Meet Olivia: From Homeschool to Harvard
From Homeschool to Harvard
As soon as Olivia S. Farrar ’21 got her driver’s license, the world was her classroom.
The freshman, who was homeschooled throughout high school, said she would hop from one cafe to the next, finding new places to complete her online assignments and self-defined projects.
Unlike the experience of the vast majority of Harvard students—who come from traditional brick-and-mortar high schools—a small group of undergraduates were homeschooled by their parents or through online courses before coming to college.
Like many peer institutions, Harvard says it does not evaluate homeschooled applicants differently than others in the admissions process. The University also does not publicize any statistics on homeschooled applicants or accepted students.
While an admissions officer declined to comment, according to the Admissions Office website, “each applicant to Harvard College is considered with great care and homeschooled applicants are treated the same as all other applicants.” The website adds that “there is no special process, but all relevant information about your educational and personal background is welcome.”
Dean of Freshmen Thomas A. Dingman ’67 said that homeschoolers integrate well into the student population, while also adding that the definition of ‘homeschool’ has certainly changed, now encapsulating students who take online courses or community college classes.
“We’ve had lots of success with students who identify as homeschooled,” Dingman said. “It’s changed over time, so I don’t know that you can say these are people who’ve only gotten their education within the four walls of their home,” he added.
Harvard’s homeschooled students say growing up outside of a school system was an opportunity for them to be organic and self-driven in pursuing their interests and education, and has made coming to Harvard an occasionally overwhelming experience but one they felt well-equipped to tackle.
“Farrar said that homeschooling in her experience was far from the common conception of a parent sitting a child down at a desk with a blackboard. Rather, her parents helped facilitate wherever her interests led her—ranging from nature walks to museum visits.
“When I was small I would just spend days at the library and I would just get lost in the stacks and just read everything that I touched,” she said. “There would be days where that was all I would do, and then there were days where I would just explore.”"
