College Planning and the Virtual School Student

All of the college decisions have arrived (finally), and I’m ready to share some of our tips from the college planning season. It has been a busy and successful season for our eldest son, who has been a full-time virtual school student since kindergarten.  

I’m not ready to share his college plans for fall 2021 yet, so stay tuned. Once he makes a final choice, I’ll share in more detail how we walked through this decision time together.

If you are a homeschool or virtual school parent, it is important to look ahead and begin planning for college before high school begins. I want to share some of the things we considered, what worked, and what we would have done differently if we had it to do again.

Saving for College- Start Early and Aim High

I was incredibly shocked to see how expensive college is today. Both my husband and I attended UCLA and graduated in 1999. The tuition has nearly tripled in the last 22 years.This increase in cost has well outpaced the rate of inflation..

At some private universities, the annual cost of room, board, tuition, and books can be $75,000. Yikes!

College is expensive, and preparation is essential. There are many ways to save for college, and while I won’t go into all the details here, I’ll share a link from Dave Ramsey on his college savings article

If tuition tripled in the 20 years between my college graduation and now, then what will it be when my grandchildren are ready to enter? I don’t know if this upward trend will continue, but my advice is to start saving now if you have young children. Avail yourself of the tax-advantaged ways of saving, and consider avenues that will allow for growth over the years.  

Post High School Options

There many options available for higher education. While a four-year BA or BS might be a standard path, other educational approaches might be more affordable or suit your child better.

Here are a few ideas:

• Community College
• Vocational Training
• Military
• Public university (in-state or out-of-state)
• Private university (religious or secular)
• Educational “boot camps”- there are some that teach specific skills like coding
• Online certificate programs through Coursera or other apps
• Start a business
• Begin working

We weren’t sure which option would suit our kids best, so we decided to prepare for the most challenging path. This would allow the boys to choose a different option if it suited them better.

At the end of middle school, we decided to pursue an educational path at their high school, leading to a 4-year in-state university. If they chose to start at a community college, that would be fine. But, it was hard to know what would work for them when we were starting high school. Part of the uncertainty was because we were doing such a non-traditional education plan with the virtual school. We didn’t know- and quite honestly still don’t know- how the transition to in-person learning will go.

Curriculum Choices Matter: A-G Compliance

To pursue a standard admission path to a University of California or a California State University, my sons needed to take the correct number of classes that had the appropriate level of rigor. In California, this is called the A-G requirement. 

The UCs offer some guidelines for traditionally homeschooled students along with some ideas for integrating the homeschooling experience into the Personal Insight Questions.

The CSUs also use the A-G requirements to factor in admissions and limit enrollment with a few other categories. Some campuses and majors are impacted. To better serve the students, admission to these campuses and majors is limited. Additionally, each CSU has a local area and will give priority to students from local high schools. Here is more information about CSU admissions.

From the beginning of high school, we worked with the high school counselor to ensure that the courses were aligned with the A-G requirements.

If you are not in California, it is important to look at your in-state colleges and see the requirements. You could also look at some of the preferred private colleges and make sure that the appropriate classes are taken to be considered for admission.

A Note on Sports:

If you have a child who would like to play sports in college at the NCAA level, it is essential to choose a curriculum that is NCAA approved. The k12 curriculum is not NCAA approved as of this writing. This link offers more information on that particular detail.  

Rigor- Which Level to Take?

This is a difficult question to answer, especially since every student is different. If your child aims for an elite or highly selective university, I would recommend taking the most challenging course option available at your high school. 

Course difficulty and class rank will factor into components of the college application that you will not see. This school report, typically filled out by the counselor, details the number of advanced classes available at your child’s high school, how many students there are in the class, and how your child compares. I found an excellent article that talks about the school report. 

Our high school offers several different levels of courses for the students. There is one level for standard college prep, honors, and AP. My sons have taken a mix of each level. I generally advised them to take honors classes in the subjects that they enjoyed.  

This is the first year I have a son taking AP classes. These courses are significantly more difficult than the Honors level and require a lot more work. 

The honors and AP level courses offer the students an extra grade point for each term. This means that an A in an honors course is worth 5.0 points. This can help give the students a boost in their GPA.  

When we talked to our high school counselor about what level of classes to take, she strongly recommended taking the most advanced courses possible, especially for my senior. This will look better on the transcript and the school report in the Common App. 

To be competitive in a large state like California, I highly recommend taking the most challenging classes possible. The UCs and CSUs were highly selective, especially in a year without standardized testing. The number of applications to the UC system in 2020 set records. 

Middle School: Think About an Intended Major

I recommend having conversations with your child about an intended major beginning in middle school. While this may change, it will help guide the course selection and pacing for high school.

I think one of the biggest misses was not having this conversation earlier. The math curriculum shifted in our school, and Algebra was not a standard offering in 8th grade. Because of that shift, my son didn’t take Calculus in high school.

Many elite colleges are looking for students who have already completed the first year in calculus, especially for a STEM major. If I had it to do over again, I would have had Ken take a math class over the summer at a community college to take calculus in high school. 

During High School: Keep Track of Extra-Curricular Activities and Work

It was tough to remember when Ken did certain activities. Did he do orchestra his freshman year, or was that baseball? I ended up needing to search through my credit card receipts and emails to figure it out.

Begin a document in the summer before your child’s freshman year and put all the non-school activities on that. Note any critical achievements. Also, keep track of the estimated hours per week that the student spends on the activities.

I also highly recommend seeking out leadership and community service opportunities. These are things that students can do before they are 16 and able to work.  

This could be a collaborative document between you and your child so that you can both add to it.  

When it comes time to fill out the college applications, you will thank me!

Target Colleges Before Senior Year

We embarked on an intensive college planning session in the spring of Ken’s junior year. This was a little late, but in the fall of his junior year, I was in cancer treatment. We had him think about majors and then search for colleges that would be a good fit. Since we didn’t know where his educational experience would match up, we decided to cast a pretty wide net.  

By the end of Junior year, we had a list of colleges to apply for that offered the types of majors he was looking for.

Our list had a mix of CSU, UC, Private, and out-of-state universities. One of the things that I didn’t consider was the impact of the local area (pdf link) on CSU admissions. I highly recommend including a CSU in your area on the list, even if it isn’t a top choice.  

Write Essays Early- Summer Between Junior and Senior Year

I recommend working on the UC personal insight essays and Common App essays in the summer between Junior and senior year. Taking the time to write these essays during the break will make application season easier. This is especially important if your child is taking a heavy academic load in the fall.

I hope that these tips can help you plan for college as a virtual school parent. I look forward to sharing some more of the lessons we have learned this year in future posts. If you have any questions or tips, please consider sharing them down below in the comments.