Top universities want you to homeschool

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Top universities want you to homeschool

It’s not that top universities are telling people directly to homeschool their kids. Instead, top schools are using a selection process that is hugely advantageous to those who do homeschool. Here’s why:

1. Good grades are a commodity, so they don’t help in the admissions process. 
Girls are doing so much better than boys in both standard high school courses and in standardized tests that their good grades and good scores don’t get girls into good colleges. It’s not enough anymore. White girls especially need a hook.

A hook is, ironically, something you are passionate about and engaged in that is outside of school. Top schools like Harvard and Stanford have always required a hook. Because when you’re in a room full of smart people, smart suddenly doesn’t matter—interesting is what matters.

So Harvard, for example, makes a pile of all the applicants who have the grades and the scores to get into Harvard, and then they look for what they need: A violinist, a middle-hitter, a coxswain. Then they look for what else might be interesting. A ballerina, a professional actor, a published author, and so on.

It used to be you needed a hook only for the very top two or three schools. But now white girls need a hook for all the top schools.

2. Your kid will be evaluated on the stuff that is NOT in school. 
What this means is that top colleges are devaluing standardized tests. They don’t care if you learn the national curriculum. They don’t care if you can get a high score on the SAT. These achievements are commodified in the way that learning has been commodified. What really counts now is showing passion, drive, and accomplishment outside of standardized learning.

But now things start to make sense.

In general, a college degree is simply a ticket to play. It doesn’t matter what school you went to, unless you go to a very top school, say, top ten. In that case, the vetting process is so tough that it’s a huge endorsement to you to have the school on your resume, and there is a great network of graduates that will help you go through all stages of your career.

It’s no coincidence that the only undergraduate degrees that really give you an edge are from the schools that require achievements that school does not provide. You get that special hook outside of school, not in it.

3. Going to school undermines endeavors that really impress admissions officers.
In fact, most of the hooks that get kids into top schools are driven by ingenuity and creativity. This is why Stanford accepted 27% of homeschool applicants and 5% of traditional applicants. And it’s why Conrad Tao got into Columbia without any AP classes or SAT tutors. He just had his piano and a GED.

But the blog Marginal Revolution has a great summary of how teachers in school suppress creativity because teachers don’t like creative kids.

So the only colleges that are really worth a student’s time and money are colleges that don’t value time spent in school. This is one of the biggest endorsements of homeschooling that I have found.

48 replies
  1. karelys
    karelys says:

    I read Conrad’s story and I have a question. How do these musicians get paid? is it similar to art (like painting) where the artist puts so much work, agony, expertise, etc. and then waits for someone to buy an outrageously expensive piece?

    I read he travels a lot which means there is a demand for him to play. But who pays for this? tickets sales?

    • Cjmusicuan
      Cjmusicuan says:

      There are numerous ways musicians get paid. Most classically trained musicians get a bulk of their income from teaching. In Conrad’s case, however, he most likely receives an upfront fee per recital – at his level maybe in the thousands. Article mentioned he was a composer. Depending on the size of the work composers can receive anywhere between a few hundred dollars to thousands plus possible royalties from publisher. This is an over generalization but nonprofit music organizations cover the costs of musicians. One will be ticket sales and ticket subscriptions and generous donations from private and corporate sponsors. Top tier symphony instrumentalists can earn six figures. And as far as travel expenses go most classical musicians at his level that tour have their travel expenses paid for. Hope this helps!

  2. christy
    christy says:

    Penelope, I do wish you’d been doing this blog when I was in school. Seriously.

    However, since you and I are within a year or so of one another, that really wouldn’t work, would it. :)

  3. CJ
    CJ says:

    At least just looking at this from a historical pov, traditionally the exceptionally wealthy, the incredible artists, athletes, performers, musicians, at least 14 of our US presidents, men like Grant Colfax, etc. were/are famously homeschooled so for me it just makes intuitive sense that the oldest, most established top universities would now as they have always, attracted these students. The wealthy have been in the know forever that homeschooling is superior. I think the 99%ers should realize this- the bulk of public school educated children will never be “prepared” for these competitive programs going through the factory processing. Homeschool keeps the mind open and institutions shut down the brains windows just as numbingly as a prison. The top universities know well their reputations depend on turning out amazing graduates that change the world. Homeschoolers change the world before they even get to college, thank goodness!

