In This Issue

Homeschool students lack easy access to college guidance counseling, compared to their traditional school peers, and, to some extent, many of these students and their parents look at traditional education-even that found on the college campuses of most of our membership-with some skepticism. College admission officers often mirror this skepticism, even until recently, as the success of homeschoolers, upon their campus arrival, is proving that they are capable students.

Yet, these students face challenges in negotiating the college admission process. Unlike some of their traditional school contemporaries, they aren't lost in the crowd of students served by a small team. Instead, they often go through the admission process without access to any professional guidance. Bridging the gap between homeschool and college entrance may prove difficult to a student with no knowledge of admission standards or procedures (having to do with gathering recommendations, mailing transcripts, following deadlines, and taking advantage of scholarship opportunities).

To add to this stress, homeschool students still have to break through barriers that some colleges and universities fence around admission. Too often the students are stereotyped, both positively (as supersmart, self-disciplined prodigies) and negatively (as severely introverted, socially inept and awkward creatures), and these false impressions often suppress opportunity.

This fall issue of the Journal of College Admission focuses on these concerns and others related to this small, yet significant group of students.

Gary Mason opens the Journal, sharing his experiences both working with and recruiting homeschoolers. He advises admission officers to help students in the same ways a high school counselor would. This process advantages both parties-students learn the in's and out's of admission, while admission officers present their institutions as trustworthy to a potential recruit.

Next, in the cover story, "Homeschoolers on to College: What Research Shows Us," Dr. Brian Ray researches and describes characteristics of homeschoolers, such as age, how long they were home-schooled, how many books they have read, how many of them voted in the last election, etc., and how college and universities typically perceive this portion of the student population.

Drs. Paul Jones and Gene Gloeckner continue to share specific homeschool research-including statistics on the documents required for admission consideration, the number of homeschool applications received per year, the expected level of students' social coping, and other fascinating data-in the second feature, "A Study of Admission Officers' Perceptions of and Attitudes Toward Homeschool Students."

In the third feature, "Unintended Admission Consequences of Federal Aid for Homeschoolers," Scan Galloway follows the legal history of higher-education federal aid policies to the present and asks readers to reflect on why the college transition is still overly difficult for homeschoolers.

Regardless of rumors and statistics, the homeschool population needs and deserves the help of colleges and universities. These students, though learning outside the mainstream education system, should be treated in the same way as their traditionally-schooled equals. After all, according to statistics, this segment of learners is just as likely to succeed. We hope that this issue will assist you, the decision-makers, in researching this unique population of future college graduates.

Sarah E. Smith

Journal Editor

Palmer Muntz

Editorial Board

Copyright National Association of College Admissions Counselors Fall 2004
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