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Preparing for College – Science and Foreign Language
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Okay, I know some families on here have graduated children already and you are probably my best resource for this, but anyone feel free to chime in. Makayla, my oldest, is starting 10th grade. She’s always been homeschooled. She has become pretty certain that she wants to pursue veterinary medicine in college. We’ve been browsing admission requirements to a vet program and the undergraduate work is very heavy in science, obviously. How can we prepare for that? Any suggestions? She’s done some Apologia, she’s doing Veterinary Science 1 and 2 through Landry Academy this year, and we’ll need to do more science after this year, chemistry for sure and something else in 12th.
Also, she’s finally accepted that to get in to the colleges she’s considering for her undergrad work she is required to have already completed 2 years of a single foreign language (modern, not latin). What can we use? There are no co-op options for this. I have familiarity with Latin, Spanish, and ASL, so Spanish or ASL are probably our preferences so I can be comfortable teaching her. (And the colleges accept either for a foreign language, we checked about the ASL). We do not want Rosetta stone because if we go with Spanish we want her to also read and write in the language, not just speak it.
Thoughts?
Have you talked to anyone at the college regarding admissions? You may want to give them a call and talk more specifically about what they require of homeschoolers. I’ve heard that different schools have different requirements for homeschoolers than public schooled students.
For instance, here in Florida, I’ve been told that most schools will not accept a home taught foreign language credit. Rosetta Stone, specifically, is not an acceptable program for most colleges. I’ve been told that I would need to have my child take their foreign language credits through a community college or other accredited online school for them to be accepted.
I’ve also heard of universities refusing to accept science courses taught with Christian content.
Since things vary vastly between states, and individual universities, the only way to know for sure is to speak to someone directly from the admissions department at the desired school.
It’s on my list to do! I’m looking at lots of options right now. I just don’t know what is out there. We have a lady at church who is a Spanish interpreter for the court system so I’m thinking we’ll try to find some sort of book work at home and tutoring combo with her, even if it is just a phone conversation once a week for some ‘live’ practice, if we go with Spanish.
For ASL I’ve seen meetups held at libraries and I know a lady who used to live local and is now an hour away because one of their children is attending a deaf school, and she could be a good resource on where to find actual practice with others who use ASL.
As for the colleges end of things, yes, phone calls. I think I remember being able to take a test to evaluate my grasp of Spanish before I began a college level class, so maybe that would be a possibility with whatever course we end up using. We also plan to try and get some of the funding for college courses during high school for 11th and 12th grade (post secondary options, comes under lots of names depending on the state. Our system was redone 2 years ago and it’s a bit pain, not nearly as much funding for homeschoolers, but we’ll see.). Then she could simply take Spanish 1 and 2 there as a Junior/Senior. 😉
My oldest is in a Private school for high school but didn’t want the languages that were offered there. He wanted to continue with French so we are using BYU. From my research it seems to be the most affordable accredited program (if you find better please do post!).
I can’t say I Love it, as a French speaker I could find many mistakes but it’s ok.
If you know enough Spanish you might not need to pay for online teacher, which is what I did.
Regarding the science, you are correct that she will need chemistry. I’m not sure what is covered in her veterinary science courses, but if it were my child, I would make sure she completed a course in anatomy and physiology, human or vertebrate. Or, if the veterinary science courses cover that well, I’d have her do an advance chemistry course. It is likely that she will have to take several chemistry courses and biology courses in college so those are the types of courses she will want to be firmly grounded in.
Different end of the spectrum — my dd is aiming for art school and from what I have seen needs 2 years of a foreign language too. I stumbled across classesbybethplus which has online classes. We haven’t started yet but it is pretty affordable as such things go and looks like a great way to get a language without too much extra in my part. It does not sound very CM — The use Bob Jones curriculum — but that’s not our concern for this subject, I also like that they have 3 years of Spanish, Others Ive seen stop after a year or two and that makes it hard since it can be difficult to switch from one class to another if they cover things in different orders.
Because I had children of various ages and wanted them to use the same thing, and because I wanted them to focus on the conversational aspect of the foreign language first, we started with Visual Link Spanish. Now that I have high schoolers, I had to figure out what to use that would teach them to read and write Spanish. I decided to try Easy Peasy Spanish, which is based on Georgia Virtual Learning. So far, they are enjoying it. They are about halway through the first year (out of three). It includes vocabulary, grammar, and cultural references. It is my first experience with Easy Peasy. Learning that can take place independently is a huge plus around here since I have so many other kiddos. Free is also good! 🙂
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