  4. Kate
    Kate says:

    Great post – I will be passing this along to my Mom, Director of Curriculum for a large public school system in New England, who vehemently opposes that my children are unschooled. It’s hard to doubt Harvard!

    • CJ
      CJ says:

      My mother has been in education my whole life too (special edu for the most part). Ask your mother to watch just 1 hour and 5 min YouTube video of John Taylor Gatto 2005 lecture with you found @ http://www.patfarenga.com/

      It is a mind changer ;-)

  5. Tzipporah
    Tzipporah says:

    The problem is I want my kid to be homeschooled by someone else. The alterna-mom who has more patience than me. And will work for free. Any leads on that?

    • MoniqueWS
      MoniqueWS says:

      Several days ago I posted this to my FaceBook page – “Sigh. I am feeling worn out from all the schedules and minutiae I keep in my gourd. I am really worn out about being the bad guy when it comes to getting the job done BEFORE the play happens. I dislike being the bad guy.”

      That being said (on occasion at my house) I want you to know I hear mommas say something similar to what you said above that they want someone else to do it, they aren’t patient enough, everyone would end up killing each other, etc. I feel sad when I hear this. The truth is when you are sending your kids to school almost all of your interactions with each other are happening around transitions under time pressure. Getting folks up to get off to school. Getting from school to the sports or arts or ?? activity. Getting from the activity to home during or even after dinner time. The chaos of making and serving and cleaning up a dinner you hope you get to enjoy together. Getting homework done. Getting chores done. Getting bathed. Getting to bed. Getting up … It is a lot of transitions under time pressure.

      There are often lots of struggles for families around transitions. We often don’t do our best parenting in these situations. Kids often don’t get the job done smoothly because they are growing and learning and trying to get it all figured out. All of this is normal BUT when it is all you are doing as a family it is a lot of frustration and aggravation and disappointment.

      When you homeschool, when you unschool especially, there is more time in your days to spend just being with one another, sharing discussion, music, cooking, learning, wonder, activities, etc. Yes most of us don’t live in our hermit cave. We do need/want/look forward to going out in the world but transitions are NOT the focus of the day and activities as a family.

      When families speak about moving into homeschooling I always suggest they spend some time doing NOTHING. Do nothing but the very important work of rediscovering one another, reconnecting, falling in love with each other in the family.

      Being together as a family is a lovely, loving, wonderful thing. It does have its moments – read my FaceBook quote again – but they are moments NOT the standard or the norm.

      • Penelope Trunk
        Penelope Trunk says:

        This is great, great advice. I actually received this advice when I started homeschooling but it sounded impossible to me. Like, how could it be true?

        So I loaded up our schedules to make sure I was a good homeschooler. And then, a few months later, we moved toward doing nothing. And the closer we get to doing nothing, the better we all feel.

        Of course, we are never doing nothing. Kids simply don’t know how to do nothing. And I have a million things I want to do, so it’s impossible for me to do nothing as well.

        But life as a homeschooler is most interesting to me when we are mostly doing nothing. If nothing else, the kids dream up way better things for themselves to do, when left to their own devices, than I could dream up putting our supposedly educational schedule together.

        Doing nothing is the very hardest thing to do as a homeschooler. At least for me.

        Penelope

        • Tzipporah
          Tzipporah says:

          Yes, it’s lovely advice, but I don’t WANT to do nothing. I actually don’t have a to of getting-the-kid-here-and-there pressure b/c I’m working at home and we live across the street from school, so our time is OUR TIME. That said, it works only because I have some time without him around every day to do the things I want/need to do – blog, create/sell things to support us, go grocery shopping, etc. Last summer after moving we had nothing to do and I nearly killed him because I just needed a few hours to myself and couldn’t get it. Introverts with extremely extrovert kids don’t do well without breaks.

