Many students set the bar high and hope to homeschool their way into an elite university.
First, I should note that I don’t think getting into an elite university should be a goal one obsesses over, and I think many “elite” universities are elite only in a very narrow sense of the word: if you have worldly ambitions, a conventional idea of success, or are interested in a path involving deep academic research, an elite university — think Ivy League, or similar schools in that echelon — might be worth your consideration.
If that path and such schools do appeal to you, know that they are extremely difficult to get into. 1500+ SAT scores, 4.0 GPA with all AP credits, and a variety of extracurricular activities designed to communicate a well-rounded individual have an unintended side effect: they communicate a boring rule-follower with no narrative. These kids, while they are extremely impressive by any rational measure, are not rare for elite college admissions officers, and as such they often fail to impress.
The Homeschooling Path to Elite Schools
In light of this scenario, it might not be surprising that homeschooling is increasingly regarded as a path to elite schools. Homeschooling mother of three Penelope Trunk succinctly summarised the strategy:
Good grades are a commodity, so they don’t help in the admissions process.
Girls are doing so much better than boys in both standard high school courses and in standardized tests that their good grades and good scores don’t get girls into good colleges. It’s not enough anymore. White girls especially need a hook.
A hook is, ironically, something you are passionate about and engaged in that is outside of school. Top schools like Harvard and Stanford have always required a hook. Because when you’re in a room full of smart people, smart suddenly doesn’t matter—interesting is what matters.
So Harvard, for example, makes a pile of all the applicants who have the grades and the scores to get into Harvard, and then they look for what they need: A violinist, a middle-hitter, a coxswain. Then they look for what else might be interesting. A ballerina, a professional actor, a published author, and so on.
Craft Your Student’s Narrative
Put another way, families aiming for the elite school route should consider the narrative they want to craft for their student — and how they can achieve such a narrative.
Often, applications that stand out feature a student who has pursued an interest for much of their childhood, and has exhibited a degree of mastery in the subject at hand. The ability to pursue an interest and achieve mastery over a sustained period of time reflects self-determination and an ability to overcome adversity.
This is a setup that is ripe for homeschooling, and especially homeschooling with AI. For instance, suppose your student is fascinated with etymology — the study of the history of words. Anyone who wants expertise in such an esoteric field will need to acquire it independently, as it will not be taught in a conventional K-12 school of any kind. And as a parent who does not know or care about etymology, nurturing this interest in a productive way might be a real challenge.
In such scenarios, AI is here to help. Here is an example prompt I gave to Claude:
My 12 year old daughter is interested in etymology. Can you craft a syllabus that will help fuel her passion for it? She is a native English speaker, but her interest in etymology came from some of our travels to India and Central America, in which she noticed similarities between Hindi and Spanish. Please create a syllabus to guide her in getting started with exploring etymology in a way that is compatible with how her interest in the subject emerged. The syllabus should be appropriate for her age, and the fact that she is still a beginner who is exploring the subject.
You can find Claude’s reply here. Note that a carefully crafted prompt can really help make the most of the experience, and help personalize it for your student.
A.I. Offers A Path To Personlized Learning
In time, more and more AI solutions will be available to help students pursue a personalized learning path that helps them be the best version of themselves and reach their full potential; this is the kind of vision we’re pursuing here at Pallas, and we expect students will have an increasing number of options to choose from in the near future to experience their own personalized learning. And, if the students are so inclined, doing so might even help them get into the world’s most prestigious universities!