MIT Homeschool

[debrand]

I thought some of you might be interested in the requirements for a homeschool students who want to go to MIT. The requirements sound fair but I doubt any of the homeschool students we cover on this site would meet these requirements.

At MIT, we do not have separate requirements for homeschooled applicants. Homeschooled applicants, like all of our applicants, are considered within their context, which includes schooling choice, family situation, geographic location, resources, opportunities, and challenges. However, we do have some tips for homeschooled students, based on successful applicants we have admitted in the past.

One quality that we look for in all of our applicants is evidence of having taken initiative, showing an entrepreneurial spirit, taking full advantage of opportunities. Many of our admitted homeschooled applicants have really shined in this area. These students truly take advantage of their less constrained educational environment to take on exciting projects, go in depth in topics that excite them, create new opportunities for themselves and others, and more.

The vast majority of our admitted homeschool students have taken advantage of advanced classes outside the homeschool setting, such as through a local college or an online school such as EPGY. Transcripts of these courses, in addition to evaluation of the homeschooling portfolio, are very helpful. Some students will also take advantage of MIT's OpenCourseWare.

Most of our homeschooled students have taken advantage of extracurricular activities and community groups, such as community orchestras and theater, athletics groups, scouting, religious groups, volunteer work, work for pay, etc. Our homeschooled applicants, like all of our students, are active in their communities.

Many (but certainly not all) of our homeschooled students have been active in summer programs. For some students, summer programs (some programs we have frequently seen in homeschooled applicants include CTY, TIP, PROMYS, MathCamp, RSI, Tanglewood, and Interlochen, among many others) are a great opportunity to work with other students from diverse backgrounds in a collaborative manner. Summer program mentors and job supervisors can also be great choices to write college recommendations.

Extra recommendations can be especially helpful for many homeschooled applicants. We welcome a recommendation from a parent, but require at least three recommendations in total (usually a counselor and two teachers). We encourage you to submit additional recommendations (but don't submit more than 5 total recommendations) from those who know you well, such as coaches, mentors, job supervisors, clergy, etc. Please attach an MIT Supplemental Document Cover Sheet to any supplemental recommendations you submit. The MIT Supplemental Document Cover Sheet can be found on the Application Forms page on your MyMIT account.

MIT has alumni volunteers called Educational Counselors throughout the world who conduct interviews on behalf of MIT Admissions. We strongly encourage all of our applicants to take advantage of the interview, if available.

[crazyforkate]

Clearly, they need to update their "SOTDRT" section. "Must know alphabet, account of dinosaur/human coexistence optional."

[browngrl]

SOTDRT folk don't need to worry about MIT. The women get all the training they need bringing up their younger siblings and cooking and cleaning and sewing. The men don't need to go to the evil MIT where they might be exposed to unholy entities such as imaginary numbers, multiple dimensions or science - the Lord has already provided them with ITONRAMP.

[mlady]

Yeah there is nothing wrong at all with being schooled at home or by tutors or other non "going to school" ways. That's always been true. It's just the new The Homeschool Movement that's snarkworthy.

[Hane]

Several years back, I read about two homeschooled teenaged boys who got into Harvard. They were homeschooled--by their college-educated parents--because they lived in the middle of nowhere in the Rockies.

I worry about the third or so generation of homeschooled Christian kids. The first generation may be taught by college-educated moms; the second generation by moms who were homeschooled; and the third by moms two generations separated from any kind of higher education. And then there are all those homeschooling moms who barely made it through public school and can barely spell, punctuate, or string together a coherent sentence--let alone a paragraph.

[DefraudedbyGothard]

My daughter has a friend she met at a homeschoolers art class that is currently at MIT. I don't think they were a religious family so that lets out SOTDRT.

[MamaJunebug]

I understand that people living in the remote reaches of Alaska have all kinds of state support in homeschooling rather than send kids on a 50-mile-one-way commute to a brick-and-mortar [sic] building. Put some energetic, educated parents in that situation and I could imagine an MIT admission or two!

[JenXer]

I've mentioned this before but my homeschooled son is at MIT. It's a challenging program but he's loving it.

(Me? I can barely remember the times table.)

[sewingmom2]

I homeschooled my kiddos from 1986 through 2003. Among them, they have degrees from these colleges: Benedictine College, Atchison, Ks, University of Kansas, Kansas State University, University of Missouri/Kansas City, and Harvard Business School. Today, one works at University of Michigan/Mott Children's Hospital, one works for Deloitte, and one teaches at the U of Iowa. Just saying.....

