Few home-schoolers at MSU

EAST LANSING, Mich. – About 80 percent of home-school students who apply to Michigan State University are admitted, though only 35 percent of those admitted go on to actually enroll, according to an article in The State News, MSU’s campus newspaper.

In each of the past five years, fewer than 10 home-school students have enrolled, the article said.

One reason might be that many home-school students choose to attend community college first, either because of the lower cost or smaller size, Michele Czupinski told The News. She is founder of Adventurers, a home-school organization based in Ypsilanti that serves about 50 families.

MSU Director of Admissions Jim Cotter told The News that home-schooled students are reviewed using the same criteria as students from public and private high schools, often with extra emphasis on standardized test scores. Their admission rate is slightly higher than the overall admission rate, The News reported.

The transition to MSU was fairly smooth for home-schooler Grace Fisher of Berrien Center, she told The News. A sophomore studying East Asian languages, Fisher said, “There are a lot of students, but you don’t see 40,000 people in one day, so it didn’t seem like a really big deal for me.”

She told The News she has encountered some stereotypes about home-schoolers, including that they lack social skills. David Holcomb, another home-school graduate who now is an education major, said he has brought up home-schooling for discussion in his education classes.

SOURCE:
The State News, “Getting out of the house,” April 21, 2009

FURTHER READING:
Michigan Education Report, “Fifteen years later, home-school parents say legal battle was worth it, ” May 27, 2008