College Alternatives for Homeschoolers

26 February, 2014

college alternatives for homeschoolers

As I shared last week, our homeschool has been evolving in order to keep focused on our key goals.

College is only necessary for certain specialties.

Though I have been inspired by reading Leadership Education: The Phases of Learning, one thing I disagree with is the authors’ heavy focus on college as the best way to obtain what they call a Scholar level of education. While they do call for changes to the current university model, in my thinking, any traditional university education is still part of the “conveyor belt” the authors encourage us to move away from. Yes, college may be just the thing for some who want to specialize, like doctors. But for the rest of us, I’ve come to feel it’s unnecessary.

Alternatives to a traditional college degree:

Kathryn currently has no desire to go to college and I am completely okay with that. I want to leave the option open for her just in case, but I’m absolutely not pushing it. There are just so many other options out there, and I’m encouraged by what I’m finding so far.

Take online courses (for free!)

Ken is currently taking a guitar class online from Berklee University; all 600+ courses on Coursera are FREE, and offered by a variety of universities and specialty schools. It’s a great option for kids who want to sample college classes but don’t need or desire to complete a college degree.

online college guitar class

I plan to sign up for an online Cherokee language course; it’s offered for free by the Cherokee Nation in hopes of preventing the language from dying out. There are SO many options out there for continuing education.

Consider mission work.

Ever read Kisses from Katie? Talk about jumping way off the conveyor belt! Katie was class president and homecoming queen at her high school, but left her cushy life in Tennessee to live in a poor village in Uganda and adopt a whole bunch of orphaned little girls. Her life looks nothing like she or her parents envisioned, but she is fulfilling her calling in a remarkable way. {Confession: if any of my kids announce they want to do something like this, it’s going to take a lot of prayer to let them go!}

One of my photography clients did something similar but more short-term. After getting her teaching degree, she and her husband decided to move to Ecuador and spend their newlywed year(s) teaching at an orphanage. So yes, she got a traditional degree, but she’s using it in a non-traditional way.

Learn a trade.

I really don’t understand why we think a four-year degree and a corner office define success. My dad was a blue-collar auto mechanic with grease under his fingernails, but he was also a well-respected business owner who provided very well for his family. He was successful without a college degree or a fancy office.

Although apprenticeship opportunities are less common these days, they’re still out there for trades ranging from baker (wedding cakes and such) to brick masonry and just about everything in-between. Cosmetology, for instance, can be learned through a vocational school but some stylists are willing to take on an apprenticeship. Many careers can get started this way. A young man who apprenticed with my dad as a mechanic later ended up teaching classes himself at a vocational college. As a bonus, the two became lifelong friends despite their age difference.

Get training as an entrepreneur.

Disclosure: this post is sponsored by Praxis but all opinions are my own.

Praxis is a totally new concept in continuing education for students between the age of 18-25 years. Participants do a ten-month program that combines apprenticeship in an entrepreneurial-minded company with rigorous online classes. Additionally, each participant will have help creating a project portfolio and will receive training in writing, public speaking and other professional skills.

Praxis curriculum covers a wide variety of topics:

philosophy
history
economics
business
technology and digital skills
entrepreneurship and life skills

At the end of each 40-hour module, students take an oral exam via video conference with a professor in each field.

When participants complete the Praxis program, they have a work portfolio and on-the-job experience. This is a more economical option than college, too: the hourly rate students are paid on the job essentially pays for the program. Get more info on that on the FAQ page.

If you have a student who might be interested in Praxis, the first step would be to apply for the next session, running from September though June. You can follow Praxis on facebook or twitter, and find more info by following Praxis on YouTube. And if you’re going to GHC this year, they’ll be at all three locations so you could speak to them in person.

Have you thought about college alternatives for your own kids?

Jamie

I’m a big fan of authentic conversation and always appreciate hearing what you have to say. Thanks for reading.

24 responses to “College Alternatives for Homeschoolers”

Jennifer Lambert

26 February, 2014

Love this list! Was just discussing this with my husband and daughters the other night. We watched Monsters University and I loved the message that college doesn’t always equal success.

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1. Jamie
  
  26 February, 2014
  
  Yes! We enjoyed that movie, too, and I did appreciate that message in it as well! So many things in our culture push us toward the college track as the ONLY way. It’s certainly a viable way for some, but not ALL!
  
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Linda

26 February, 2014

Great list…some things I would love to look into!! FREE courses…I’m ALL over that! LOL! My daughter did accelerated distance learning…2 1/2 years and about $10,000 to a bachelor’s degree! Some kids do it faster. She did NOT want to go away to college, so it was the perfect option for her. She’s now looking into a more “conveyor belt” method of earning her master’s degree. I have three kids…all three chose a different path for college!

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1. Jamie
  
  26 February, 2014
  
  Free is always good, isn’t it!? 😉
  
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2. Lisa K.
  
