Dreams of Ivy League for your home schooled child?

I was talking to a friend of mine recently who is already thinking about college possibilities for her 13-year-old son. He's super smart and was giving me lessons on C++, computers and the like. He built his own computer without any classes; he just did the research and figured it out. Yep, he's headed for great things.

My friend was worried about how well he'd do in regular school (she's putting him in a school with accelerated studies). She decided if he didn't feel like he fit in, she'd home school — they were using charter school previously but he was so far ahead of that curriculum too.

Her main worry with homeschooling was whether Ivy League universities or other elite schools, like the one she attended, would consider home-schooled kids. Many colleges are accepting home-schooled kids with excitement, but she feels the Ivy League schools might not give them a second chance.

Many institutions are relaxing their admissions policies
I had read somewhere recently that many schools, Stanford included, are relaxing their admissions policies when it comes to homeschooling. A GED is fine as a certificate to prove an education in most and some don't even require that. All they really want is good SAT or ACT scores. Some request a letter of recommendation and an essay.

But I got to thinking about Ivy League schools and wondered if home-schooled kids are rejected more often or have a harder time with admissions. I did some research and found that is NOT the case. According to the Home School Legal Defense Association's website, many prominent universities are accepting home-schooled kids with glee. Harvard only requires the "results of the SAT and SAT II, an essay, an interview, and a letter of recommendation" from home-schooled teens. Yale, Princeton, Texas A&M, Brown University, and the Carnegie Mellon Institute among many others have flexible transcript criteria, accept parental evaluations or do not require any accreditation.

No worries
So the worrying about a higher education can end. I joked to my friend that by the time our kids get to college-age, the curriculums in most public schools will be so poor, that many colleges and universities would jump at the chance to have a home-schooled kid. Hopefully that won't be the case, but it certainly seems like that how things are going.

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