          • MoniqueWS
            MoniqueWS says:

            Cool! You have found a way that works for you! Presumably last summer you found some ways to cope because your child is still among us. :-)

            When I say do nothing I don’t mean literally do nothing. I mean do not load up on curriculum and activities in place of school or to re-create school. Play, read, lounge, visit, art, mud pies, whatever things make you both happy with a little give and take. Fall in love with each other as a family again in ways you might not experience being apart from one another or in transition as your main time spent together. Finding some support in the form of friends or family or other homeschooling families can be important.

            My middle child works as a mother’s helper to a mom with a baby and three others under the age of six. My youngest wants to snuggle on my lap a lot but is also happy to play in the back yard with sticks, mud, chickens, trees, his imagination. We host other kids for outside play dates to get some time for me. The eldest is almost 15 and self managing as well as helpful with the other children – playing with a wide variety of kids, showing them cool stuff, enjoying the outside and leading the adventures.

            Time for one’s self is important for many homeschooling parents and some kids too!

          • Natalia
            Natalia says:

            Personally, I dont think homeschooling is for everyone & I dont think everyone should do it. I’m not trying to convince anyone who doesn’t want to homeschool to homeschool nor that they are “bad” if they don’t homeschool.

            That said I have some lies I’d like to expose:

            1) I’m not rich, not even close. We barely have one working car. I can “afford” to stay home with my kids because we’ve all made lots of sacrifices. I’d rather sacrifice stuff then the time I have with my kids. That works for us & I don’t judge families who feel like they need two cars, a big home, lots of money in the bank, etc… Those are their choices to make however, everyone makes sacrifices & I’d rather sacrifice things rather then sacrificing the education of my children so we’ve made our own choices & don’t think I’m better for the ones we’ve made.

            2) I don’t have more patients then you do. However I probably am stricter & shockingly my kids still love me & enjoy themselves very much in spite of our structure. They just know that we have rules & we don’t make threats. If they do something we make sure they deal with the consequences of those actions. Of which they are fully aware before they chose to disobey. There’s structure & discipline in our home, they know that & yes they are easier to be around because of it. My four kids are less trouble then most singletons (not all) lol.

            3) I am an introvert, extremely so. I cringe when ppl want to “just stop by for a bit”, when they try to drag me to or convince me that I need “a girls night out”. I have actually cried because I didn’t want to go out to places or with ppl. I love being by myself. My biggest fear are those moms who hate to stay home & want to coms over because they think that I’m starving for “adult time” or for “out side interaction” esp when school is out. Those moms want to stop by & have my kid easentially baby sit their kids as they sit in my kitchen expounding quesrion after queation about how i do things when my kids are home. Here’s the secret! I stay home & get them done. As far as being an introvert,my kids are total extroverts. They have learned to respect me, that I need time off and time when I don’t have to be “on” or touched or grabbed or cuddled or etc… My kids are 8, 6, 4 & 2. We work together.

            4) Homeschooling looks different to everyone. I use a bought curriculum that I don’t follow to the letter of the word. I tweak as we go. Other homeschoolers only do online school, some only do coop classes, some use nothing at all, some peace their own curriculum together out of varies places, some use a variety of all those things including some families who’s kids take some classes at a local public school, private school or college.

            5) I don’t wear denim overalls or any overalls. My denim is a pair of jeans & the ones that fit me best right now have some wholes in the knees. I look nothing like the Duggers.

            There is a lot more misinformation out there about homeschool families but these are key ones that should be addressed.

  6. patricia
    patricia says:

    There’s a book that lays out this notion of focusing on your own interests, rather than academics and test scores, quite well: How to Be a High School Superstar by Cal Newkirk. (Love the book; hate the title.)

    Unfortunately, if you are homeschooled, I think those standardized test scores still matter. It’s one way schools are able to appraise kids by the same yardstick as schooled kids.

    Both of my two older kids were homeschooled, and chose to go to high school. (Still homeschooling my 10-year-old.) My oldest followed a path similar to what you lay out above. He started pursuing film as a young teen, and had lots of time to do it before deciding to go to high school for two years. His films and experience got him into NYU Film, for all of the reasons you state above. It’s a great place for him to be, as a young filmmaker.

