Brainz

A reader wrote to us and asked whether we had any advice for where her homeschooled teenager should go to college:

We chose to homeschool our child from the very beginning. But very soon (in two years) she is going to be heading off for college and we are starting to plan for where she should go. Like everything else in our homeschooling philosophy, she will do the research and make the final decision about where to go (we are big believers in helping kids to make their own choices). Do you have any suggestions about where we should look? She wants a school that is focused on exploration, creativity and academics and not one with a heavy partying school atmosphere or anything like that.

This is a tough question. No matter what school your daughter chooses, there are going to be different social pressures and she really just needs to be well equipped to make good decisions. So there's no perfect choice.

Also, answering this question would be a lot easier if we knew whether you had a religious preference. There are many colleges and universities that honor their religious moral systems and expect higher standards of their students as well. Here is a list we found of colleges for homeschoolers with a Christian emphasis.

If you are more secular in you homeschooling approach, it may be more difficult to find a college that fits your interests. Our best advice is to find online forums and people who are part of homeschooling communities for advice. Typically, a homeschooled child will feel most at home at a college that shares similar educational values like self-directed learning.