In this episode, Susan Wise Bauer and Susanna Jarrett finish their discussion about college admissions for homeschoolers with two homeschool college admissions experts, Holly Ramsey and Michele Evard.

• Holly Ramsey’s Website
• Michele Evard’s Website
• Holly and Michele’s Book (Use promo code: HOMESCHOOL10 for 10% off the book and everything else College UnMazed sells)

Show Notes:

• 2:06 Holly recommends Georgia Tech’s college admissions blog for ALL families in the college admissions process, regardless of whether or not you plan to apply to Georgia Tech. Here is the referenced article about the “highschool hallway test.”
• 7:58 Holly and Susan recommend creating a practice common app account.
• 11:40 Susan mentions her son’s homeschool transcript, which is available here for your reference.
• 21:16 Susan mentions that the CollegeBoard has an article about creating a school profile. You can find it here.
• 45:05 Holly recommends the College Unmazed College Data Organizer, a free tool for comparing colleges.
• 54:50 Holly recommends using the Student Aid Index Calculator to figure out which colleges you can afford.
• 55:11 Holly also recommends Big J Educational Consulting’s chart of schools that lists average merit award and what percentage of students get award.
• 56:45 Holly lists two reputable scholarship finders that aren’t selling your data: (1) CareerOneStop Scholarship Finder sponsored by the U.S Department of Labor and (2) JLV College Counseling.
• 58:50 Susan mentions Harvard as an example of a school that may be prohibitively expensive. However, while the sticker price is $60,000+/ year, the university has a large endowment and can cover most of that through merit and need-based scholarships. Here is a link explaining.

  
  

• (00:00) - Intro with Holly Ramsey and Michele Evard (again!)
• (00:13) - Make sure you listen to part 1!
• (00:58) - Things you *can* do for college admissions
• (01:28) - Do document your home school journey
• (09:38) - Core 4 documents
• (09:48) - 1 - An official transcript
• (14:52) - 2 - Course descriptions
• (19:55) - 3 - Home school profile
• (23:16) - 4 - The counselor letter of recommendation
• (32:39) - Break
• (32:40) - The personal essay
• (38:20) - Do make a list of "good fit" schools
• (51:48) - Do consider price tags
• (01:00:46) - Do consider alternatives
• (01:11:03) - Wrapping up

In this episode, Susan Wise Bauer and Susanna Jarrett discuss what NOT to do when navigating the college admissions process as a homeschool family. They are joined by two educational consultants and college admissions experts, Holly Ramsey and Michele Evard.

Show Notes:

• Holly Ramsey’s Website
• Michele Evard’s Website
• Holly and Michele’s Book (Use promo code: HOMESCHOOL10 for 10% off the book and everything else College UnMazed sells)

Links mentioned:

• 3:42: Independent Educational Consultants Association (Holly and Michele are part of this organization, the other association they mentioned is HECA)
• 19:49 Methodology on How US News and World Report Rank Colleges
• 28:48 Holly mentions Colleges That Change Lives as an example of the many smaller schools that may be a great fit for your student.
• 29:42 Holly’s recommendations for finding right fit colleges: New York Times Build Your Own College Rankings and Georgetown Return on Investment Chart.
• 32:29 Holly recommends MEFA Student Aid Index calculator to determine what kind of aid you can get.
• 37:52 Holly recommends Loper App (the dating app for colleges)

• (00:00) - Intro with Holly Ramsey and Michele Evard
• (06:42) - What not to do while thinking about the college application process
• (07:07) - Don't worry about what your third grader is doing
• (17:44) - Break
• (18:38) - Keeping on topic
• (19:02) - Don't worry about "Ivy Leagues"
• (34:33) - Don't get emotionally invested
• (40:39) - Don't shape your curriculum to have a good looking transcript
• (48:48) - Come back next week for the "Do-s"!

In this short bonus episode, Susan Wise Bauer and Susanna Jarrett talk to one of our amazing listeners, Kim! Kim shares an important personal story and a correction to our previous statement about IQ testing.

Where to find Kim:

Blog: www.kimrankin.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HoldMyWords

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/holdmywords/