Application information for home school students

Lewis & Clark College welcomes applications from students who have been home schooled for some or all of their education.  We consider you a home school student if the majority of your high school career has taken place outside of a traditional academic setting, or if your high school career will conclude outside of a traditional academic setting.  If you are uncertain whether or not you are a home school applicant, or if you feel the home school application process does not adequately represent your academic experience, please contact our office to discuss your background with an admissions counselor.  We fully recognize that home schooling experiences vary tremendously; therefore, we will work with home school students on a case-by-case basis, tailoring the admission process so that you are able to best present yourself and your abilities.  However, as with any applicant, it is your responsibility to demonstrate to the Admissions Committee that your education to date has prepared you for college-level work in a rigorous academic program and provided you with the ability to succeed in our traditional academic environment.

We do not have a list of required courses or a set curriculum all students must follow to apply to Lewis & Clark.  However, admission to the College is selective and we do have recommendations for applicants when it comes to academic preparation.  It will be to your advantage if your home school curriculum meets or exceeds these recommendations.  Primarily, we expect that you will have successfully undertaken a serious, rigorous course of study distributed across the traditional core academic disciplines:  English, natural sciences, mathematics, history and social studies, and foreign language.  When evaluating applications for admission to Lewis & Clark, we seek evidence of academic preparation comparable to:

• 4 years of English
• 4 years of mathematics
• 3 years of lab science
• 3-4 years of history and social sciences
• 2-3 years of the same foreign language
• 1 year of creative arts

Supplementing your home school curriculum with coursework at your local high school and/or community college will give us further evidence of your preparedness for academic success in a traditional college environment.

Generally, home school students are required to submit the following application materials:

-          Online Common Application (free) or paper Common Application ($50 fee), with essay attached.

-          Common Application Supplement.

-          School Report form to be filled out by your home school program coordinator.

-          Common Application Home School supplement, including a statement indicating timing and plan for high school completion (GED, high school diploma issued by state, equivalency exam, etc.).

-          Official high school transcript with a detailed description of the home school curriculum (see below).

-          Official transcripts for any work completed outside of your home school program.

-          SAT Reasoning or ACT test scores. With little other quantitative information available, standardized test scores for home school applicants often take on more significance than they might for our other applicants.

-          Teacher Recommendation form, completed by someone other than your home school coordinator if possible.

An obstacle you may face in the admission process is presenting a conventional high school transcript.  If you do not participate in a home school program that issues a transcript of work completed, you should provide a detailed description of your curriculum to give the admissions committee a full sense of your academic background.  A layout of this description is presented on the second page of the Common Application’s Home School Supplement form, but applicants are encouraged to expand upon that basic structure.  Your description should include a listing of the subjects you covered each year, a description of each course of study, and the major texts used or literature read.  Grades received should be included, too, but if none are available, a narrative assessment of work and growth in each area is welcomed.

We encourage home school applicants to submit a portfolio of academic work in addition to the above listed materials.  A guideline of materials that should be included in your academic portfolio can be found on our Portfolio Path page.  Please note that we strongly encourage submission of SAT/ACT scores for home school students who are applying via our Portfolio Path to admission. 

We also strongly encourage home school students to interview with a member of the admissions committee.  We are happy to work with home school students in helping to construct an application that will best represent you and your current abilities.  An interview also gives you the opportunity to develop a relationship with an admissions representative who will serve as your advocate throughout the admissions process.

Home-school applicants who intend to apply for financial aid should note that federal regulations require aid recipients to have either a high school diploma or a formal certificate of completion of a home school program certified by a state or local board of education.  If your home school program is not certified by your state, we strongly recommend you take the GED (or another certified high school equivalency exam, such as the CHSPE) to be eligible to receive federal financial aid funds.  You may also pursue taking a Department of Education ability to benefit test.  For the most up to date list of approved ability to benefit tests, go to the Department of Education’s website and use their ED.gov search feature.

Transfer applicants who completed high school via home schooling should contact the transfer counselor to determine how to best represent your home school experience in the application process.  If you complimented your home school experience with college coursework, please be aware that you may not receive transfer credit for all of the courses taken prior to conclusion of your home school program.  Go to http://www.lclark.edu/college/offices/admissions/transfer/transfercreditinhighschool.php for our policy regarding college credit earned prior to high school graduation.  We generally find that students who are able to document a clear delineation between their home school curriculum and college coursework encounter fewer problems in transferring credit.