Top universities want you to homeschool

PenelopeTrunk.com ^ | April 27th, 2012 | Penelope Trunk

[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

[JCBreckenridge]

you responded to me hun, not the other way around. Interest show you must now, no?

[SoftballMominVA]

Oh sure, like the time you told the mods to tell me to stop freepmailing you, then you proceeded to freepmail me several times?

Yeah, I get it

So, apparently your MO is that when you can’t answer questions, you refuse to answer them.

For someone who SAYS and has said MANY times that you are a doctor in the most competitive field out there, you’ve done this to several people, even in this thread.

Sorry, I’m not impressed.

I’d suggest you get that cut and paste statement cranked up. You are going to need it.

[wintertime]

I respectfully request that you not ping me or send private mail to me. Please feel free to comment as you like on my posts or threads, even using my name, but, please, no contact.

Politely and respectfully,

wintertime

[Hope for the Republic]

The want students who are “low maintenance” and without a lot of drama in their lives. Colleges have learned that homeschoolers are more likely to have psychologically healthy living habits and are less of a drain on school personnel.

I respectfully request that you answer the question. My time in the military leading me into combat taught me that I need to know the source of information before I trust its validity. You have attempted to assert something as fact that is (to me )of questionable scholarship.

Metmom do you know wintertime's source of this claim? Can you confirm or deny its validity?

[wintertime]

I respectfully request that you not ping me or send private mail to me. Please feel free to comment as you like on my posts or threads, even using my name, but, please, no contact.

Politely and respectfully,

wintertime