Home-schooled Students

We recognize that your experience as a home-schooled student will be somewhat different from students in traditional schools. We'll look at your academic record and nonacademic interests and commitments within the context of your particular home-school curriculum and experience.

We understand that for many home-schooled students there is not as clear a distinction between academic and nonacademic activities as there might be for students in a traditional high school. The more you can document for us and describe what you have done during your high school years, academically and otherwise, the better. Feel free to go beyond the questions on our application forms if they don't cover everything you think is important for us to know. There may also be questions that simply don't apply in the case of a home-schooled student (for instance, our question about class rank on the School Report). You and others completing forms on your behalf may leave those questions blank.

Below are some tips addressing aspects of the application process that may be somewhat different for home-schooled students. Before you begin preparing your application, we encourage you to review our application checklist, standardized testing policy and financial aid program. If after reading these pages you have additional questions, we encourage you to contact our office. If you are a home-schooled student living outside the United States, please also see our information for international applicants.

Graded Written Paper

The graded written paper can be graded and commented upon by whomever your teacher is in your course (including your parent). Please refer to general requirements for the graded written paper.

References
It's most helpful if your teacher and counselor references come from three different adults who can comment on your intellectual curiosity, academic preparation and promise, and extracurricular involvement. Some home-schooled applicants ask a parent to complete the School Report, and they ask others who have known them in an academic context to complete the teacher references. If you have taken any high school or college courses, or had a teacher other than a parent in a particular subject, we encourage you to ask those professors or teachers to write your teacher references.

Academic Preparation and Transcript
In general, we look for students who have challenged themselves with rigorous study in a range of academic areas during their high school years, but the exact course of study varies among our successful applicants.

Please provide us with detailed information about the academic program you have pursued. If you aren't able to provide a traditional transcript of course grades, include an outline of your high school curriculum. Many home-schooled students also send us a reading list. If you have taken any courses at a school, college, online or by correspondence, please be sure to have official transcripts sent to the Undergraduate Admission Office. Learn more about what to do before you apply.

SAT and ACT

For updates on the SAT and ACT, please review our standardized testing policy.