While collecting information on Open Universities (Athabasca University and Thomspon Rivers University) for the upcoming KW Christian Home Educators’ conference, I discovered that the University of Guelph now has an Open Learning Program with “no formal admission requirements.” Their website goes on to say:

Guaranteed Admission to a B.A. Program

English proficiency requirements as outlined in the Undergraduate Calendar apply. Contact Admissions at 519 821-2130 for details.

Open Learning program students with no previous post secondary experience who complete four courses (2.0 credits) with a 70% minimum cumulative average, may qualify to transfer into the Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Commerce Programs at the University of Guelph. Please contact the Office of Open Learning for information regarding these opportunities, since there are different course requirements for each program. Please note: University of Guelph admissions requirements are subject to change at anytime

Way to go, Guelph!

Guelph’s Open Learning Program Website – http://www.open.uoguelph.ca/prospective/open-learning

You can view and/or join the discussion here:

 http://messageboard.rainsberger.ca/topic/162696/

• The combination of the new courses, MHF 4U – Advanced. Functions and MCV 4U – new Calculus is being treated as the rough equivalent of MCB 4U – old Calculus.

• If MCB 4U – old Calculus is used, then neither MHF 4U- Advanced Functions nor MCV 4U- new Calculus can be included in the six Grade 12 courses required to calculate an admission average.

• Conversely, if either MHF 4U – Advanced Functions or MCV 4U- new Calculus is used, then MCB 4U- old Calculus cannot be included in the six Grade 12 courses required to calculate an admission average.

In a nutshell, it now takes two courses (Functions/Calculus) to equate to the old calculus course, and you may either use the first pair of courses or the second course in your admission requirements/averages (Top Six).

Read the fine print – one course or two?
Even though a program requiring a Calculus prerequisite now means that you have to take two math courses, it doesn’t necessarily mean both will be included in your Top Six. When a program requirement includes MCV4U, it is assumed that you already took MHF4U, because your high school would have required that you take the latter as a pre- (or co-) requisite.

Some university programs will only require the Calculus course. This tends to be true for programs in the Business fields where they need you to have a foundation in Calculus, but not in the more abstract realm of functions.  As in the Queen’s chart, this is often indicated by an asterisk following the Calculus course, with a note at the bottom reminding you that your high school will require you to take the Advanced Functions course, even though Queen’s does not need this mark for university admission. In this case, you still must take MHF4U, but it does not need to be included in your Top Six.  In this case, the functions course will be treated like an elective, and included if the grade is high enough to be to your advantage in the Top Six calculation.

Other programs, however, do explicitly state both math courses as a requirement.  You’ll find this in math-intense subjects such as computer programming or engineering.  In this case, you will be required to include both math courses in your Top Six.

program, performance, preparation, passion and presentation

Here’s my take on these strategies for Ontario home schoolers, starting with the first one.

Program:

For traditionally-schooled students, this would mean take the most challenging courses, even if it means you may earn a lower grade.  This advice is applicable to Ontario home schoolers to a certain extent.

If you are following the “Top Six” route, then you will already be taking six “honours level” courses.  As long as the prerequisite courses are included among those six, then the other “U” courses really don’t matter.  So in fact, a common Ontario strategy is in fact to take a balance of required, interesting, and “easy” courses.  If they are not prerequisites, then the universities will not care too much whether you took a history, food nutrition, or a science course to fill out your Top Six.  They are all honours level courses, and none are weighted more heavily than others or considered to be significantly “better” than others.  You can be sure that traditionally-schooled kids are trying to sneak a few of the supposedly “easier” courses into their top six, so don’t worry about doing that yourself.

If your home schooling program includes graded non-credit courses, then don’t be afraid to challenge yourself. These courses may have “something to prove” in the eyes of the university since admission departments can’t be sure that they do in fact compare to the Ontario 12U courses (even though they in fact may be far more challenging).  This is where the program strategy is most applicable.  If you choose to take an Economics course, for example, through an institution other than an approved accredited Ontario school, then do take the one with the most impressive sounding syllabus, the greatest depth of content or the most academic textbook.  Since grades in these courses are only used in the admission process in a “holistic” way, and not to calculate an admissions average, the grade will be less important than convincing the university that you are prepared for the challenge of university level work.

If instead you are simply following a textbook, using a tutor or choosing a similar self-study method that does not involve a final grade, do be sure to include advanced-level topics and stretch yourself with your level of study.  Students considering business, science, mathematics, computer science, architecture or engineering, for example should include the study of Calculus in their programs either formally or informally. But, don’t feel bound to simply follow the Ontario curriculum, which removed much of its calculus content from its senior math course less than a decade ago.  Study for the AP Calculus exam (even if you find yourself unable to write the exam itself), find the old “red calculus book” that was used for years in Ontario high schools or find a first year university calculus text book and learn calculus like we did in the good old days.  (Great strategy:  if you know which university you wish to attend, use its own first year calculus book to prepare!)

