12 January 2010

The first days of spring

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: College/University.

19-year old Ethan left for the US a few days ago, closing a chapter on his somewhat eclectic homeschool to begin a new chapter studying in a university in Texas. Never mind that some folks scoffed that the uni in question wasn’t a ‘recognized’ one (okay, it isn’t Ivy League). As his parents we were a bundle of mixed emotions – incredibly delighted, a mite apprehensive, pretty bowled over, fairly amazed, deeply grateful – but mainly happy for Ethan, that his unconventional ‘schooling’ did not get in the way of his education. 38 hours, 4 planes, 1 wrong airport, and a visit to Walmart later, he writes about starting out as a regular student for the first time in his life.

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TOMORROW I BEGIN MY FIRST SEMESTER in Hardin-Simmons University. I’ll be coming in smack in the middle of the academic year. There won’t be an official orientation for me since, well, it’s just not worth it. I’ll have to play catch-up in a game altogether unfamiliar to me. I do not have my books. I do not have my schedule. I do not even have the key card to my dorm (and have had to rely on the kindness of strangers). This is because everything – everything – will only open tomorrow. Someone in my dorm promised to show me where to get the necessary first thing in the morning. Still. Oh god.

The months preceding that letter of acceptance from Hardin-Simmons were frustrating, confusing months. I wandered in the desert for 40 years when it came to sending out college applications. A major hurdle was the fact that I’d never been to school before. I had loads of interesting things like book reviews published in the newspapers, piano exam certificates, public speaking awards, extra-curricula portfolios – that sort of thing – but colleges wanted more. They wanted to see GPAs, transcripts, high school finishing certificates that they recognized. I was on the verge of fabricating my GPA when I grasped at the first straw I could find. I went to Eli360, a Christian college rep agency. Eli360 represents more than 50 private universities across the United States. The list of options was narrow because of my qualified lack of qualifications.

Hardin-Simmons was the first to accept me. I could speculate on and on why Hardin-Simmons accepted me even when I didn’t have a GPA. It might have something to do with Eli360’s president speaking to the university on my behalf. It might have something to do with the recommendations my friends wrote. It might have something to do with the person reflected in my application packet. Or it might have something to do with the slumping economy and the need for easy cash. It’s possible Hardin-Simmons may not be the only university in the world to accept me, but I don’t and didn’t care. I took it.

I received a partial scholarship from Hardin-Simmons based on my SAT score. A better SAT score would mean a better scholarship, so I took the SAT again. I studied for it this time and, to my surprise, scored higher for math than for writing. I’m now eligible for a better scholarship that would cover about one third of my fees. This I’ve decided to take as a promising omen.

I’m here for a Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts and Sciences. The sort of degree that nobody really understands because Liberal Arts students don’t really understand it either. Ah, perfect. But to give you a better idea of what this might mean, my classes this semester will be:

College Algebra
Intro to the Visual Arts
American Government
Freshmen Writing I
Intro to Psychology

The weeks leading to my date of departure were full of farewells. The people who showed up at the airport to see me off made it a little harder to leave because I could see how much I’d be leaving behind. Kuala Lumpur. Singapore. Moscow. Houston. Fort Worth. Abilene, Texas. I’m here. And I’m not done yet. In a matter of hours I’ll discover what it means to go to class.

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(Photo: Ethan (R), in a rare pose with younger brother Elliot in KLIA) Follow Ethan’s blog here.

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4 June 2009

Off to college

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: College/University.

The education terrain in the country is constantly shifting, so an educator reminded me at a recent meeting. Expect admissions policies to change as well. Especially when the Ministry of Education gets a new Minister every few years. College-bound homeschoolers who are thinking of admission into colleges in Malaysia are understandably jittery.

Do private colleges accept homeschoolers anyway? Should I sit for SAT or IGCSE O Level? Will a college take me in if I have neither? What if I am an unschooler? Do I have to show competence in Bahasa Malaysia? Why isn’t my SAT 1 score sufficient for admission? Questions, questions. To help unravel this Gordion Knot, I met up with the CEO of Life College and her helpful staff. Here’s a summary:

ADMISSIONS
All colleges registered under the Ministry of Higher Education offering approved/accredited Diploma programmes require that a Malaysian student has completed and passed SPM (pass BM and credits in 3 other subjects) or its equivalent, such as IGCSE O Level, UEC (Chinese Unified Exam), etc.

In Malaysia, MQA (Malaysian Qualifications Agency) has the sole authority to decide what qualifying exams are acceptable. All colleges are subject to a list of officially approved entry exams given by MQA. Since the MQA is not familiar with homeschooling curricula and systems (and neither are homeschooling curricula on the approved list), this poses some difficulty for colleges that may want to admit a homeschooler.

