Home Schooled Students

Hamilton welcomes applications from home schoolers.  Home schoolers have been part of our community for many years, and we recognize the particular assets they bring to college life:  initiative, independence, and a penchant for learning creatively.  We offer the following information to assist you in assembling your application to Hamilton, and to facilitate our evaluation of your candidacy.  

Preparing your Application

We use the same criteria to evaluate homeschooled applicants as we do for all others. At the same time, we also recognize that home schoolers' academic backgrounds are distinctive.  We strongly encourage homeschooled applicants to help us get an adequate picture of their college preparation.  To that end, we ask that home schoolers submit the following with their applications:

• A transcript from a reputable homeschool correspondence/umbrella program, or a detailed roster of academic coursework at the secondary level;
• In addition to the graded expository prose requested in the Hamilton application supplement, other formally presented work of any kind that well represents the range of your academic and extracurricular accomplishment;
• A short narrative, written by the person other than yourself who has been most responsible for your academic life, describing the nature of your secondary-level education.  This document should not be a recommendation, but rather a description of your instruction in recent years.

Additionally, we strongly encourage home schoolers to complete an interview with a Hamilton admissions officer.

Standardized Tests

Like all candidates for admission to Hamilton, home schoolers should submit scores from nationally recognized standardized tests.  Refer to the general application guidelines for Hamilton's list of testing options.

Letters of Recommendation

The Common Application calls for letters of recommendation from teachers and guidance counselors, but these designations often will not have the same meaning in homeschool households as they do in conventional schools.  In choosing who will write on your behalf, then, we suggest that you select individuals who know you well as a student, and as a person, beyond your household: an employer, a pastor, priest, or rabbi, a scout leader, athletic coach, or tutor, for example.

Financial Aid

Hamilton utilizes many of its own financial resources in direct scholarship aid to students.  However we also help students make use of state and federal tuition support programs.  To facilitate our compliance with U.S. government requirements for students receiving federally subsidized loans and grants, we expect that all candidates for financial aid will complete a high school eduation in a home school setting that is treated as such under state law.  Because state laws regulating the conferral of homeschool diplomas vary considerably, we may request additional information about particular diploma programs.

Questions?

Please contact Assistant Dean of Admission, Kyra Young.