The Homeschooling Handbook_ From Preschool to High School - Mary Griffith [106]
College at Home?
Growing numbers of homeschoolers are beginning to ask the obvious question: If homeschooling works so well for grammar school and high school, why not just keep on learning the same way? Why not homeschool through college?
Admittedly, the word homeschooling begins to sound pretty silly to describe independent college-level work, but the principle is sound. The concept especially makes sense for younger teens who are ready for college work but not quite ready for campus life on their own and for those who prefer to learn on their own rather than through a formal college curriculum.
There are several options for college study at home:
Correspondence courses: Most colleges and universities offer many of their courses by correspondence. Often, correspondence courses use the same texts and assignments as the campus versions of the course, and student work may be evaluated by on-campus faculty, although machine-graded options are also becoming common. Generally, the student has a fixed period of time, usually several months, to complete the coursework. Final exams sometimes must be proctored by an approved individual, such as a local librarian. Credit is equivalent to that given for normal, on-campus classes.
Credit by examination: Students demonstrate their knowledge by their performance on a test of the material typically covered in a college course. The College Level Examination Program tests are one example of these; tests are available in general areas such as humanities and mathematics and in more specific course topics. Usually, each college makes up its own rules on the minimum scores to receive credit and the amount of credit awarded. Many schools also have their own tests for more specialized courses or will allow professors to create them for particular courses.
Independent study contracts: Some schools have programs under which the student, in consultation with one or more faculty members, undertakes to complete certain activities (reading texts, performing experiments, writing papers, etc.) to be awarded an agreed-on amount of college credit. Such programs can be created for a single course or for a complete degree program.
Life experience credit: Some colleges will award college credit for experience that has given the student knowledge equivalent to that required to successfully pass college courses. For such credit, the student must be able to demonstrate or document his knowledge in some way. Few schools will allow an entire degree to be earned in this fashion, but such credit can significantly reduce the amount of more formal work required to complete a degree.
An essential resource for anyone interested in any of these variations of off-campus college work is Bears’ Guide to Earning College Degrees Nontraditionally. The Bears discuss the advantages of nontraditional degrees, along with the pitfalls involved, and give advice on choosing programs, evaluating accreditation agencies, finding financial aid, and applying for admission. They also list hundreds of colleges with nontraditional programs, complete with brief descriptions of the courses and degrees offered.
Other Options
Many homeschoolers opt to delay college for a while. They may want to wait until they are more sure of their interests and goals, or they’d like to have some work or volunteer experience before they decide on a career direction, or perhaps they want to travel and see other parts of the world before getting serious about more formal education. Other homeschoolers choose to forgo college entirely. A craft or hobby they started years previously may be developing nicely into a full-time business, or they may be interested in