Season 3 · Episode 11
Navigating College Admissions (pt. 2) with Holly Ramsey and Dr. Michele Evard
The Well-Trained Mind podcast · Susan Wise Bauer & Susanna Jarrett
November 13, 20241h 13m
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Show Notes
In this episode, Susan Wise Bauer and Susanna Jarrett finish their discussion about college admissions for homeschoolers with two homeschool college admissions experts, Holly Ramsey and Michele Evard.
- Holly Ramsey’s Website
- Michele Evard’s Website
- Holly and Michele’s Book (Use promo code: HOMESCHOOL10 for 10% off the book and everything else College UnMazed sells)
Show Notes:
- 2:06 Holly recommends Georgia Tech’s college admissions blog for ALL families in the college admissions process, regardless of whether or not you plan to apply to Georgia Tech. Here is the referenced article about the “highschool hallway test.”
- 7:58 Holly and Susan recommend creating a practice common app account.
- 11:40 Susan mentions her son’s homeschool transcript, which is available here for your reference.
- 21:16 Susan mentions that the CollegeBoard has an article about creating a school profile. You can find it here.
- 45:05 Holly recommends the College Unmazed College Data Organizer, a free tool for comparing colleges.
- 54:50 Holly recommends using the Student Aid Index Calculator to figure out which colleges you can afford.
- 55:11 Holly also recommends Big J Educational Consulting’s chart of schools that lists average merit award and what percentage of students get award.
- 56:45 Holly lists two reputable scholarship finders that aren’t selling your data: (1) CareerOneStop Scholarship Finder sponsored by the U.S Department of Labor and (2) JLV College Counseling.
- 58:50 Susan mentions Harvard as an example of a school that may be prohibitively expensive. However, while the sticker price is $60,000+/ year, the university has a large endowment and can cover most of that through merit and need-based scholarships. Here is a link explaining.
- (00:00) - Intro with Holly Ramsey and Michele Evard (again!)
- (00:13) - Make sure you listen to part 1!
- (00:58) - Things you *can* do for college admissions
- (01:28) - Do document your home school journey
- (09:38) - Core 4 documents
- (09:48) - 1 - An official transcript
- (14:52) - 2 - Course descriptions
- (19:55) - 3 - Home school profile
- (23:16) - 4 - The counselor letter of recommendation
- (32:39) - Break
- (32:40) - The personal essay
- (38:20) - Do make a list of "good fit" schools
- (51:48) - Do consider price tags
- (01:00:46) - Do consider alternatives
- (01:11:03) - Wrapping up