October 09, 2003

Autumn Lee entered college this semester at with the option of completing her Bachelor of Arts in journalism in two years — and she's only 18.

After completing a homeschooling program, Lee earned 61 credits at a community college and transferred them to Ithaca College.

She said she was able to advance her college career because of the flexibility of homeschooling. The main advantage of a home-schooled environment, Lee said, is that students can work at their own pace and spend time on special interests.

“I didn’t miss out on anything — missed prom, but that’s not a big deal,” Lee said. “I learned more in ninth grade at home than I did in two years at the community college.”

Lee said she does not think that the transition to college is more difficult coming from a homeschooled environment because of the focus on self-motivation.

“I seem to be more acclimated than most of the girls on my floor,” she said. “It was not hard to cross that boundary.”

The number of homeschoolers entering college has been increasing. In 2003, 0.6 percent of the students who took the ACTs were homeschooled, which is up from 0.2 percent in 1997.

Sophomore Emma Flemer, another homeschooled student, brought 24 credits with her from a junior college. She said because of her experience at the junior college she did not feel much of an adjustment coming to college.

There were many benefits of homeschooling, she said, such as the opportunity to focus on her interests and travel.

“I never heard anything that made me want to go to high school,” she said. “My mother’s largest threat was she would send us to the school.”

Freshman Christina Nielsen said the transition to college is different for home-schooled students, but it is not hard.

“It was strange to look around the cafeteria and not see any adults or kids,” she said.

“There weren’t the same distractions or exams at home. Also getting used to less sleep was hard.”

According to a 2002 report by the Home School Legal Defense Association, homeschooled students are as likely to attend college as their public and private schooled counterparts and are “academically, emotionally and socially prepared to succeed at college.”

Neilsen’s largest complaint about the transition to college was filling out applications without a traditional schooling background.

“Applications were a real pain,” she said. “We had to keep track of everything to make a transcript.”

The process may be even more difficult now for homeschooled students applying to public and community colleges in New York.

A recent letter from the New York state Education Commissioner emphasized a law that required homeschooled students from any state to take the GED to enter college. According to the Home School Legal Defense Association, one homeschooled student at Monroe Community College in Rochester, N.Y., was told, in his senior year at college, that his admission had been revoked because he had not taken the GRE.

Homeschooled students have consistently tested higher on standardized tests than their traditionally schooled peers. In 2003, the mean score for homeschooled students on the ACT was 1.7 points higher than the overall average score.