Home Schooling

In order for universities to be successful, they must attract the best students possible. Great students make universities "look good" and lead to a reputation as a good school. Universities with great reputations then attract the top students. It is the responsibility of college admissions officers to weed through the multitude of student applications and find those top students. One of the first things a college admissions officer looks at when opening a student's application portfolio is the graduation requirements. This is particularly true for the homeschooled student.

What College Admissions Officers Are Looking For and How Home Schools Can Comply With State Requirements

College admissions officers are looking for what they call "bright, well-rounded kids." Homeschooled students compete with students from every other school setting for placement in the best colleges and for scholarships to these universities. Even though some home school book vendors and ministry leaders may say that certain courses are not required to graduate from high school, this may be disinformation. In order to have success in college, it is imperative for home schools to be up to date on state high school graduation requirements.

Home educators can access their state's home education laws by visiting the Home School Legal Defense Association website. However, in order to be well-informed about state public school graduation requirements, a home educator must visit the state education agency for the state in which the home school is located. Each state has its own requirements for graduation from high school. For instance, in the state of Texas, new laws for graduation requirements were passed during the 2009-2010 academic year, in legislation known as H.B. 3.

The Most Widely Accepted High School Graduation Requirements

Below is a list of the most widely accepted high school graduation requirements:

1. Four years of English, preferably including two AP or college level English classes
2. One semester of speech or oral communications. This does not include drama.
3. Four years of math, including Geometry, Algebra II, Pre-Calculus, and Calculus. Algebra I has been moved down to the seventh or eighth grade. Calculus is offered as either an AP or dual credit course.
4. Four years of science, up from three years. Biology is tending down into the eighth grade. The four years of science are Chemistry, Physics, and two AP or dual credit courses. One of the AP or college level courses must be a biology course.
5. One year of Computer Science. This can be a web design course, a coding course such as HTML or C++, or a multimedia course. All high school students should know how to do Power Point presentations, Excel spreadsheets, and Microsoft Word documents.
6. Three or four years of social sciences. These typically include two World History courses, a U.S. History, and two semesters of government and economics courses. Most of these course are available as AP and dual credit courses.
7. Two years as a minimum of a modern foreign language. Many home schools favor Latin as a foreign language. However, some universities specifically ask for a modern foreign language. It is very important to check with the colleges under consideration to see what their individual requirements for foreign language are. Some universities ask for four years of the same foreign language.
8. One semester of health, which, for a home school, may be Red Cross certifications or emergency services training.
9. At least one year of physical education. This appears to vary from school district to school district.
10. Individual state requirements for home schools. These may be obscure, such as one state's requirements for fire safety and another's requirement for a course in good citizenship.