The bottom line is that program selection is much less important for Ontario university applicants than for US applicants, simply because Ontario has already designated a certain list of courses as the required selection pool of “university entrance” courses.   If you take six 12U credits, then you generally be treated like a traditionally-schooled Ontario applicant, so there is little strategy involved other than to be well prepared for the courses you need and to do well in them. It is if you avoid these credit courses, however, that the strategy takes on greater significance.  In this case, your application may be judged on an individual basis and the admissions officers will have to examine your high school program more carefully.  Or, you may choose to rely on the strength of standardized test scores, such as SAT Subject Tests, in which case you will want the strength of a solid educational foundation behind you, not an easily-awarded high mark.

Here’s the basic nature of the changes:

(Note: Since it’s been a while since I’ve been involved in school administration, consider the following description as the “general gist” of things. If someone wants to correct or fine-tune my description of how things work, please email me and I’ll update accordingly.)

Previously, when a student registered with an public online school (which is often simply an online version of a public school or board) the child would be come a student of that school. (Makes sense, right? That’s where he or she is taking courses.)

According to a new instructions manual for reporting student enrollment released last week, however, changes in the way schools report their students has essentially prevented these online schools from claiming any students as their own. Instead, students may only be considered students of their local public school, and the e-learning provider simply bills the local school for the service of providing their online courses to that public school’s students. E-learning schools can now only receive funding for students who belong to other school boards, since it appears that they will receive money directly from the boards and not directly from the Ministry.

It’s perhaps not as bad as it could be, because (as I make a strong point of saying) registering for something like AMDEC is putting your child in the public system, making them subject to all the ministry rules and regulations. So, if you were going to register at AMDEC, then you might as well be registered at the local school — for all administrative intents and purposes it’s the same thing.

However, there’s one part of the equation no one is talking about yet: the local “home school” principal has always had total and absolute authority to allow or deny taking courses outside of the school. There’s no guarantee that, once registered at the local school, the local principal will allow you to transfer to AMDEC.

This would be less of a problem if AMDEC could have its own students; however, since the student must be a student of the local public school, now we’re falling into the territory of “taking classes outside the school” which has never, ever been a given. (Notice how AMDEC’s registration website says that the local school principal will be mailed a document explaining what’s going on? Half of that is going to be a “coaxing/begging” letter for permission, too, I’m sure.)

In the worst case, home schoolers will register with their local school boards only to find that permission to take online courses is not granted, and now they’re in the system at the mercy of that local principal. One would then be forced to file official notice of home schooling to get out of that arrangement, but would still be unable to take the online courses.

The good things is that AMDEC is really staffed by very nice people and it is in their best interest to make the situation work for home schoolers. So, families will definitely have an ally in AMDEC, but will they have a willing participant in their local principal? I can just imagine the potential for resentment to build up. (We have to register these kids that don’t even want to take courses anyway — we have to establish and maintain OSR’s but we don’t receive a cent of funding for them — we’re legally responsible for them, yet have no control over what they’re doing . . . ) Totally uncool, I think. If I were a principal, I wouldn’t be happy.

Some alternatives to this situation include:

• attempt to gain university admission in one of the many ways that does not require formal coursework (e.g. standardized tests, mature student, open university)
• register in a private online school (e.g. Ottawa Carleton E-School) that does not receive public funding. (Note: you will have to pay for these courses, but there is less bureaucracy and you don’t have to register with a local school first.)
• Enroll in the ILC (Independent Learning Centre) for correspondence high school credit courses. (Note: you will still have to approach your local school, but only to ask them to sign a form indicating that your child is not registered at the local school. Therefore, you are registered only with the ILC directly and not with a local school board. At the time of writing this post, the ILC homeschool policy had remained unchanged.)

Please share your enrollment experiences with me so that I can better advise and assist parents struggling with these new regulations!

UPDATE: From what I’ve been able to gather from those who have spoken to AMDEC, it looks like students who already thought they were registered should be able to begin classes normally, but will be mailed “additional paperwork” to take to the local school and have signed/returned. So, this change shouldn’t prevent anyone who had currently registered from the upcoming year from starting classes. It’s just that AMDEC won’t get the money from the gov’t until all the paperwork is in place. And, from what I remember, these enrollment forms aren’t due until October anyway, so there is time to deal with the paperwork. But, it still has to be dealt with, unfortunately . . .