All three scored 32 or above on their ACT's and all scored 1450 or above on the old SAT's. I didn't homeschool for religious reasons.

I do agree with you, though, about the caliber of some homeschools.

[lilah]

I think this is pretty much par for the course for colleges, homeschooled students to have a portfolio/body of work to demonstrate why they have the skills and knowledge to be college material.

Clearly SODRT educated fundies would not make it. I recall Razing Ruth saying after a childhood education on ATI curriculum took her several years of community college to earn a GED becuase she had such large deficits in her knowledge, and her mother was a former math teacher. Crap curriculum + poorly educated mom = not learning much

[divadivine]

There are many, many parents who homeschool their children and they do a fabulous job. Their children are very well prepared for college/university. The parents work very hard and take great pride in their child receiving a top notch education. The children are given the chance to learn about topics they are passionate (this is what I've learned from people I know who homeschool and do a great job) about while also studying and mastering the basic school coursework.

However, the ones who get the most attention are those who are like the Duggars and the other homeschooling fundies- the ones who are doing a subpar job.

Good homeschooling families look for enrichment opportunities for their children. Their children take part in activities with other children (sometimes in a homeschool group or through community programs). These homeschool students, if they had to, could go into a traditional school setting and do very well.

MIT is very prestigious. Congrats to anyone who is accepted for admission!

[August]

Diva, I suspect that anyone who is homeschooled and able to consider MIT was homeschooled because they were way too smart to cope in a normal ckassroom. EPGY and CTY are enrichment programs for highly gifted kids.

SOTDRT folk don't need to worry about MIT. The women get all the training they need bringing up their younger siblings and cooking and cleaning and sewing. The men don't need to go to the evil MIT where they might be exposed to unholy entities such as imaginary numbers, multiple dimensions or science - the Lord has already provided them with ITONRAMP.

Sit down before you readthe rest of this post.

Braced? Fundies actually campaign against set theory..

[GolightlyGrrl]

I don't think your graduate from the SOTDRT could spell MIT let alone attend such a fine institution.

SOTDRT graduates and their idiot parents put homeschooling in such a bad light. I feel really bad for homeschoolers and their parents who actually give a shit about education for being lumped in with these morons.

[chaotic life]

My son LOVES MITs open access courses. Mostly I hate them because they just open a whole new host of questions for him to pepper me with! He's only 12 and currently not considering MIT. The current goal he says is a Biophysics degree.

I never homeschooled for religious reasons. It was homeschooling that exposed me to Fundieland but it was never why I homeschooled. The only Christian material I've ever used is Pathway Readers and elementary handwriting work, except for the one disastrous year I needed online curriculum and made the mistake of trying Switched on Schoolhouse. The catch-up work that 2/3 of the year in that disaster taught me to never trust the reviews for religious based materials again. My oldest two used so little grammar in that stupid program they regressed despite deligently working those worthless lessons!

[JenXer]

Diva, I suspect that anyone who is homeschooled and able to consider MIT was homeschooled because they were way too smart to cope in a normal classroom.

Actually, we began homeschooling for religious reasons. :)

But one of our considerations was that our son would not "fit in" in school. I couldn't put my finger on why but I knew he was different.

He adapted into MIT with no issues but I think that's because most MIT students are "different".

Our next child would have fit in just fine but we kept on homeschooling because it was working out so well.

[bananacat]

Obviously MIT wants to see that homeschooled students have some experience with social interaction, because that's what they'll face at college. This is exactly what fundies prohibit, so they would never allow their kids to go to MIT even if they could miraculously get accepted.

Fundie parents don't want their kids to go to mainstream colleges. And they give them intentionally bad educations so that if the kid rebelled and wanted to go to college, they wouldn't be able to anyway. A big part of the fundie neglect and abuse scheme (or any neglect and abuse scheme, I guess) is to constrain possibilities so that the victim has little choice but to stay dependent on the abuser.

[JenXer]

Fundie parents don't want their kids to go to mainstream colleges.

I'm sure you're correct about this. The professors and curriculum teach from a very different worldview than fundie-dom. And, of course, the other students would be a corrupting influence.

And they give them intentionally bad educations so that if the kid rebelled and wanted to go to college, they wouldn't be able to anyway.

This I'm not so sure about. I've read the Maxwell's books on homeschooling and they never mention such a thing. I don't think that fundies intentionally give their children a substandard education. I think that's just the result when they so severely limit their curriculum choices and outside activities.

[bananacat]

I'm sure you're correct about this. The professors and curriculum teach from a very different worldview than fundie-dom. And, of course, the other students would be a corrupting influence.

