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Whitney Sorensen has been taking online and on-campus classes and violin lessons at UVSC for about a year, but she's not a traditional college student. First of all, she's 14, and second, she's a home-school student.

• SHE USES THE UTAH VALLEY STATE COLLEGE courses to supplement the curriculum she's learning at home, much like a high school student would do through concurrent enrollment courses.

Sorensen is one of Utah County's more than 2,000 students who choose to forgo public school and learn at home. Home schooling is gaining popularity. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, nationwide there were more than a million students being home-schooled in 2003, up from 850,000 in 1999. In addition, students with nontraditional backgrounds are becoming accepted at colleges and universities.

Some parents say institutions of higher learning are behind the times when it comes to admitting and accepting students who have been home-schooled. Some of these students don't have a standardized set of grades, letters of recommendation and school sponsored extra-curricular activities like traditional students. But home-school parents still must meet requirements set by states.

In Utah, parents who home-school their children are required to provide 180 days of instruction in core subjects just like public schools, but have much more leeway in the types of activities being offered. Some families choose to use pre-made curricula that provides students with access to teachers, graded papers and grades, while others choose to use the resources of the community and judge their student's performance on their own.

Admissions hurdles

Travis Blackwelder, BYU's associate dean for admissions, said the school accepts students with different backgrounds.

"First of all, we value that experience," Blackwelder said.

Still, the standards for admittance are higher if a student doesn't have a standardized grade point average.

"That just means that the standardized test is magnified in its importance," Blackwelder said.

Home-schooled students are asked to have an ACT score of at least 27, if they don't have a valid GPA, meaning one not standardized by an organization. Some home-schooled students have GPA's because they are enrolled in programs that provide grades. Scholarships also are more difficult to attain for home-schoolers, with academic scholarships at BYU based on ACT scores. Traditional students are given a half-tuition scholarship with a score of 29. Home-schooled students will be awarded half-tuition scholarships with a score of 31.

At UVSC, the requirements aren't as stringent. Michelle Lundell, UVSC's associate vice president of student services, said students who have been home-schooled are treated like other students. They are required to take the ACT or the ACT Residual Test as a placement test, unless the students are registering for concurrent enrollment, where they receive high school credit as well as credit toward a college degree. The only difference concerns scholarships. UVSC requires students to take the GED so they can translate it to a GPA.

"We really don't have any other way to do it," Lundell said.

According to the Home School Legal Defense Association, the situation for home-schooled students got better with the passage of the Higher Education Act of 1998, which prohibited colleges that receive federal funds from requiring students to take the GED to qualify for financial aid.

Still, challenges persist. The National Center for Home Education recommends that colleges adopt policies that don't require students to take any extra standardized tests and score higher than applicants that have been educated publicly and privately. It also recommends that students not be required to take the GED because the test carries the stigma of a high school drop-out. It recommends a bibliography of high school literature, an essay and an interview as a means to gauge a student's abilities.

Jon Yarrington, president of the Utah Home Education Association, educated his three children at home. All three have gone to college. His second daughter attended Salt Lake Community College in lieu of high school, earning her associate degree by age 18. None of Yarrington's children have had to fight to be admitted to their programs.

Strengths

Brittany Toledo, 23, is a UVSC alumna, mom and freelance writer. She graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's degree after completing her high school work independently at home.

"My parents decided they felt that I could do better academically without ... distraction," Toledo said.

She said she completed courses sent to her in the mail and corresponded with teachers, without traditional classes. But she had a hard time finding outside activities to give her the same types of extracurricular experiences available to students at schools. She ended up participating in leadership and outdoor activities like learning survival and life-saving skills at a camp in Vermont.

Administrators at UVSC and BYU say they want home-schooled students on their campuses because they have different experiences and make great college students.

Blackwelder said some students who have been home-schooled have impressive credentials outside of scores and grades. Many have impressive volunteer and leadership experience that goes above and beyond that offered in public school.

Many home-schooled students do well in college because they already have college-level skills, Yarrington said.

"College life is nothing like high school, nothing like public school," Yarrington said.

Lundell said many home-schooled students are focused on learning.

"They are students that are highly motivated," Lundell said. "They are very serious about higher education and their family is very serious about their education."

Social Skills

Toledo focused on higher education while still completing her high school studies, received scholarships to every college she applied to and had an ACT score of 28. But that didn't make adjusting to college life any easier.

One problem Toledo had was the change in environment. When she first started college, she took classes via BYU independent study. She transferred to UVSC because she liked the open environment better but challenges still persisted.

"I could handle the course work. I had skills that most kids didn't. I had trouble with the actually going to class." Toledo said. "I think that was a huge transitional issue for me."

Toledo said she eased into the social environment by taking night and weekend classes and eventually got used to it.

The schools say their students from home-school backgrounds do well despite the stereotype.

"Our home-schooled students seem to succeed in and out of the classroom," Blackwelder said. "We just rarely hear of folks who come and struggle socially."

Toledo said learning at home gave her more discipline, and a love of learning, but learning in a group has perks, too.

"I liked the interactive atmosphere," Toledo said.

She could learn different aspects of the same material by listening to someone else's viewpoint.

Toledo said she hasn't decided whether to home-school her own children or send them to public school. She said that will depend on the learning style of the child, but no matter what, she plans to be creative and hands-on in their education.

• Brittani Lusk can be reached at 344-2549 or at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it