With an estimate of between 1.1 million and 2 million home-schooled students in the United States, college officials now realize that catering to these students is in their best interest, said Barmak Nissirian, associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.
AU has measures in effect to facilitate applications from home-schooled high school students, according to the AU Admissions Web site.
Because they are unable to provide a standard high school transcript, home-schooled students are asked to provide a letter of recommendation from their primary instructor and a letter of recommendation from someone besides a parent.
Home-schooled students are also required to submit scores from three SAT II tests, one of which must be a math exam, according to the AU Admissions Web site.
Amelia Saletan, a senior in the School of International Service, was formerly home-schooled. She said the requirements to apply to AU were standard, but some universities employed more creative tactics to evaluate home-schooled students.
"One school had me send a list of every book I'd ever read in high school," Saletan said. "I guess they had to take a closer look at me since my application was different than most."
According to a 1993 study by the Department of Education, the top three reasons parents home-schooled their children were "better education at home," "religious reasons" and "poor learning environment in school."
Saletan said her parents' reason for home-schooling her was a combination of the first and third reasons. Saletan attended a kindergarten that had small classes that she and her parents both enjoyed.
"My parents tried to find a school like that in the city [of Austin, Texas], and they couldn't, so they decided to try home-schooling," she said.
An August 2005 Gallup Poll found that 51 percent of respondents were not satisfied with what they perceived to be the quality of education nationwide for kindergarten through 12th grade students.
However, in the same 2005 poll, 79 percent of parents reported they were satisfied with the education their oldest child was receiving in school.
With colleges' and universities' growing acceptance of home-schooled students, the general public has also become more accepting. According to a 2001 Gallup Poll of over 1,000 adults, 41 percent said they believe the home-school movement is a good thing for the nation. This percentage is up from 16 percent in 1985, 28 percent in 1988 and 36 percent in 1997.
According to the Associated Press, some college officials such as Regina Morin, admissions director of Columbia College, said that home-schooling prepares students well for higher education, because many are intellectually curious and have cultivated critical thinking skills and independent study habits.
