Dear Kim

Another question for you- Is it possible to have 2 transcripts-one that you submit to secular schools and one for Christian schools?  My son has Bible/Theology credits that I could include from Torrey Academy, however, I would probably not list them on a transcript for a secular school. He will be applying to both secular and Christian programs. CK

Dear CK,

Yes, I would have 2 transcripts if I wanted to highlight theology courses in the context of a homeschool that isn’t explicitly a Christian school.  That would impact the school profile and the course descriptions as well.

Alternatively, you might consider positioning your school as a parochial school, which has a specifically Christian purpose (described in the School Profile).  Then the theology credits would make sense even in a secular application.  As long as your son shows a standard number of credits in non-theological subjects and you describe your school mission/purpose/philosophy in high-brow academic terms, the theology credits won’t hurt him.  This way you could have a single set of paperwork for secular and Christian applications.

Many of our country’s most prestigious prep schools are parochial schools which have a specifically religious mission and affiliation.  Being a Christian school doesn’t automatically flag its transcripts as being flaccid. You will want to look up some Christian prep schools’ websites to help you with verbiage for your School Profile. And you will doubtless have a good number of academic kudos for your son anyway.  Being able cite the Torrey professors as mentors in your homeschool program will give weight and credibility to your school.

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Get all your college application questions answered in Countdown to College: the Homeschoolers’ Guide to Winning Scholarships and produce professional-grade credentials with the Countdown to College e-Forms Disk.

What's in YOUR mailbag?

Dear Kim,

Your seminar last winter was very helpful to us and our two high schoolers.  However, I must admit now that they are in the 10th grade, I am feeling anxious and overwhelmed.  We are struggling with motivation to get going on the college prep.  We are preparing for the SAT and writing essays.  What is the next step at this stage?  Thank you, from a mom of four who really needs a little encouragement.  JW

Dear JW,

I’m glad you enjoyed the seminar!  And now that you are in the thick of things, it’s not unusual to feel sort of bogged down. But you are in a good place. If you are preparing for the SATs and writing essays (I assume you mean practice essays for SAT and for applications), you are doing exactly the right things.  I know it might feel like you’re slogging.

But now it’s time to dream with your teens.  What do they really want to do in life?  How can they use their gifts for others’ benefit? Where would they like to be in 5 years?  And then, of course, what do I need to do to get there?  College? Which one?  It’s not too early to research specific colleges so that you can aim at their requirements.

At your public library check out The ISI Guide: Choosing the Right College.  It comes out every year with up to date information, but your library probably has a fairly recent copy. You can read all about it by clicking the link.  It is really a boost to your dreaming.

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Learn to dream for the real world with Countdown to College: the Homeschoolers’ Guide to Winning Scholarships.

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Don’t miss today’s Carnival of Homeschooling: the Adventure Edition at Life on the Road 

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When is a Countdown to College workshop coming to my area?

Check the calendar in the sidebar. If there is no workshop listed near you, contact Kim@countdown2college.net to schedule one.

How do I host a workshop?

All you need is an audience, a PowerPoint friendly auditorium and a space on Kim’s calendar! Check the Forms page for details.

I can’t come to the workshop. Can I still get college scholarship information?

Absolutely! Countdown to College is the best homeschool print resource available. See our catalog.

Can parents and teen attend the workshop together?

Most certainly. In fact, the workshop is designed to facilitate cooperation between parents and youth as they prepare to launch the young people into the real world.

My child is entering middle school. Is it too early to think about this?

Actually middle school is the optimal time to begin to plan. You don’t have to know everything about a young person’s calling in order to start collecting the kinds of credentials he will need to enter adult life. Starting early means that your student will develop a deep habit of looking for God’s guidance in her life. Starting early means that you will be less stressed when the Junior and Senior years of high school roll around.

My child is a Junior in high school. Is it too late for us?

No. The spring of the Junior year through fall of the Senior year is when most large scholarship and college applications are written. Junior year is the time to spiff up the resume and transcript, and get all your records in order.

How do I calculate credit hours?

There are a number of methods for calculating credit hours (sometimes called Carnegie units) in a home school setting. Choose the one that best suits the course you are considering.

– One credit hour is equal to one year of high school study.

– One semester of community college work.

– One credit hour is equal to about 135 – 150 classroom hours (plus homework). Inge Cannon, in Mentoring your Teen, discusses this issue, pointing out that although school administrators tend to assume that homework hours will expand this to 200 hours per credit, they also understand that only about 40% of in-school time is on-task for curriculum mastery.

– One credit hour can also be seen as a percentage of mastery; i.e. if you covered 80% of a high school textbook on your subject, you can count a credit hour.

What should I require for graduation?

It depends on what you are aiming for. If you are aiming for college, then you need to look into what the colleges you are considering require for entrance. If you think that you don’t want to go to college, you should still look at college entrance requirements for your state, because later in life, you may want to go to college in order to advance or to change your career.

So graduation requirements should match the college entrance requirements for your state colleges or for the colleges you wish to enter. Ivy Leagues want to see a good academic curriculum, including four years or more in each of these “solid” subjects:

English

Math (Algebra 1 & 2, Geometry, Calculus)

Hard Sciences (Biology, Physics, Chemistry, etc.)