  27 February, 2014
  
  Linda, would you be willing to share a little bit more about the distant learning option you mentioned? My high school senior will most likely be pursuing an online degree so he can be free to travel with the worship ministries he’s involved in, but we are still examining other options. Thank you so much. {And Jamie, thanks for your blog! I love it!}
  
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  1. Becky Muldrow
    
    5 April, 2014
    
    We help kids (high school and beyond) earn their accredited BA or BS degree using the credit-by-exam method. We’ve graduated 5 of our own, with 5 to go. Just be aware of options and take advantage of the lower cost ways to earn that degree!
    
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Chandra Regan

26 February, 2014

We’re starting to talk a lot about this, since my daughter is a junior and a non-traditional student. So, the conveyor belt method probably won’t work for her. But, she is a smart girl with a great heart to help people. Lately, she’s been talking about going back to her country of origin to teach English as a second language and be a missionary. Very exciting and scary at the same time. I’ll cheer her on, but allow her to go at her own pace and by God’s leading.

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Mary

26 February, 2014

Jamie — yes! Our children’s path to “success” (whatever that is, right?) might not involve traditional college — just like we avoided traditional schooling when they were young.

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StephF

26 February, 2014

Wow, thanks for this article. I have a high school junior that isn’t really interested in college, but also doesn’t know what he wants to do after high school. Praxis is an option I hadn’t heard of before.
Also, our family lives in Ecuador and serves at an orphanage. I am wondering if your newlywed couple friend may be our newlywed couple friend?!?!

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Jen

26 February, 2014

Great article!! And I totally agree. I tell my 5 kids that if their God given passion and talents in their lives lead to a career where they need to get a degree then great. If their passion and talents don’t require college than great. We talk a lot about how some people go to college just because in society it’s the next step and then they never use their degree and have tons of students loans. My oldest daughter(12) want to be a baker and she is studying for ACT so she can start a 2 year course at a local college. She knows that she really doesn’t have to have the degree but she really wants to learn the different techniques. My oldest son(13) wants to be a zookeeper and has looked up what it takes to be one. He knows that small zoos usually don’t require a degree but big zoos do. He also knows there is a difference in pay too( but he knows pay isn’t everything). He is praying about 😉 My daughter plans to apprentice in a bakery as soon as she is legally allowed to and my son has already helped at a local wildlife farm and is wanting to do a volunteer program at bigger zoo in the summer. Anyhow, good article and I will definitely read it to my kids =) *Oh and I know a gal who did the exact same thing as Katie. This girl didn’t adopt them but she picked up and headed to the Philippines to work at an orphanage. We adopted a child from the orphanage she worked in and I looked up to her even though she was 10 years my junior. Great stuff.

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Kristina

26 February, 2014

While I do agree that university isn’t for everyone it is starting to seem like if you don’t there isn’t much out there for you.
My brother-in-law is a licensed mason which means that he is out of work for about half of the year (Canadian winters…). My husband and I went to Bible College (associates degree) but while that was well worth the time no one really is interested in associates degrees. He has continued to study and read and is a very knowledgeable theologian but even most churches now are only interested in people with Master’s Degrees. It seems now that it doesn’t matter what you have a degree in as long as you have one.
So now after being out of school for 10 years he is going back to school to actually get the degree.
I still think you should think through what you want to do and make your own decisions, it is just important to know that it is increasingly more difficult to get by on less. I just wish we had thought it though more before starting our family and all that. It is much harder when you have a mortgage, children and jobs to go back to school (even online)
It is so hard that kids are expected to figure all of this out when they are so young. Heck, at 29 I still don’t know what I want to be “when I grow up”. LOL

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Yvonne Reynolds

26 February, 2014

Thank you for this! I have one homeschool graduate in our home, and poor thing, he is inundated with the ‘college’ question all the time! He understands and knows that college is not for everybody. Plus, he doesn’t want to accumulate a boatload of debt either. So many options out there for our children!

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Angela Brettschneider

26 February, 2014

Can’t wait to talk more about this tomorrow!!

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Cheryl Ruffing

27 February, 2014

I couldn’t agree more about college being an extension of the conveyor belt. What’s more, it’s an incredibly expensive conveyor belt. My husband and I homeschool our six kids, and our oldest will be finishing high school this year. He’s a scratch golfer, one of the six best high schoolers in the state. Will he go to college? Not anytime soon. He’ll pursue his dream of a career in golf, while he has no debt, no responsibilities.

Don’t you think it’s funny that we beg colleges to accept us/our kids, so we can pay them boatloads of money? What’s more, when we/our kids end up in classes run by crappy professors, we don’t walk out and say, “Hey, I’m paying for this; give me a new professor or give me my money back?”

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Marianne

27 February, 2014

I love this article Jamie. I am also reading through many of the Thomas Jefferson Education books and am loving them. We are also trying to help our high schoolers to hone in on their interests and abilities and find the right post-high school place for each of them. I love the set up of Praxis. Even TJED agrees that the future is in being entrepreneurial!

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Jenn

27 February, 2014

Jamie, Thank you so much for this post! We are currently looking at options for my oldest won who will be a senior next year. This was super helpful.

