me for a math paper in my child’s handwriting, I was pretty glad I kept their tests as work samples.
One of the colleges wanted a lab report from one of their labs and they did not specify biology, chemistry or physics. I did not give them the lab write up in yellow pencil that you could hardly read. I chose the best lab report and I gave it to them.
So how do you know what homeschool records to keep since you don’t know what colleges will ask for? Think about how many colleges you will apply to and if you have will enough to give a sample to all the colleges that you apply to on each subject area. It will help you to keep something for every class. That can be a goal for you to have for your record keeping. The chances of all 4 or 6 colleges asking for the same thing are pretty slim. Remember that when you apply, you are actually in the middle of senior year so if they all ask you for a graded math paper and you only had one; it would only take you a week to get the other five.
One of the most important things I taught my children was how to write a one-page essay.
We varied the subject area of that essay. Each time they wrote it we changed the topic. Sometimes it would be about their delight directed learning, sometimes for English, sometimes for history, and sometimes for PE. I even made them write something about a foreign language or something about a foreign country. That is one idea of something you can do to have essays to give to them.
Keeping a wide variety of work samples will help you in the long run when you come across some of those crazy requests. Be creative in keeping those records as you homeschool through high school and you should be fine.