YEAR 11 & SAT 1
This explains why SAT 1 is not sufficient to get a homeschooler into a local private college. In keeping with MQA requirements, a student must have successfully completed SPM “or its equivalent.” In homeschoolspeak, this means a Year 11 certificate or transcript (Year 11 matches the required “SPM or its equivalent” milestone).

On top of that, many colleges have admission staff who may not have heard of homeschool or SAT. Therefore it is necessary to explain what is homeschool, and how a homeschooler’s course of study and achievements are measured vis-a-vis the conventional SPM route. Parents will have to help admission staff unfamiliar with homeschool understand how a homeschooler has attained the necessary preparation for tertiary studies.

THE IGCSE O LEVEL OPTION
Granted this hurdle, it is now clear that IGCSE O Level is possibly the least problematic and the best means forward in a homeschooler’s education pathway into a private college in Malaysia, whatever curriculum he or she may be using (Sonlight, AOP, ACE, Abeka, etc).

Homeschoolers can easily set aside a year to prepare for the O Level as a private candidate. They can sign up and study the necessary textbooks (minimum 3 subjects) at home,or sign up at tuition centres offering O Level. Several such centres have been set up in KL/PJ in recent years (such as this). The O Level is offered by Cambridge and London boards and here’s a short description by a student.

However, Life College throws homeschoolers a lifeline: show proof of Year 11, and send in your SAT 1. If a student is enrolled with a learning centre using AOP (Alpha Omega Publications) or ACE School of Tomorrow curriculum, a transcript confirming he/she has successfully completed Year 11 attached with SAT1 paves the way. (I have been given to understand that a fee is payable for the release of an official student transcript from some centres). In any case, according to Life College, a personally prepared transcript is just as acceptable.

TRANSCRIPTS
What’s a transcript, you ask? Unlike a resume which records activities and extra-curricular achievements, a transcript is simply a record of a student’s course of study for the years the child has been homeschooled. What is of particular interest to a college registrar would be a student’s study particularly from Grade 6 and above.

Because many homeschoolers do not have grade assessments (unlike those using textbook curricula such as ACE and AOP), these transcripts help College registrars unfamiliar with homeschooling understand what have been studied. Parents could bring along their child’s textbooks, but this is entirely up to you. I would think a properly written transcript with clearly defined courses completed is sufficient.

But here’s a caveat. While most private colleges are happy to receive a homeschooler many are concerned that they meet MQA’s stringent regulations. As such, some colleges may not accept a personally prepared transcript. Only when they can map an education pathway equivalent to SPM,  can the college justify this homeschooler’s admission to MQA. However, there have been cases where a personal interview with parents and the prospective student will open doors (sometimes with conditions).If you have doubts, please see the relevant college registrars.

BAHASA MALAYSIA & YOU
All Malaysian students in private colleges have to take the Bahasa Malaysia paper if they do not have a credit for that subject in their SPM. In addition they have two other compulsory LAN papers Pengajian Malaysia (Malaysian Studies) and Pengajian Islam (Islamic Civilisation) or Pendidikan Moral (Moral Studies), which are taught in Bahasa. As such, it would be advantageous for all homeschoolers intending to study in local private colleges to obtain and maintain a good grasp of the Bahasa.

Read also my previous entry:Next stop-university

The thing about homeschool is the array of methodologies and convictions. Some folks disavow structures, preferring the unschooling option. Then there are those who subscribe to a Bible-based curriculum. Others stick to a regimented course and do not stray from the recommended curriculum. Still others have a more flexible approach determined only by the end of a child’s education. Whatever the method or curriculum, if your homeschooler intends to be in a local college (in this case, a local private college) all your effort will haave to dovetail into an acceptable document that satisfies college authorities. Of course college isn’t the be-all and end-all. If that’s not your child’s preferred route, that’s fine too.

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28 March 2009

Next stop: University

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: College/University.

So your homeschooled child is nearing the end of his or her journey. What next after high school? Is it going to be SAT or O Levels? When do you actually start planning for college entrance exams?

Our son Ethan signed up for SAT after a year of preparation and took the exams as a private candidate at Metropolitan College in Subang Jaya. However, homeschoolers are increasingly turning to IGCSE O Level as the door to college. Here’s one mother’s story. In a letter to an enquirer, she writes about her homeschooled children’s preparations:

My son sat for his iGCSE O-levels last year. He took 6 subjects, i.e., Add Math, Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics and English. We are in the midst of sending in our applications to local universities. We had problems filling up their forms which require info on schools and activities in school, especially with the semi-government unis. We had to meet the person-in-charge and explain that Philip is a homeschooler. Praise God, we have His favour and so far, the responses have been positive.

