“Thank you for your expeditious response. We are looking forward to another bright and fulfilling school year at Bridgeway Academy. Once, again thank you for all your expertise and assistance.”
God Bless,
Lisa, Bridgeway Parent
Will Your Homeschool Graduate Receive a College Scholarship?
There is huge debate in homeschool circles about the importance of maintaining records and grades for each student. See the whole article at http://www.homeschoolacademy.com/resources/transcripts/.
Rather than simply tell you my opinion, I want to tell you a story . . .
Joel was a homeschool student since kindergarten. He was an exceptional student with a passion for learning, an incredible ability to reason, and a real gift for writing. His parents had attended a homeschool convention when he was still in middle school and learned that grades are not important. In fact, they could simply choose to use a pass/fail system for his transcript. That sounded so much easier than maintaining grades for their many children! So they decided to homeschool without worrying about grades.
They had no idea that grades would be significant when it came to scholarship funding!
When Joel graduated, he took the SATs and scored above the 97th percentile in English and 96th in Math. The college and universities were excited about enrolling him! In fact, they were willing to offer scholarship funding in order to spark his interest in their institution.
But they had one problem . . .
Without a GPA, they were limited in the scholarship amount that they could offer.
And without grades, it was impossible to provide a GPA.
Did his lack of grades affect his ability to get into college? No! But, it was a huge factor in the cost that he would incur when he did attend.
I spoke with Joel’s mom shortly after she heard the news to try to help her come up with a solution. And do you know what she said?
“I wish I would have known how important grades {and a transcript} would be when it came to scholarships.”
Joel is not the only homeschooler who has faced this difficulty. I have worked with many families in similar situations-some of whom have heard my exhortations about the importance of careful record keeping and chosen to ignore it.
I don’t want you to find yourself in the same situation. Please put the time and energy into accurate records today to impact your child’s tomorrow.
If you need help with record keeping, consider enrolling your high school student in a home school academy like http://www.bridgewayacademy.com/.
Because your child’s future (and your financial future) may depend on it!
Jessica L. Parnell is a homeschool consultant and evaluator as well as the principal of Bridgeway Homeschool Academy, a fully accredited international homeschool academy that has been serving the homeschool community since 1989.
