Posted on 12/30/2012 7:00:25 PM PST by King_Corey
It's not that top universities are telling people directly to homeschool their kids. Instead, top schools are using a selection process that gives homeschooled kids a huge advantage. 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 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 an 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 students 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 schoosl are driven by creativity. For example, 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 homechooling that I have found
My daughter wants to be an elementary school teacher. At age 18, she would make a fine teacher, or student teacher, right now. But she needs a BA or MA to teach. Hence the need to take courses explaining that rats don't like to be electrocuted.
She was accepted at the local state college. Tuition: $7000. Academic scholarship: $1000. She'll be commuting from home and working weekends to pay the remainder.
Would I prefer a Catholic college? Yes. Can we afford it? No. And with Great Depression II coming, there's no way she's going to leave college with debt.
Meanwhile, with 12 years of homeschooling, she's prepared to do battle with the professors, if necessary. I told her to take an F if she has to.
One of the dirty little secrets of homeschooling ;-)
The fact is, God intended children to be raised by their parents. Kids WANT to be with their parents. When they feel secure, they don't act neurotically. They're a joy to spend time with.
Not all public schools are Liberal Indoctrination Centers...not all homeschooling is utopia...but you don't want to hear that!
All the wonderful kids you describe after turning the TV and video games off, are the loud, obnoxious and turned loose on the public in Shopping Centers when other kids are in Indoctrination Centers.
That is my exposure to homeschooled kids...they don't know how to behave in public any more than public school kids.
I think we have a parenting problem. Too many parents think they're undisciplined, obnoxious darlings are perfect!
I feel sorry for kids.
“Colleges have learned that homeschoolers are more likely to have psychologically healthy living habits and are less of a drain on school personnel. “
Colleges want students that pay full boat tuition.
They want a certain amount of baggage - so that they can justify staffing psychologists and other bureaucracies within bureaucracies.
there are other demographics that are more important than anything else: Do you have an intact nuclear family? Did your parents go to college? Do your parents have the money to send you to college? Did you take rigorous academic courses - including post Algebra and advanced sciences?
Homeschooling self-selects for some of these traits, but by no means claims exclusivity for them.
Self-selecting statistics makes some folks (like you) claim that the mere act of homeschooling makes an individual kid smarter. It does not.
I wholeheartedly support homeschooling. Not just for smart kids that will do well in *any* academic environment, but especially for average kids who may get lost in the mix with a much larger demographic pool.
But it’s important to underscore that homeschooling, in and of itself, does not mean an individual kid is going to do better in a college or university environment. If you claim this, and you usually do, then you do not understand the difference between an individual and a statistical pool of kids.
In one sentence you nailed the problem
Nicely done
Can you provide hard numbers or evidence?
Thank you for my morning chuckle!
oh you.... :)
Another amazing thing that people here do is lump things under one umbrella.
Not all public schools are Liberal Indoctrination Centers...not all homeschooling is utopia...
True. But, under the current system of public education I don’t have any say in the education of my children. I do not have any voice concerning the curriculum, the other children that my children are forced to associate with, or even the teacher(s) that are assigned to teach my children. But I am required to pay property taxes to support the system.
For me, the main issue is having the FREEDOM to choose the path that I want to provide for my children. Sure, there is a lot of bad parenting out there. And many people might object to the choices that I personally make in raising and educating my children. But does that mean that I shouldn’t have the fundamental right to use my funds the best way that I see fit to raise my own children?
So the women the author is talking about is the average woman looking for liberal arts degrees at top schools. Interesting to know that homeschooling makes an average woman stand out in a crowd.
Harvard has an agenda, and their agenda isn’t to take the best and the brightest. :)
What evidence do you that supports this, or is this just the opinion of someone, either yourself or an acquaintance?
I am a homeschool mom of four. I have been well connected in my hs communty and one would look out my back window and see another 8 to 14 hs kids playng on any given day. I was involved wth a number of hs groups for at least 15 years and also went to local conferences and held workshops and lectures in my specialty,at local and regional conferences.
I know what I am talking about.
The people who see hs kids requesting college admissions is also seeing a small selected group.
I am a homeschool mom of four. I have been well connected in my hs communty and one would look out my back window and see another 8 to 14 hs kids playng on any given day. I was involved wth a number of hs groups for at least 15 years and also went to local conferences and held workshops and lectures in my specialty,at local and regional conferences.
I know what I am talking about.
The people who see hs kids requesting college admissions are also seeing a small selected group.
Having just gone through the process with one son in applying, getting into some top universities, and getting ready to start the process over with the next son, I can say without equivocation that this article is baloney.
Louie, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship! See my Freepmail.
“See my Freepmail.”
Are you saying you sent one? I haven’t seen it.
just sent it, sorry if it is long.
This is true for the vast majority, but there is a small fraction of parents that don't want to be with their own kids. And these kids will latch on to the nearest adult that shows them any kind of personal interest. Good or bad, This is why we see such a prevalence of gangs in inner cities. They become surrogate families.
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