This I'm not so sure about. I've read the Maxwell's books on homeschooling and they never mention such a thing. I don't think that fundies intentionally give their children a substandard education. I think that's just the result when they so severely limit their curriculum choices and outside activities.

Abusers rarely admit their intentions outright. Some abusers may not even be explicitly aware of how their controlling actions link to their goals. But they still do it intentionally. That's how abuse works.

[JenXer]

Yes, but if you think of extreme isolation as abuse, the Maxwells are very open about their practice and encourage others to do the same.

So if you think of limiting education as abuse, why wouldn't they hint at that great plan, as well? But there is nothing in their writings that so much as gives a hint about purposefully limiting education.

[browngrl]

"Sit down before you readthe rest of this post. Braced? Fundies actually campaign against set theory"

August, I'll be honest I did not think that this was a thing. I mean really, set theory? So I googled around a bit and you are absolutely correct. Fundies do protest set theory. I found a good article talking about just this thing: boingboing.net/2012/08/07/what-do-christian-fundamentali.html.

I've seen how fundies fetishize the past but I had not thought to extrapolate this idea to other aspects of life like math. Here is a link to a diatribe against modern art : largefamilymothering.wordpress.com/category/christian-livingeducation/ . This particular blogger also did a rant about mid century modern furniture/decor : largefamilymothering.wordpress.com/?s=be+who+you+are.

[debrand]

"Sit down before you readthe rest of this post. Braced? Fundies actually campaign against set theory"

August, I'll be honest I did not think that this was a thing. I mean really, set theory? So I googled around a bit and you are absolutely correct. Fundies do protest set theory. I found a good article talking about just this thing: boingboing.net/2012/08/07/what-do-christian-fundamentali.html.

I've seen how fundies fetishize the past but I had not thought to extrapolate this idea to other aspects of life like math. Here is a link to a diatribe against modern art : largefamilymothering.wordpress.com/category/christian-livingeducation/ . This particular blogger also did a rant about mid century modern furniture/decor : largefamilymothering.wordpress.com/?s=be+who+you+are.

I read that and am still very confused as to why set theory is antiChristian to fundies. It makes no sense to me, at all. How very weird.

[August]

"Sit down before you readthe rest of this post. Braced? Fundies actually campaign against set theory"

August, I'll be honest I did not think that this was a thing. I mean really, set theory? So I googled around a bit and you are absolutely correct. Fundies do protest set theory. I found a good article talking about just this thing: boingboing.net/2012/08/07/what-do-christian-fundamentali.html.

I've seen how fundies fetishize the past but I had not thought to extrapolate this idea to other aspects of life like math. Here is a link to a diatribe against modern art : largefamilymothering.wordpress.com/category/christian-livingeducation/ . This particular blogger also did a rant about mid century modern furniture/decor : largefamilymothering.wordpress.com/?s=be+who+you+are.

IKR? I thought it was a joke when I first heard it, too.

Now, Eames as antichrist I can kind of see. Jesus would definitely have been a mission style man.

ETA: fucking jesus -they think relativity's just a theory, too. http://conservapedia.com/Theory_of_relativity

[DrWhat]

What is wrong with these people that they do not understand that there is no "just" when something is a theory? The concept that all living things are made of cells is also a theory. Scientific theories are observations that we are pretty darn sure of. Why isn't there a wisdom booklet that teaches the difference between hypothesis and theory? Oh yeah....

This website is a black hole of idiocy. On the atheism page:

Furthermore, atheism is indirectly proportional to education; a scholarly study published in an academic journal titled the Review of Religious Research demonstrated that increased education is correlated with belief in God and that "education positively affects religious participation, devotional activities, and emphasizing the importance of religion in daily life."

Indirectly proportional. AKA inversely. SODRT fail.

[yewchapel]

I know someone who was homeschooled and is doing Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford (it's one course, most prominent politicians will have done it). She did her A Levels at a regular college though so she wasn't homeschooled for her whole school life - not sure how common this is.

[August]

What is wrong with these people that they do not understand that there is no "just" when something is a theory? The concept that all living things are made of cells is also a theory. Scientific theories are observations that we are pretty darn sure of. Why isn't there a wisdom booklet that teaches the difference between hypothesis and theory? Oh yeah....

This website is a black hole of idiocy. On the atheism page:

Indirectly proportional. AKA inversely. SODRT fail.

I'm pretty sure that study found that they were correlated, and not inversely. Double fail for them.

ETA: lots of studies, direct correlation

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/camelswith ... on-levels/