When my daughter was considering her future plans after graduating from her homeschooling studies, we faced several challenges on our journey to post-secondary education. Here are a few suggestions that may be helpful for you and your family.
- Engage your spouse in homeschooling events and ask the homeschooling community for help to involve your reluctant partner! Your partner’s active support has value beyond making homeschooling easier.
During the eight years of homeschooling, I encouraged my husband to meet other homeschooling parents, particularly men working outside the home with stay-at-home wives who homeschooled. I bought books for him to read so he would understand how a husband could support his wife’s homeschooling efforts and that homeschooling graduates went on to post-secondary studies. But my efforts were to no avail. He could not be convinced that the quality of home education could compare to public school.
- Attend post-secondary info fairs where universities send their representatives to recruit potential students. Being informed about various programs and university environments and meeting admissions advisors makes it easier to navigate the application process and ask for help should it be needed. Let the recruiting staff know that you have been homeschooled even if you have graduated from a regular high school program so they know that there are homeschoolers among the potential students.
When my daughter selected UBCO to apply to their fine arts program, the automated online application process required her to choose from a list of high schools and academies. Our school was not on the list. Without putting a checkmark next to the school, she could not continue to fill out the application. That year we attended several post-secondary info fairs and met one of the student recruiter/advisors more than once. My daughter introduced herself as a homeschooling student and asked questions about the application process, the fine arts program, housing options, social life, etc.
This recruiter had never met any homeschooler other than my daughter at the many info fairs that she attended. I know, I know. How was this possible? The best possible explanation for this singularity that I can think of is that almost all Canadian homeschoolers applying to post-secondary schools at that time found it easier to either take aligned online courses or attend a brick-and-mortar high school. This meant that the recruiter/advisor might have met many students who were homeschooled for ten or eleven years but who switched for the last year or two of high school to regular studies to get a high school diploma and follow the standard application process.
When my daughter contacted her for advice on how to proceed, the advisor remembered her and made a few inquiries. Within a week or so, everything was sorted out, and my daughter was able to complete the online application.
- Be aware of what the school board can and should do and who in the administration knows what needs to be done.
To accompany the application, my daughter needed to provide an official transcript showing the school board’s seal to certify that the transcript documents and the grades were bona fide. Without a duly stamped transcript, her application would not be accepted. At the time our counselor was away from her job. The secretary was adamant that the school board had never before issued such a document. After a week of wrangling with the secretary, our advisor came back to work for a couple of days, certified the transcript, and the last step of the application process was done. Mission accomplished!
- Select the best for your portfolio and follow the school’s guidelines when assembling it. Present your best work in the most favourable presentation style.
My daughter loved the next challenge: putting together a portfolio of art pieces to submit to the fine arts department for evaluation. Compared to other schools, the rules were very flexible in terms of sizes, mediums, and subjects, but creativity and variety were very much encouraged. She submitted about twenty pieces – carefully selected photographs, mostly in colour, but also a few black and white ones, watercolours, an oil pastel, an acrylic, and pencil drawings. The variety of subjects covered portraits, abstracts, landscapes, flowers, still life, food, and animals.
Several months before graduation, my daughter took an art class with an instructor who happened to be a former portfolio evaluator. The instructor provided suggestions on the final piece selection and guidance on the proper labeling of each artwork. My daughter did not have the equipment or the expertise to submit the portfolio online so she had to hand deliver it. She wrapped the group of artwork carefully, loaded them on the bus, and presented them in person.
My daughter was accepted into the fine arts program and offered a generous scholarship. My husband was amazed at the acceptance and almost speechless on hearing of the substantial scholarship amount.
In retrospect, it would have been better not to rush the last two years of high school. The extra year would have added to my daughter’s maturity and given her more time to consider other potential career paths. It would also have been beneficial to defer (if it had been possible) the university acceptance, take a gap year to gain work experience, save some money, and have more time to think about plans for the future.
*After completing a year at UBC – Okanagan (UBCO) at Kelowna, my daughter transferred to and graduated from an online fine arts program offered by the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. She then went on to receive a Master of Arts in Communications with a major in Public Relations from Southern New Hampshire University.
Written by Barboria Bjarne
Barboria Bjarne is a freelance writer and artist. She has written, illustrated, and self-published two children’s books: Quanny and Danny (rhyme) and Grayson and the Crumbly, Grumbly, Rumbly Cookie (prose).
Before she had started writing essays and children’s books, Barboria has had many roles: professional tennis player and tennis pro, accountant, homeschooling mom, medical researcher, raw food nutritionist, and tutor. But now she’s engaged in her two favorite endeavors – fine arts and writing for children and adults.
Barboria Bjarne lives with her family close to the Rockies, growing lavender on her urban homestead when not writing or painting. Visit her at www.bbjarnebooks.com.
"Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6).