College Search for Homeschool High Schoolers, Interview with Ann Karako

A Production of the Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

This week on the Homeschool Highschool Podcast: College Search for Homeschool High Schoolers, Interview with Ann Karako.

College Search for Homeschool High Schoolers, Interview with Ann Karako

College Search for Homeschool High Schoolers, Interview with Ann Karako

Our good buddy, Ann Karako, joins Vicki for a fun discussion about the most stressful thing for many homeschool high school juniors and seniors: The college search!

What if you are a mom with a homeschool junior? Ann has some advice for her!

Juniors need to start looking at colleges. Here’s Ann’s suggestion for taking the weight off your shoulders:

We homeschool moms sometimes get the “keeping up with the Joneses” pressure for getting our homeschool graduates into a top-tier college. We feel like if we don’t, we have somehow failed our teens, our families and the entire homeschool movement!

But here’s the truth: Your homeschool high school DOES NOT need to go to a high-powered college to find success in life! We don’t need to carry that top-tier college burden around with us! What is important is this fact:

I’m not trying to fit my kid to a college. I’m trying to find a college that fits my kid!

Our teens have wrinkles! They have personalities. They aren’t perfect. Why set our teens up for college stress by sending them to a college that will be more competitive than they need?

Instead, find a college that has students with whom they CAN compete AND enjoy the process without getting ulcers for which they would need over the counter metronidazole for from the stress.

I'm not trying to fit my kid to a college. I'm trying to find a college that fits my kid!

How can you find a college for “average college-bound” teens? How can you find a college that thinks YOUR homeschool high schooler looks good- even with their foibles?

Check college websites. Look at:

  • The test scores of incoming freshmen
  • The courses that incoming freshmen took in high school

The college that thinks your teen looks good is more likely to cough up some money for them, btw. What is more important, it is the college where your homeschool graduate will feel most contented.

Another tip from Ann: Find out when the application dates are for schools of interest. Some schools have rolling admissions and will start reviewing applications in June of junior year. Most colleges, though, take applications sometime in the fall through early winter. SO start that college search during junior year so you and your homeschool high schooler have less time-crunch.

How can you handle college tours?

Ann and her homeschool seniors do not do any college tours until they receive acceptance letters. They have found it a waste of time and money to travel to campuses that would not admit her teens. Once the letters are in, THEN they go on some visits.

Instead:

  • Do virtual tours on the college’s website
  • Do google satellite searches for the campus
  • Read online opinions from students and graduates

(Of course, the college tours have not happened IRL during COVID, anyway. All the tours have been virtual.)

Remember, there’s not ONE right way to do college tours!

Choose colleges that have the major or program for what your teen wants to study

Junior year is a good time to work on choosing the college major or program that your homeschool high schooler will want to study. Ann has found that it is difficult to do serious college searching if her teens do not know what they are going to college to train for. (Check out this HSHSP episode on choosing college majors.)

Another tip from Ann: If your homeschool high schooler is not settled on a college major, do some career exploration now! College is a lot of money to spend on an undetermined major!

Choose colleges that have the extracurriculars that are important to your teen

One of Ann’s homeschool high schoolers wanted to play softball in college. There were several colleges that she liked that had her major, but only one had a softball program available to her. Ann’s daughter chose the college with the softball program because that would make college fun and meaningful while she worked on her major!

Remember, there’s not ONE right-fit college for your teen

Another tip from Ann: There are SO many colleges out there. There are lots of colleges where your homeschool high schooler will grow, learn, succeed and enjoy their education!

Another tip from Ann: It’s all about attitude! Tell teens it is there job to go to college and make the most out of their experience. Learn as much as they can while they are there. Choose to make it a good experience!

Remember: It’s not that hard to get into college

Just look for the one that fits your kid! (Vicki remember that in the eighteen years she served as a homeschool advisor, she found that ALL the homeschool graduates who wanted to go to college went to college.)

Join Vicki and Ann for a lively discussion! For more on the college search, check out this post.

Want more wisdom from Ann Karako? Check her work out at:

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College Search for Homeschool High Schoolers, Interview with Ann Karako

Homeschooling High School for Real People, Interview with Ann Karako

A Production of the Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: Homeschooling High School for Real People.