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Lori

27 February, 2014

Kevin Swanson also has a new post-high school program out called KickStart. I don’t know too much about it, but I’ve planned on looking into it also!

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Sherri W.

3 March, 2014

I have a different opinion on college. First it doesn’t always have to be expensive which seems to be a lot people’s concerns. Besides the academic preparation in a given discipline, I love the transition that college provides to the adult life. It gives 17-21 year olds an opportunity to be independent but not totally. It gives them a circle of peers to share experiences, and to determine what type of people exist outside of their own environment. It opens their eyes to a less egocentric existence. As parents, we laid a good foundation, college is the test of the strength of that foundation before real life sets in. Regardless of any profession college helped me become an adult. It not about whether or not you will be successful with/without a college degree. It’s about the person you become because of the experience of it all.

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1. Kayla
  
  5 March, 2014
  
  Thank you for this response, Sherri W! College is not for everyone, but college is so much more than a degree!! I currently have two Masters degrees and am choosing to stay home with my kids. I get the question A LOT about whether or not I feel I ‘wasted’ time and money–absolutely not! Besides the fact that I will most likely re-enter the workforce and directly use my degrees, my growth, knowledge (not just book–working with diverse people, difficult situations, etc, etc), and experiences from undergrad through graduate school have impacted me. Not every moment was positive but those are often the most important times to learn those lessons, while you are in that transition phase.
  
  College is not for everyone but it is infinitely more than just a ‘conveyor belt’–the student has a great deal of power over what they learn and get out of the educational experience.
  
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Becky Muldrow

5 April, 2014

Thanks for sharing these great ideas! Our kids are so fortunate to have so many options available to them. Some of ours have chosen non-traditional college and even began law school at 17 and 18 years old – others of our have chosen to apprentice under business owners, etc. We now guide other teens (mostly home educated) through earning their degrees by exam! Thanks again for sharing your great thoughts on this topic!

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Carlee

22 April, 2014

A college degree doesn’t (and never did) guarantee anyone a higher income — but it does give a person more *say* in how they earn a living.

I absolutely agree that college isn’t for everyone — but do feel that some sort of post-high school education is really, truly essential in this day and age. The days of well-paid unskilled or on-the-job-training employment are long gone… and have been since the late 70s/early 80s.

Trades? In my state, most require at least a couple of semesters at community college, ie for mechanics, machinists, welders, plumbers, etc.

Mission work? Ummmmm, sure. Keep on mind that there’s a huge mismatch between the folks who are divinely-inspired to save the world and the skills that are *genuinely* helpful to those in the developing world. (I say this as a person who spent three years in the Peace Corps in rural Tanzania… where, trust me, 21 year old astrophysicists are not especially useful. Experienced farmers and civil engineers who do irrigation would were what would have been *truly* helpful).

Trades? In my state, a couple of semesters at community college is a prerequisite for becoming an apprentice in almost any skilled trade, eg mechanic, mason, electrician, welder, etc.

College is expensive? Not necessarily! I went to school for “free” (full academic scholarship at a state school for undergrad; full academic scholarship + RA/TA for grad school).

A free online guitar or language class? Fun, but not the same as taking a class for credit.

A kid who has been home-educated (even if terrifically educated) missed out on a lot of important, non-academic skills: submitting to the authority of grownups who aren’t a parent (that goes double for a teacher/administrator who loathes them for a petty reason), navigating a large bureaucracy, surviving group work with classmates not of their choosing, managing their time when multiple exams/assignments are due simultaneously, etc.

Why not have your kid consider Job Corps, to gain job experience AND experience living away from home? Or a job at an amusement park or sleep away camp? Or a year teaching English abroad?

(All of those things are immensely helpful as a gap year for “traditionally” educated students too. Trying to get by on little more than minimum wage is also tremendously motivating!)

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1. Heather
  
  13 May, 2014
  
  You may want to educate yourself before gracing us with your infinite wisdom of homeschooling and homeschooling students. I recommend HSLDA as a source of state by state information for you. Other than trolling, Carlee, I am not sure why you are even reading this article. You are right about homeschoolers. We are NOT about submitting, being a number, or making sure our children are verbally abused by elders at a young age. By raising our children with respect, having them interact with all ages in many forms such as co-ops, and letting a child have self esteem we are producing LEADERS. Think about that and what you really stand for.
  
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  1. Marvel
    
    31 July, 2015
    
    I’m going to jump in as a student, who has been both home schooled, and traditionally schooled. I personally think that the ‘traditional’ way is great for some! And in some ways, it pushed me, both in good and bad ways. I was able to meet people, people who I never would have met otherwise! I was able to show teachers that although I wasn’t the most organized, I was very motivated. However, on that note. I was NEVER verbally abused, and it taught me that I had to listen to people other then my parents, and to accpect that I wasn’t always going to be with them. School gave me a form of self-esteem, but homeschooling is what I need. As of lately, school triggered many anxiety attacks. The stress was there, as well as peers that I strove to belong with. I just couldn’t, so we have turnt to homeschool, and I haven’t been sorry.
    
    Reply
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