    My 16-year-old daughter isn’t following this path. She chose to go to high school as a freshman. She chooses to take advanced classes and gets excellent grades. This doesn’t leave her a lot of time to cultivate her interests, and develop that “hook.” She also has a wide range of interests, and hasn’t honed in on a single one. All kids simply don’t develop a single, deep passion by the time they’re teens. As much as I’d love her to do something more like you write about, more like her brother did, it isn’t her way. Pushing her to find an interest and develop it seems as ill-considered as pushing her to get good grades and high test scores! She’s figuring out her life and what she wants each step of the way, and that’s probably the most valuable skill she can be developing at this point. She may not get into a top university, but I have full faith that she’ll find a route that will work for her.

    Many homeschoolers are really thoughtful about not pushing their kids academically, and according to traditional school standards. But I think we need to be just as careful about not having an underlying agenda that our kids will develop some creative, outside-of-the-box genius by the time they’re teenagers. It doesn’t always happen.

    • Paula
      Paula says:

      Patricia,

      I think some kids are just late bloomers. It’s terribly unfair to ask a 14-year-old to decide upon a passion and then stick with it. Some kids will do that and enjoy it immensely. Other kids are not hard-wired that way and we should teach and encourage them to have a good work ethic and follow through on commitments they make, so that when they do find what they love to do, they have the skills and habits necessary to succeed.

  7. beth
    beth says:

    I have a love / hate relationship with your blogs.

    I LOVE the topics, the writing, the links to relevant resources, etc.

    I HATE the fact that I easily get sucked into it (or its referring articles) for HOURS at a time!

  8. Paula
    Paula says:

    “They don’t care if you can get an high score on the SAT.”

    Of course, if your SAT math score is 150, your file will go immediately into the fashionable recycle bin!

    It’s important to understand that for the top schools it’s not either/or, it’s both/and. Often if a student has an exceptional skill or notable accomplishments, they will accept lower grades/test scores. However, there is a threshold most will not venture below.

    My son (who was homeschooled) attends Hillsdale College, which is a selective school. He has classmates who had perfect ACT/SAT scores and most were at the top end of the school’s scale. He was at the lower end of the school’s scale, but he had “the hook” – a well-rounded list of extra-curriculars,including athletics, politics, community service, web development,leadership and employment. He has a friend who was an IB grad and National Merit Scholar and didn’t get in (homeschooled K-10 BTW).

    The most important thing is to find out what is most important to the school. Are they into diversity? Then highlight the fact that you are a Native-American, lesbian, cross-dressing Rastafarian in your application. Are they into community service? Then make a point of documenting every volunteer hour you log from 9th grade on. Visits to the school are extremely important to get a feel for what the schools are looking for in their applicants.

    • Penelope Trunk
      Penelope Trunk says:

      I disagree.

      I got into a top English program for a PhD with a GRE score in the bottom 15%. If you have an amazing writing sample it’s obviously irrelevant if you can’t do the GRE.

      Similarly, if you have a startup that’s earning $100K a year, it doesn’t matter if you get a 150 on the math section of the SAT. You are running your own company and you are obviously not mentally retarded.

      Penelope

      • Paula
        Paula says:

        I think it just depends on the school and the type of program you are applying to. Likely there are no hard and fast rules. Again, it’s always wise to thoroughly investigate the schools you’re interested in. Here’s an interesting article from Hillsdale College about GPA’s and grad school. In their experience, it has been an issue for some of their students. They claim that some medical and dental schools have an initial screening process that knocks out low test scores and GPA’s in the first round. Maybe it’s a “science” thing? I don’t have any personal experience with it so I can’t say for sure.