Homeschooling High School for Real People, Interview with Ann Karako

Homeschooling High School for Real People

Many of our friends know our friend, Ann Karako, from her popular website: Annie and Everything and from her wildly popular Facebook group: It’s Not That Hard to Homeschool High School. We are so excited to chat with Ann today about one of our favorite topics: Homeschooling high school when you are just ordinary folks!

Ann has a high school senior this year! The last of her five kids who have graduated from homeschool high school. We agree with Ann that the high school years are the best years of all!

Ann’s mission is to encourage REAL families enjoy and have success homeschooling high school (and you don’t need a magic formula to do it.) Real people are simply average people…which is what most of us are! (In fact, we talk about how to be a mom of a just-average teen in an earlier episode.)

Ann gets frustrated with all the SHOULDs that some people and publishers foist on new homeschooling families. You SHOULD do this and use this curriculum. They seem to promise that if you do “A, B, and C” your teen will graduate with a full-ride scholarship to some Ivy League college.

The problem is, that most teens do not get full-ride scholarships to Ivy League colleges, no matter what they do or what curriculum they use. Usually the teens that do get those fancy scholarships were super smart to start with. Most teens are smart, but in their own way- not Ivy League smart. The result is that teens and parents can find themselves feeling guilty or like failures because their teen graduated but not as spectacularly as those FEW future Ivy Leaguers.

So, for those of us who are ordinary folks, here are Ann’s tips for homeschooling high school for REAL people

Ann’s teens have been real teens. They sometimes:

  • Argued with her
  • Did not earn great grades
  • Had stress

They have been real teens, but they have (along with Ann) loved the homeschool high school years. That is because Ann worked at matching curriculum, causes and activities to her teens’ needs with the goal that everyone ENJOYS the high school years.

You can homeschool high school confidently, competently, contentedly. -Ann Karako

Ann feels like anyone can homeschool high school:

  • Confidently
  • Competently
  • Contentedly

Confidently homeschooling high school

  • You can be confident when you researched your state laws for homeschooling high school
  • You can be confident when you research the requirements that they will need in order to do what they aim for after high school (college, vocation, etc)

Competently homeschooling high school

  • Find the resources that will fit your teens’ needs (that is what Facebook groups are for, like It’s Not That Hard to Homeschool High School or 7SistersHomeschool). Join the group, describe your teen and get some feedback from other homeschool moms
  • Read blogs on how to grade papers and tests and create syllabi

Contentedly homeschooling high school

  • Beware of “keeping up with the homeschool Joneses”. They are not you and your family!
  • Lean into the way God made your teens: enjoy their uniqueness, their interests, skills, abilities and goals.
  • Remember your own needs and wants.
  • Tailor the family’s educational experiences to meet the families needs: and enjoy it!
  • Have time to simply talk to your teens and enjoy the high school years.
  • Discuss your teens educational and life goals and help them achieve them.

Want encouraging how-to homeschool high school resources from Ann Karako? Check out her books: Save Your Sanity While Homeschooling High School and Homeschool High School Planning Book.

Also check out Ann Karako’s podcast: It’s Not That Hard to Homeschool High School!

You will also be blessed by our other interviews with our friend, Ann:

Join Vicki and Ann for an episode full of encouragement!

PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO HSHSP VIA COMPUTER

  1. Follow this link to our Apple Podcasts page.
  2. OR take this IMPORTANT STEP: Under our Homeschool Highschool Podcast logo, click on View in “…your favorite podcast source”
  3. This will take you to Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast source and our own podcast page.
  4. Click SUBSCRIBE.
  5. Click RATINGS AND REVIEW. (Please take a minute and do this. It helps others find us. Thanks!)
  6. Thanks!

OR PLEASE SUBSCRIBE VIA iPHONE

  1. Tap the purple Podcast icon on your phone
  2. Tap the search icon on the bottom-right of your screen
  3. In the search bar type: Homeschool Highschool Podcast
  4. Tap the Homeschool Highschool Podcast icon
  5. Tap *Subscribe*
  6. Please tap *Ratings and Review*

Homeschooling High School for Real People