Foreign languages (at least 2 years of each language studied. Preferably 4 years of the same language)

Social Sciences (History, Economics, Government)

Plus, you’ll need a challenging selection of “semi-solid” and elective courses:

Semi-solids: Journalism, ethics, art history, psychology, etc.

Electives: Music, home economics, computer science, etc.

Your student should have between 23 and 28 credit hours to graduate. Anything over 32 hours is incredible to a college admissions officer.

You may also want to list a minimum number of community service hours as part of your graduation requirement. This is becoming a new standard in many school districts. You may also have some personal or family benchmarks you want your student to reach before he graduates. For instance, you might require that your child run a home-based business for a while or get a job or internship in a designated field or for a designated time.

What is an AP class?

Without exception, you can only afford to list as Advanced Placement (AP), those classes for which your student has taken an AP exam and has earned a grade on that exam that you want to display to an admissions officer. An AP exam tests the student’s learning at a college level.

What is an Honors class?

An Honors class should be taught at a college level, and might be listed without an AP exam to back it up. However, without an AP validation, an admissions officer won’t know what your Honors designation means. So you’ll need to find a way to validate the accelerated nature of your course work: academic competitions, professional certifications, business experience, etc.

What tests should my student take?

For college entrance, a minimum battery of tests would be simply the SAT twice – once for practice and once for ‘real’. But few homeschoolers are really able to get the verification they need with SAT alone.

Even if your college doesn’t require the ACT, it can cross-reference your SAT scores. The PSAT may open scholarship possibilities. And many colleges now look at multiple SAT scores, taking the best score in each section from among the several times the student took the test to produce a maximized SAT composite.

For academic validation of specific courses, see the question below.

What are the differences among PSAT, SAT, ACT, SAT2, AP and CLEP tests?

PSAT – qualifies for National Merit Scholarship. Practice in sophomore year, qualify in junior year.

SAT 1 – Reasoning test. Standard for most college admissions.

ACT – Less universally accepted test for college admission. Focuses on skills.

SAT II – Series of subject-area exams. Used for placement in college courses by top colleges. Used for outside verification of high-school level achievement for any college.

Advanced Placement (AP) – Subject-area exams. Used to determine whether a student has already done college-level work. Used for outside verification of achievement. Each college decides whether and how much credit to give for each score in each subject. Even if you get a top score on an AP exam, you may not get any college credit, but you may get advanced standing (i.e. you can start with a 2^nd semester level course).

CLEP Tests – Developed to test returning military personnel to assign college credit for work experience. Until 2007, CLEP used a pass/fail grading system, which made it impossible for students to demonstrate any proficiency above PASS (which is a D). CLEP recommended until 2007, that colleges recognize a pass as a C on a high school transcript. As of 2007, CLEP began using a graded scale from 20 – 80. College students who received grades of C in the corresponding college class earned CLEP grades around 50. This should help colleges assign credit or standing more effectively. There are a growing number of online and distance-learning institutions that offer college degrees based solely on CLEP testing. These institutions are very new and there is no information about whether their graduates will be able to gain entrance to graduate schools or whether their degrees will be respected by employers.

Can’t my student CLEP out of a lot of college classes?

Each college determines whether it will award credit for CLEP tests, and how much credit it will award. Because CLEP used a pass/fail grading system until 2007, the best grade colleges have assigned for the subject tested was a C. Colleges have been reluctant to award credit in this case, unless they are required by law to do so. The only case in which colleges are required to recognize CLEP for college credit is for military personnel testing to receive credit for work experience.

Colleges are more likely to grant advanced standing for CLEP tests than they are to grant credit. So your student might be able to skip those first-year or first-semester classes with a CLEP test and go directly to more challenging work.

There are a growing number of online and distance-learning institutions that offer college degrees based solely on CLEP testing. These institutions are very new and there is not sufficient information about whether their graduates will be able to gain entrance to graduate schools or whether their degrees will be respected by employers.

How should I record a passing CLEP grade on our transcript?

For instance, if my child did not take a US History class, but just took the US History I CLEP test and scored a 53, am I allowed to simply list US History I on the transcript as a PASS and grant ONE CREDIT towards high school graduation? Or should I mark it as a C grade based upon the College Board grading scale (which I don’t really want to do) in order to get the ONE CREDIT?

If you are doing a lot of CLEPing, then putting a PASS on the high school transcript for a large proportion of your child’s of credit hours, could be viewed by college admissions officers as a way for you to disguise poor grades and pad the GPA.

Since the College Board recommends that you give a C on the high school transcript for a PASS on the CLEP that would be the safest course.

What is “double-dipping”?

“Double-dipping” is a strategy for upperclassmen to receive both high school and college credit for the same class. There are several ways high school junior or senior can earn double credit.

Take community college classes. This is a surer way to college credit than AP or CLEP testing, because if the student passes the class, there is no question that she completed work on a college level. Many states have credit-recognition agreements between the state university system and the community college system within the state. In those states, public universities accept community college credit without any discount of hours. You may also want to list a minimum number of community service hours as part of your graduation requirement. This is becoming a new standard in many school districts. You may also have some personal or family benchmarks you want your student to reach before he graduates. For instance, you might require that your child run a home-based business for a while or get a job or internship in a designated field or for a designated time.