Homeschool High School: CLEP, community college, and scholarships

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CLEP exams, Community College, and Scholarships can be confusing topics when homeschooling high school. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was just one single source for information, so you could figure it all out easily?  It seems like there is conflicting information out there!

I attended your classes at the recent Homeschool Conference in Cincinnati. Just noticed your post on facebook and read the entire article (ReduceCollege Expenses with CLEP and CollegePlus! ) You mentioned your sons completed one year of college via clepping and one year via the local CC.  And, you mentioned full-tuition scholarships.  I was told at the  conference (can’t remember if it was a speaker or a homeschooling mom) that if your child attends a CC, that eliminates your opportunity/possibility for a scholarship.  This obviously isn’t true–at least, it wasn’t in your sons’ cases.  Please clarify this for me–thanks!
~Carol

Here is the big problem, Carol.  Universities are each unique companies, with their own policies.  There isn’t a single answer out there.  Each college will do it differently.  They may each decide whether or not to accept AP or CLEP tests – and decide if they will be given credit, placement, or used for outside  documentation only.  They each get to decide their policy on who gets scholarships as well – just those who demonstrate “need” or those who have superior test scores.  Those decisions are usually based on only one thing:  what will increase their ranking nationally.  What is the best business decision for their company.

Meanwhile, their crazy and widely-varied policies can drive applicants CRAZY!!   I would love to tell you that you can ALWAYS get scholarships  with CLEP or Community College – but that’s not true.  I would love to tell you that you will NEVER get homeschool scholarships, if that were true, just to help you with your planning – but that’s not true either!

If you know a college has one policy, it’s tempting to think ALL colleges have that policy.  If only that were the case!  To be honest, some colleges accept AP (some don’t.) Some accept CLEP (some don’t.) Some accept Community College (some don’t.)  And you really can’t give an answer for all colleges.  I’m sure that the speaker honestly believed that their experience would apply to all colleges – but it doesn’t.

The university that my children go to had a unique policy.  They would allow 1 year by credit (CLEP or AP) and 1-2 years of community college.  They would not allow more than two years of a combined experience, and you had  to attend that university for a full 2 years in order to receive a degree from them.  In our situation, then, our CLEP and Community College credits all acted as outside documentation that our homeschool had been effective.   They provided “data points” showing that my homeschool 4.0 was in fact accurate. It strengthened our overall college admission package, making us a better business investment for their scholarship money.

Your best plan is to check with your Number One college, and find out their policy.  If you don’t have a first choice policy yet (unlikely for younger kids, I know!) then you may want to carefully read the policy on the four colleges where your child is most likely to apply.

I wish I could really clarify the issue for you.  The truth is that you’ll just have to check with each individual university to see what policy they have.

For more information about scholarships, you might want to see my video called “Getting the BIG Scholarships” to learn about how to market your child to the colleges.  For more information about Community College, you may want to read some stories about what community college is REALLY like.  Read my blog posts on community college stores.

For More Info: Lee Binz, The HomeScholar, teaches parents about homeschool for high school. Her boys earned full-tuition scholarships at their first choice university. Her Total Transcript Solution will help you create an amazing homeschool  transcript that will impress the colleges! Learn how she did it on http://www.TheHomeScholar.com.