We have just started homeschooling this past year - and I’ve wondered too about college. I hear that more and more colleges are accepting homeschooled students but how is the process different for kids that are homeschooled?
You can enroll in an umbrella school and be awarded a regular HS diploma. Or you can do it on your own and just keep records of all classes taught during HS and submit that to the collge. Another route some take is the GED.
Here's how it worked for us (a lot of homeschooled families in our area are doing the same.) We homeschooled up until my son was finished with 9th grade. Our local school board offers a program called "dual enrollment." The student must past a test (college entrance exam) and then is allowed to enroll in college classes (any state college, community or university) and the tuition is free. The credits count toward high school and college at the same time. So my son went full time to college during high school. When we reached the end of what would have been his senior year of high school, he had 78 credits and had earned his AA, plus I put those classes in transcript form, signed an affadavit and submitted it to the college, as proof of HS, so he was also awarded a HS diploma. He then went on the University as a transfer student.
No one we know, who used this method had any problem getting admitted as a transfer student to another college. Among my son's friends, some were admitted to out of state colleges (GaTech, VaTech,) some were admitted to state Universities or other private institutions in state.
Most of the larger colleges now have a specialist in their admissions office that can answer all your questions about homeschoolers and admission to their college.