Homeschool Advocacy Project - Homeschool Admissions Day at UW

Homeschool Admissions Day

I've noticed that some homeschooling parents start getting nervous when their kids hit 9th grade. This is high school--this counts. In my family, the word "documentation" started getting thrown around a lot, and we started a homeschool transcript draft to build on over the next few years. For homeschoolers who want to go on to college, describing our educational experiences in the terms that the colleges want can seem more intimidating than doing all that writing, math, and volunteering for which we're now trying to properly give ourselves "credit."

I want this event to help homeschooled students make their applications represent their educational experiences in ways that are both accurate and accessible to admissions counselors.
Homeschool Admissions Day 2011 will take place on Saturday, April 23, at the University of Washington, Seattle campus. I will be working with my mentor, UW admissions counselor Grant Twitchell, and other former homeschoolers who are students here at UW to make this event a success.

At this point, the event will include:

having a session with a University of Washington Admissions Counselor on how to construct an effective homeschool transcript that gives them the information they need in the format they prefer.

participating in a personal essay writing workshop

a student panel of former homeschoolers who are currently attending college

a small college fair with representatives prepared to speak to homeschool admission requirements at various colleges

Parents (though not younger siblings) are welcome to attend everything except for the personal essay workshop.

During the personal essay workshop, I will arrange for parents:

a session on financial aid and filling out the FAFSA

I chose a weekend so that Running Start students don't have to miss classes, so that parents who work on weekdays can attend, so that the college students involved don't have to miss our classes, and because there was greater room availability. However, I really wanted the event to be on a weekday so that participants could get a real sense of the UW campus when it is populated and bustling, and so we could visit classes.

To accommodate both of these goals, I'm setting up activities for the afternoon of Friday, April 22nd, the day before the main event.

On Friday, we'll:

visit a class

go on a campus tour

have open time to visit specific departments and/or see advisers in the majors students are particularly interested in

(a social event in the evening, to be determined)

The event will be for students who are ages 15 and up. After older kids have registered, 14-year-olds who are in 9th grade may register on a space-available basis. If you have younger students and would like to work on transcripts or other college readiness, you are welcome to contact me. I can work with you to set something up separately.

Registration for this event will begin in January. There will be a small cost to cover lunch and room rentals. If the cost will represent a substantial hardship for your family, please contact us at hapuw@uw.edu and we can make arrangements.

I plan to arrange home stays with local homeschooling families for people who want to participate in both Friday and Saturday and who may drive from long distances, to avoid hotel costs. If you are interested in this (either hosting or being hosted), please contact me.
I'm really hoping there will be a lot of interest in participating in this event so that it can become an annual offering to the homeschooling community.

Souce:
http://homeschooltocollege.webs.com/homeschooladmissionsday.htm