A Study of Admission Officers' Perceptions of and Attitudes Toward Homeschool Students

Journal of College Admission, Fall 2004 by Jones, Paul, Gloeckner, Gene

Admission officers also were asked to define their institution's selectivity (less selective, open admission, selective, most selective). Nearly half (27) indicated that they were selective. Eleven admission personnel reported that their institution was highly selective and another 11 indicated that their institution was less selective. Five institutions reported that their institutions were considered open admission.

Admission officers were asked to provide the number of applications received from homeschool applicants during the most recent academic year. Table 5 shows the number of admission applications received from homeschool graduates.

Nearly 95 percent of the institutions indicated that they had received applications from homeschooled graduates. Twenty-four institutions (43.6 percent) indicated that they received less than 10 applications from homeschooled graduates. However, 22 (40 percent) reported that they received between 10-29 applications from homeschool applicants. Only six, or nearly 11 percent, reported receiving between 30-49 applications from homeschooled high school graduates.

Section III:

Attitudes and Perceptions

This section of the survey examined the perceptions and attitudes of admission officers toward the homeschooled population. Admission officers were asked how successful they expected homeschooled graduates to be compared to traditional high school graduates.

The first question asked admission officers how they expected the overall success of homeschooled applicants to compare to traditional high school graduates during their firstyear of college.

Approximately 56 percent of the admission officers expected homeschool graduates to be as successful as traditional high school graduates, and nearly 22 percent expected them to be more successful. Only two admission officers expected homeschooled graduates to be less successful than traditional high school graduates. Ten (18 percent) admission officers did not respond.

Admission officers were also asked how they would expect the first-year grade point average of homeschool applicants to compare to traditional K-12 schooled applicants in the first year.

More than half (52.7 percent) of the admission officers expected the first-year grade point average of homeschool graduates to be about the same as traditional high school graduates, while nearly one-fourth (23.6 percent) expected homeschool graduates to out perform traditional high school graduates.

All admission officers at church-affiliated schools expected homeschooled graduates to earn about the same first-year grade point average as traditional high school graduates compared to 50 percent and 51.6 percent, respectively, of the private and state institution admission officers. A total of 27.8 percent of the admission officers at private institutions and 25.8 percent of the state institutions responding expected homeschooled graduates to have higher first-year grade point averages.

The third question asked admission personnel to rate how they expected the first-year retention rate of homeschooled graduates to compare to traditional high school graduates. Twenty-five (45.5 percent) of the admission officers expected homeschooled graduates to have about the same first-year retention rate as traditional high school graduates. Twenty percent expected a higher first-year retention rate among homeschool graduates and 12.7 percent expected traditional high school graduates to be retained at a lower rate than homeschool graduates. A total of 16.4 percent of the admission officers did not respond.