Student pool

While a great deal of attention is being focused on transferring students from schools that fail to meet No Child Left Behind federal standards, thousands of parents have already made their choices and are home-schooling their children. An estimated 1 million to 2 million children currently are being taught at home in the United States.

Parents decide to home-school their children for a variety of reasons, and the numbers are growing every year. Many home-school families are affiliated with associations that provide curriculum guides and standardized testing.

This large pool of potential students has attracted the attention of colleges and universities. The admissions director of Columbia College says home-schooled graduates tend to be intellectually curious and have good independent study habits and critical thinking skills.

It's good to see that admissions officials, like those at Southeast Missouri State University, are looking for qualified students regardless of how they obtained their high school diplomas.