Many colleges and universities require a letter of recommendation from a high school guidance counselor. For homeschooled students, this letter is typically written by a parent or guardian.
College admissions officers typically treat the guidance counselor letter of recommendation as an opportunity to understand the applicant within the context of their high school academic and extracurricular offerings, and compared to their classmates.
This is clearly less relevant for homeschooled students. I also recognize that it can be strange to write a letter of recommendation for your own child. Based on conversations with college admissions officers, it’s clear they also understand the potential awkwardness. No need to fret, they heavily discount your letter of recommendation!
Though a less relevant requirement for homeschool applicants, the guidance counselor letter of recommendation offers parents an excellent opportunity to describe in more detail the structure of the academic environment and homeschool program the student experienced, and the type of person and student the applicant has become throughout their high school years. If there’s a particular focus of your child’s overall application, this letter can be a great place to provide further context on their academic or extracurricular passions.
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This blog post is a part of YourEDU’s Homeschool to College Series, overviewing the different aspects of applying to college as a homeschooler. It’s important to note that YourEDU is not a college consulting company, rather, it’s a college application platform for homeschool students and parents. YourEDU has partnered with the Common, and is working with hundreds of individual colleges and universities, to help homeschoolers understand requirements, create admin materials, and apply to college. This series of blog posts comes out of conversations with college admissions professionals, reviewing hundreds of successful homeschool applications, and Henry’s (YourEDU co-founder) own experience applying to college as a homeschooler.