Just some random sharing with you on our experiences with local unis:

1. You need to sit for your iGCSE in one sitting, minimum 5 subjects.
2. Minimum of 5 Cs for entrance into uni, so take 1 or 2 extra subjects. Choose your subjects wisely.
3. Add Math, Physics & Chemistry are important for Engineering (I mention this because our son applied for this)
4. Co-curricular activities are not necessary as uni acceptance is mainly based on merits (but do keep the children active in co-cu – it’s good for them).
5. The iGCSE Bahasa Malaysia paper is irrelevant in Malaysia. Since you still need to take Bahasa Kebangsaan (BM), Pendidikan Moral and Pengajian Malaysia in a local uni, don’t give up on Bahasa Malaysia. BM competence up to Year 6 is fine.
6. Actively seek out the administrators to clarify your position as a homeschooler.

On our preparations:

We started out our homeschool with a mixture of AOP, Sonlight, Singapore Math plus lots of random stuff. We had loads of FUN when the children were below 13. We probably did written work only 3 days a week each day for about 4 hours a time. Other times were occupied with non-academic activities.

We then switched to the local syllabus for Science & Maths (Secondary 1-3). It sets the foundation for iGCSE. We took the past year’s PMR Science & Maths papers to gauge our son’s grade competence. It’s a blessing that Science & Maths are currently taught in English so the cost of materials is relatively low. If you need help, try the local tuition centres near your area.
Our son did Maths, Biology, Physics, and English on his own. I helped him with Chemistry & Add Maths. We downloaded the syllabus from the British Council’s website, as well as exam papers, answers and marking schemes from freeexampapers.

Then he took 6 months of tuition for Physics with some conventionally schooled SPM students. He studied by himself most of the time and we bought books from Singapore for him to practise. Did lots of past year papers too. Because, our son studied on his own we allowed him to take his time and we did not hurry him. We only registered him for his exams when he finished his syllabus with 6 months to spare in order to revise past years’ papers. It wasn’t too stressful as he took a few years to prepare at his own pace.

Oh, another thing: don’t be too dependent on tutors for every subject It’s not healthy; the ability to persevere and to be resourceful is a very precious process.

There are a few ways a homeschooler can take to further his or her education. Not everyone will prefer the path this mother has taken. But this is where the appeal of homeschooling lies: you are free to do that which works for your child and your family. Whether it is SAT or iGCSE or perhaps a non-academic route, there are more choices and more opportunities today than ever before.

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5 November 2008

Is college overrated?

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: College/University.

Not a day passes without someone asking, “So, what about college?” Homeschoolers like everyone else wonder if at the end of their journey they each have what it takes to enter college. Now here’s an article by Charles Murray of the Wall Street Journal who wonders whether we’re making too much of college certification and degrees:

Imagine that America had no system of post-secondary education, and you were a member of a task force assigned to create one from scratch. One of your colleagues submits this proposal:

First, we will set up a single goal to represent educational success, which will take four years to achieve no matter what is being taught. We will attach an economic reward to it that seldom has anything to do with what has been learned. We will urge large numbers of people who do not possess adequate ability to try to achieve the goal, wait until they have spent a lot of time and money, and then deny it to them. We will stigmatize everyone who doesn’t meet the goal. We will call the goal a “BA.”

You would conclude that your colleague was cruel, not to say insane. But that’s the system we have in place.

Finding a better way should be easy. The BA acquired its current inflated status by accident. Advanced skills for people with brains really did get more valuable over the course of the 20th century, but the acquisition of those skills got conflated with the existing system of colleges, which had evolved the BA for completely different purposes.

Outside a handful of majors — engineering and some of the sciences — a bachelor’s degree tells an employer nothing except that the applicant has a certain amount of intellectual ability and perseverance. Even a degree in a vocational major like business administration can mean anything from a solid base of knowledge to four years of barely remembered gut courses.

The solution is not better degrees, but no degrees. Young people entering the job market should have a known, trusted measure of their qualifications they can carry into job interviews. That measure should express what they know, not where they learned it or how long it took them. They need a certification, not a degree.  [Read more]

It was also interesting to read another opinion piece by Marty Nemko that pretty much says that a Bachelor’s degree is way overrated. His argument is not so much the value of the degree, but whether it means anything when studies repeatedly show how little undergraduates actually learn in college:

College students may be dissatisfied with instruction, but, despite that, do they learn? A 2006 study supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that 50 percent of college seniors scored below “proficient” levels on a test that required them to do such basic tasks as understand the arguments of newspaper editorials or compare credit-card offers. Almost 20 percent of seniors had only basic quantitative skills. The students could not estimate if their car had enough gas to get to the gas station.

Unbelievably, according to the Spellings Report, which was released in 2006 by a federal commission that examined the future of American higher education, things are getting even worse: “Over the past decade, literacy among college graduates has actually declined. … According to the most recent National Assessment of Adult Literacy, for instance, the percentage of college graduates deemed proficient in prose literacy has actually declined from 40 to 31 percent in the past decade. … Employers report repeatedly that many new graduates they hire are not prepared to work, lacking the critical thinking, writing and problem-solving skills needed in today’s workplaces.” [Read more]

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