Your Homeschool Transcript: What Colleges Want to See
On April 3, 2024, Lisa Davis shared her presentation about developing high school transcripts for homeschooled learners with the Virginia homeschool community in the third of our ongoing Virtual Workshop series. Lisa described the nuances of transcript development, explained academic record keeping and testing options, and emphasized leaning into your own children’s stories. Lisa also answered community member questions in an open Q&A at the end of the session. The Organization of Virginia Homeschoolers provided this event at no cost to members and non-members alike.
Lisa Davis, of Fearless Homeschoolers, is a veteran homeschooler who has launched five of her own children into college. As a college admissions consultant, IECA, she has also helped hundreds of families navigate the world of college admissions. Her mission centers around focusing on individual students’ interests, strengths, and goals as they make the leap from homeschooling to college and the world beyond.
Lisa began her presentation with the idea that there is “no right or wrong” when it comes to creating your child’s high school transcript. Rather, there are choices you can make that often depend on what’s best for your child and their personal goals with regard to their college choices and long-term objectives. She shared that she often answers many questions asked of her with, “It depends!” In other words, much of what goes into creating an academic record doesn’t have a straightforward or one-size-fits-all solution; your child’s transcript may look different from others depending on what and how they learn best and the types of colleges they are applying to and hoping to attend.
Lisa recommends thinking about the transcript writing process from the perspective of a college admissions officer rather than a homeschool parent. By doing this, we can think about the questions they are asking and the story they are building as they look at your child’s transcript. College admissions officers are looking at your child’s transcript, which is a document that includes courses, grades, credits, and GPA, and making decisions about how they would fit into their unique college or university’s program. She emphasized that as homeschooling parents, we have both a great responsibility and wonderful opportunity in this process because we are guiding our children on this journey outside of a traditional school setting.
Because we are homeschoolers, college admissions officers don’t have the same insight into our unconventional learning environments as they typically do for public and private high schools. Lisa pointed out that it is up to us to develop this context by telling our students’ story through the course descriptions, school profile, and counselor letter that we create. She explains that this helps “give the back story” and build a clear picture of your child for their college application process. Lisa shared several questions that admissions officers may ask themselves and thinking about these questions can help us plan for our children’s high school experience and how to document that experience. She further explained that colleges are looking for rigor, an upward trend, and passion within the context of course schedules that include the five core academic subjects.
At the end of the workshop, Lisa answered several questions from our community, offering practical strategies and advice for planning and documenting our children’s high school experience for the college admissions process. She also welcomed our members to visit her website and blog, her template shop, which includes templates for families as well as co-ops, and to join her on Facebook, where she provides opportunities for homeschool families to discuss the college transition process.
Lisa’s Resources:
We are so thankful to everyone who joined us and we look forward to inviting our community to join in our ongoing Virtual Workshops series. If you’d like access to the recording of this workshop, you can register here. We will be announcing the next in the series soon, so keep an eye on our Virtual Workshops and your inbox for updates!
This blog was written by Sydney Miller Milbert, VaHomeschoolers Board of Director and PR Committee Member. Sydney is a homeschooling mom of two children, works part-time as a virtual Language Arts teacher, and serves on the board of NICE Circle, a Loudoun County non-profit that provides homeschooling families the opportunities for classes, clubs and service projects. In addition, she is currently pursuing a graduate degree in gifted education, with the hope and intention to provide support for gifted and neurodiverse learners and their families in the homeschool community.
Opinions expressed by individual writers in this blog do not necessarily reflect the views of the Board of Directors of The Organization of Virginia Homeschoolers, nor do they represent an official position of VaHomeschoolers. Writers’ views are their own, and