Higher Education without highschool: 4

Another mother writes from Red lake Ontario about her son:

We moved to Ontario when our son turned 15. As unschoolers we looked at ways for our son to get into university without an OSSD. We considered doing the SAT, portfolio and interview track, but my son decided that he wanted to do a few courses through Athabasca University during the year he when he would traditionally apply to university and found that he could then take these courses to another university and apply as a transfer student and would not have to have a diploma or portfolio. To better his chances he has completed the required writing course and a math course. He then decided to take another year of studies through Athabasca. He enrolled in the Athabasca University BSc program and looked at the transfer requirements from the University of Windsor and University of Manitoba to help him choose his current courses. He plans to continue his studies at one of these institutions in the future. He is now studying for his Bsc and hoping to become a Geoscientist.

He is, also, planning to challenge a couple of computer science and possibly geography courses this spring. He is using Yale and MIT open courseware to study the material and will then submit the required projects and write the required exams. He wrote to the U of WIndsor admissions office for help in choose appropriate courses.

He hopes to have 10 courses to transfer next year, if he chooses to go then. He has saved a great deal of money by remaining at home and by challenging courses for credit.

Mother continues about her son:
"He attended school until age 9 when the school told us his LD was so severe that he would never read or write fluently. They wanted him put into a non academic program. From the time we began to homeschool he was unschooled and never used any curriculum until he started university. On his first course, an essay writing course, he obtained a grade of 78%. Not a bad grade for someone the school system wrote off!