Post-Secondary Success: No Diploma? No Problem! (Part 8)
Categories: No Diploma? No Problem!, Léo’s Insights 2019-2020
Tags: post-secondary, admission
Success. What is it? When asking parents how they would define success for their children, the answer usually boils down to one thing, happiness. Children are usually a bit more idealistic respecting their futures, as would be expected of those not yet acquainted with much life experience.
Regardless, if you think about it, every student is post-secondary bound, insofar as he/she will complete the secondary (high school) level, whether it involves accreditation or not. Either way, accreditation is no guarantee of college attendance.
No doubt, every job, task or career involves higher education.
However, success, best described as being happy in a career that highlights one’s gifts and talents, does not always involve the need for institutional training, and if it does, high school accreditation is not necessary for admission. One needs only understand that there are alternate pathways available for those who come without it.
I have come to observe that everyone eventually finds their place in life whether one has been given government certification and approval, or not. I believe this is because I know God likely has more to do with the future than government!
At least, one could say God might have more sway in life than government, and surely we can agree that God’s motivation is purer than government’s.
Although faith is vitally important in determining the proper steps to take respecting our children’s future, we still need practical advice on how to do so without government accreditation. There are actually a number of ways that unaccredited home educated students can use to gain admission to college, if indeed that is the required or desired avenue.
To start, there needs to be a goal. Without one, the default is usually failure and/or disappointment.
Besides having a good idea of which career is being sought, you need to know where to get what you need or desire. Once it has been determined where it is you want to go, learn about the college’s admission polices respecting unaccredited home educated students.
This can be quickly reviewed by going to the Education Unlimited web site under the Resources heading that includes further post-secondary links.
Knowing what is desired and where to go to get it, students should be sure to have what is required as prerequisites. Keep in mind that without meeting those and other requirements, there is no entry into any given program. However, there are both standard (for the accredited) and alternate (for the unaccredited) ways for proving the required proficiencies.
Becoming acquainted with what the program entails by studying all that is available respecting the program and attending institutional open houses is obviously very important for the student (not the parent) to do. It is also critical to calculate the entire cost of this venture. Finally, once informed, complete a reasonable, attainable plan.
There is much to learn about all of this. Besides going to the institutional web sites and other sources of information, I recommend students take advantage of the information I have compiled over my many years of activity in this field, all with the objective of helping them understand what is involved with different admission practices and to facilitate the task of developing a good post-secondary plan.
You can find this information on our web site by going to EducationUnlimited.ca / Program Resources and to the Library under Parent Resources, where you will find a lot of helpful information.
I also highly recommend you search the appropriate “Insights” or blog on LeoGaumont.com. There is plenty of helpful information on this web site.
One more thing… good luck, if indeed, luck has anything to do with success!
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