        However, having gone through the experience of two kids applying to a variety of colleges and universities, we found that the larger universities have a very cookie-cutter approach to admissions. They didn’t care what my son had accomplished (unless he happened to be a star athlete, of course). They only cared that he had completed the appropriate tests to their satisfaction and that I had created a beautiful, schoolish-looking transcript that was in their native bureaucratic language. Anything less gave them the vapors. One even required me to have my own signature notarized! I found many/most of them to be completely unable to think outside the box. Smaller, private schools, on the other hand, have a much more personalized admissions process and are looking for students who are well-rounded and will be successful at their schools. They actually have the time and will make the effort to look beyond the test scores and the GPA’s.

        • redrock
          redrock says:

          the differences between large and small schools are definitely to the point: the reason for them is to a large degree sheer numbers. With 150 applications a personalized approach can be taken with 1500 not so much any more… especially since the number of administrative people to work on admissions is not scaled to the number of applicants.

      • anne
        anne says:

        Love this and so true, thank you for the reminder that the grass isn’t always greener. I love taking moments with my kids like taking a half day and going to the beach. I also enjoy teaching the kids to cook & to be good managers of their time,talents, relationships & money. Taking trips to the places your kids want to learn more about. My oldest loves marine life & is now looking into marine biology as a career & grant writing.
        I am glad you remind us to fall in love with our family, I want to always tie heart string with my children. Character training also seems to be not as important any more. However, I do feel we owe it to our children to do right by them & do our best to educate them and with the learning style that they thrive in. My daughter is like my husband very smart & is very creative. However, she may not be the best at taking tests. We all need to remember it takes all different kinds of skills/people out in this world. Homeschooling 3 kids with a toddler.

  9. Julianna
    Julianna says:

    I’ve been thru this recently and I totally disagree that schools are devaluing test scores. Not so. Things are so much more competitive now that you must have tip top test scores, then a hook, then all the usual “normal kid” extras: cheerleader, athlete, student council, afterschool job.

    If the test scores aren’t there, you dont get past round one at the top schools. The end.

    PS, I don’t like “the super successful homeschooled kid” stories I hear about that sound a lot like kid who do one thing and one thing only. A thing their parents decided on. That goes for the musician, the spelling bee champ. It all sounds very russian gymnast to me. Depressing and isolating.

    • Penelope Trunk
      Penelope Trunk says:

      I, too, bristle at the “super successful homeschooler”stories. I think they are anomalous and therefore unhelpful. (The same is true of “super successful autistic kids, by the way.)

      But I don’t think it’s a result of parents pushing a kid to do something. That level of success requires intense drive from the kid — separate from the parents. The parents have to facilitate, yes, but not drive.

      Often homeschooling comes as a result of the student’s drive; there simply is not enough time in the day to be a hyper-specialist if you have to go to school.

      Many schools make exceptions for specialists — let the kids attend sporadically if they keep their grades up, for instance. Most schools won’t.

      Penelope

      • Voyager
        Voyager says:

        I would argue that the core issue is that they don’t teach **** in schools any more.

        I’ve been through both the public schools, and homeschooling, and frankly, I spent most of my day in the public schools running out the clock.

        On a side note, most of the “super-successful” anythings you hear about are hyper specialists, simply because there is not time enough in the day to be at the absolute top of your field in more than one thing.

        Polymaths don’t tend to have the sort of global impact that specialists do.

  10. redrock
    redrock says:

    Admissions, at least at the graduate level, are indeed very program dependent. In a highly creative program like creative writing, or sculpture, you will get in on your artwork. Which should be the case since this is the focus of your graduate work. If you are applying for a program in physics you will not get in with a low GRE or whatever test you took with a low math score. One might look at the high math score to get in the same way you look at the piece of art you submit for other programs: it show you have a proficiency in the area of expertise you are going to work on.

  11. CJ
    CJ says:

    hope everyone sees this study, more great info supporting less constraining on human performance:

    http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2011.01239.x/full

    On Paretian Distribution (power curve research)

    Here’s one quote from an NPR interview:

    Aguinis said the bell curve may describe human performance in the presence of some external constraint — such as an assembly line that moved at a certain speed.

    “If you had a superstar performer working at your factory, well, that person could not do [a] better job than the assembly line would allow,” Aguinis said. “If you unconstrain the situation and allow people to perform as best as they can, you will see the emergence of a small minority of superstars who contribute a disproportionate amount of the output.”

  12. csts
    csts says:

    “So the only colleges that are really worth a student’s time and money are colleges that don’t value time spent in school. ”

    Penelope, you have a sometimes distressing tendency to see things in black and white. Life tends to be a bit more gray than that. I hope you will teach your children to deal in grays, not simply to polarize everything into extreme opposites and pick one or the other. :)

    As a Harvard College grad myself, and one who also taught at Harvard for years, I can tell you that you are grossly oversimplifying when you claim that excellence in the classroom is irrelevant to admissions committees at exclusive colleges.

    It is quite true that Harvard looks for what you call a hook, although they more typically call it an unusual passion, pursued with excellence, that will contribute to the broader Harvard community. And yes, that must be on top of ordinary academic achievements, no matter how stellar those ordinary achievements may be.

    But what makes you think this attitude requires that such committees consider regular classroom learning irrelevant? That would imply that they don’t take recommendations from teachers seriously. On the contrary. Recommendations from teachers are taken so seriously that admissions committee deadlocks are often broken by those recommendations alone. If they place such high value on recommendations by teachers, then how can they not value what takes place in a classroom?

    I think what you meant to say, had you paid attention to nuance (which I understand isn’t your thing, but which still matters!), was that traditional intellectual and behavioral conformity alone isn’t enough.

    Agreed. It shouldn’t be. Not at a place dedicated to promoting intellectual excellence. But that doesn’t make it unimportant itself.

    College comprises, among other things, four more years in a classroom. As Harvard admissions committee members routinely say, if you can’t get something out of four years in a classroom, you shouldn’t be at Harvard. Classroom learning does matter. Insufficient — but still necessary.

    That said, nothing keeps anyone from teaching homeschooled children to succeed in traditional classrooms as well, does it? There’s nothing about non-traditional learning that need prevent someone from developing skill at acquiring content and experience from almost any venue, including classrooms in good high schools and colleges.

    My son-in-law was homeschooled, right up until he attended a nationally recognized prep school for two years before going on to excel at one of those renowned colleges most students dream of. His mother did an excellent job. She fostered intellectualism, intuition, creativity and judgment along with an ability to get along with other smart people and to collaborate in a classroom enterprise.

    What’s wrong with giving homeschooled children both? Don’t sell homeschooling short — and don’t mislead providers into thinking it doesn’t matter whether their children learn traditional content and behavior as well as other things. You’d be doing them and their students an appalling disservice, disqualifying the latter from those very educational halls of excellence for which you presume they desire qualification.

    Think Yo-Yo Ma: an extraordinary individual, who brought both passion and excellence to his Harvard undergrad years and who excels as much at collaborating with others in a classroom environment as he does at bringing superb music to musicians and non-musicians alike. No one privileged to attend one of his master classes (which often admit the public as an audience — lucky me!) could ever miss his exquisite ability to foster intellectual growth even in a formal schooling environment. He’s an asset to a classroom, not a liability, even though much of what makes him who he is derives from his non-classroom experience. That’s what you want: an outsider who can still function within the box, and function well, not an outsider doomed to remain outside forever because he or she brings nothing — or worse, is hopelessly disruptive — to participants in joint learning experiences still purposely provided (and still required for academic credit) even in legendary colleges.

  13. Sunny Lam
    Sunny Lam says:

    Isn’t this a bit ironic?

    Top universities, pillars of factory education are trying to draw home schooled individuals to them.

    I suppose the advantage here for the home schooled is that they can vastly boost their network.

    Sunny Lam

    http://shinobicareercoach.com

    Author of 101 Job Search Hacks: A Cheat Sheet for Landing the Job You Want (http://shinobicareercoach.com/scc/101-job-search-hacks-cheat-sheet)

    Author of The Zen of Job Search – Get Attention! 10 Ideas That Really Work (http://amzn.to/K6j6Ny).

  14. Bill Walker
    Bill Walker says:

    top universities know what they’re doing.. they need the students that are used to driving their own projects.

  15. Victoria
    Victoria says:

    Hi Penelope,
    This essay in the NYT reminded me of your post. While I agree that top universities need self-directed forward thinking students, I also think the whole point of higher education is not to funnel young grads onto the rungs of the corporate ladder (I mean, really, do we need more “yes men” in the world?). Rather, it’s to train adults who can think for themselves and make a meaningful contribution to society. This author exposes her own checklist approach to success in mainstream education and found, in the end, that she started learning when she was forced out of her comfort zone. Here’s the link. I’d love to know what you think. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/04/education/edlife/brown-alumna-recalls-what-she-failed-to-learn.html?pagewanted=2&_r=0&smid=fb-share

  16. Doug Greco
    Doug Greco says:

    Good article BUT it is more correct to say that grades and standardized tests do matter but those are not enough for top schools. Applicants whose act scores are 34+ with gpa of 4.8+ out of 4 are dime a dozen at these top schools. You need more than numbers to distinguish yourself from other academically accomplished applicants, Unless you’re a national or regional level athlete, or a professional musician, as in the case of Conrad Tao, or made some significant contribution to humanity, you need to study and study like crazy while building up your extra curriculars, you have zero chance of getting into top universities.

  17. Robert
    Robert says:

    I was glad to see you had the guts to say what others are too afraid to touch now. Diversity is EVERYTHING in both schools and the work place. White people seriously need something to give them a boost. In the work place an older white male is out of luck. White women fair only slightly better. We have given this country away to immigrants and other minorities. WE are now the minority.
    It may be too late for us now.

  18. John English
    John English says:

    This is very interesting indeed. The issue I have is that I don’t think it is healthy to have all of this “competition” to get into colleges. The whole thing has become absurd and incredibly damaging to young (mostly) college age people in this country. Education really should not cost much, even at the college level. If we would help everyone advance and succeed, then the results in terms of our economy and general productivity would be mind boggling.
    Sadly as we know, the political forces currently in power really don’t want many people to be truly educated. They don’t want critical thinkers. That would threaten the status quo and the bottom line way to much.

  19. Mrs. Price
    Mrs. Price says:

    My friend’s son got accepted to Stanford. The interviewer said that they specifically chose him because he had been homeschooled and was an eagle scout. Her other children, went on to UC Berkley, Cal Poly and one is a Navy Seal. All five of her children are successful adults and she had homeschooled them with her only education being a dental hygienist.

  20. David Beck
    David Beck says:

    Hello. I disliked school very much…

    *I don’t have loads of time right now*

    surviving school was like fighting in a war for me. I hated it so much, it was quite a violent military related school. I would argue that surviving these awful and traumatic events did make me stronger, Though I got bad grades. Is it right to stop children suffering when that suffering may be beneficial in the long run?

    I didn’t learn that much at school, but my educational level did soar at college and university where I did achieve high grades and learn a huge amount about everything.

    I used to have a very low paid, physically painful part time job when I was at college. I worked 64 hours a week and spent another 25 playing games into the night, and that was infinitely better than school.

  21. Theresa
    Theresa says:

    Hi All,

    I am curious to know if the Top Schools expect the credited report cards from homeschooled applicants.

    Thanks!

  22. Matthew Hardy
    Matthew Hardy says:

    Hi Penelope,

    I am really enjoying your blog. I couldnt agree more with this post. My niece is home schooled, which occurred out of necessity rather than deliberate choice, but what we have discovered is something amazing. We are now able to foster my 10 year old nieces natural entrepreneurial steak. She runs her own little egg business, supplying free range eggs to a stead stream of friends and family (we own a small farm). For a 10 year old I can tell you she is making more money and getting out of the box experience that going to school would not give her. Obviously we entwine the curriculum around these interests so she will be ready to move into a vocational or high ed training path when she is old enough.

    All the best,

    Matthew H

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  3. 15 Things Overachievers Do | CfpDir.com says:

    […] same small group of schools. For all other schools, college is a ponzi scheme. Besides, today the top-tier schools are set up to favor homeschoolers over kids who go to conventional school.  And don’t even get me started on grad school: it’s so bad for your career that […]

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