Missouri Homeschooling
Reporting: The parents must keep attendance records of the hours taught; the subjects taught, the social activities the child engages in and examples of the child’s academic work.
Compulsory Attendance: Between ages 7 and 16. 1000 hours per year; 600 in the required subjects, 400 of those at the homeschool location.
Required Subjects: Math, language arts, reading, social studies and science
State Organization(s):
(1) Families for Home Education (FHE) (Secular)
POB 742, Grandview, MO 64030; 816-767-9825;
www.fhe-mo.org E-mail: 1983@fhe-mo.org
(2) Missouri Association of Teaching Christian Homes, Inc. (MATCH)
2203 Rhonda Dr., West Plains, MO 65775
http://www.match-inc.org/ – E-mail: information@match-inc.org
Convention(s): None
Columbia College
1001 Rogers Street Columbia, MO 65216
About Online Campus
If work, military or family obligations have kept you from attending a traditional college, you are an excellent candidate for pursuing your college degree online. The Online Campus at Columbia College offers you an affordable and convenient option for earning your college degree.
Founded in 1851, Columbia College prides itself on its ability to change with the times by offering educational programs that meet the needs of an ever-changing society. The college often has been among the first colleges to try “daring experiments” in higher education such as educating women or military personnel and adult learners through evening classes. Nearly 16,000 students take at least one online course each year at Columbia College.
Learn at Your Own Pace
At Columbia College, you have the freedom to earn your degree at your own pace. You have the flexibility to start and stop your degree program whenever you wish, depending on what may be going on in your personal life. If you need to sit out for a session or more, you can pick up right where you left off whenever you are ready to continue.
Online Degree Programs
The Online Campus at Columbia College offers more than 500 accredited online classes and 19 accredited online degree programs. Whether you’re interested
in biology, law, psychology, mathematics, English or a host of other available programs, your academic options are endless at Columbia College. Most of the online instructors at Columbia College are the same experienced instructors teaching our traditional courses, ensuring that all online students enjoy a quality educational experience.
Register today and join the nearly 16,000 who take online courses at Columbia College every year through our Online Campus. Classes are taught in eight-week sessions, with five sessions offered each year starting in January, March, June, August and October. You’ll be well on your way to earning your college degree in no time!
Learn more about how online learning works.
Congratulations, You Have Been Accepted! Now What?
by Andrea van Niekerk, College Goals Consultant
Many students who applied to regular decision programs now have a big envelope (or more likely these days, an email!) in hand telling them that they have been accepted to a school. Congratulations! Those who got good news from their dream school feel like they were handed the keys to the kingdom. For most, having at least one offer of admission is an enormous relief – let’s face it, one school is all it takes!
But as that good news keeps on streaming in, you may now find that you have difficult choices to make between those schools that looked good earlier on. So keep the following in mind:
***This is all wonderful. After being a supplicant at the mercy of admissions committees, the ball is now firmly in your court. Enjoy it – soon you will be a first year and at the bottom of the college totem pole again!
***Seek out the information you need to make your choice. Phone financial aid offices and talk to them about your aid package. They may not change their minds, but you won’t know unless you ask.
***Try to attend accepted student events, even if you had visited before. It changes the experience to know that college is yours if you wish! Also, if your earlier visit was over summer, a campus feels very different when it is in term.
***When you do visit, hone in on the things you care about – student organizations, research facilities, teaching faculty, or dorm rooms. Don’t confine yourself only to a few new friends or the set program, but rather explore the campus, talk to students, or attend a class.
***During your visit, have a good time but behave with propriety – schools would rather retract their offer of admission than end up with a freshman whose lack of good sense marks him or her for serious trouble.
***Don’t doubt the decisions of the admission officers and wonder if you have what it takes to succeed. If they had doubts, they would have informed you quite bluntly!
***But don’t harbor the illusion that you now have made it either – college is meant to challenge us because that is how we grow.
And then get back to senior year, relishing the last days of high school, preparing yourself academically for college, and enjoying what may be your last months living at home. Above all, stay safe!
Copyright, 2010 by College Goals. Used by permission. (www.collegegoals.com)
Cottey College
The Perfect Fit for Homeschooled Girls
1000 W. Austin, Nevada, Missouri 64772 1- 888-5-COTTEY
By Michael Leppert
Most homeschooling families appreciate the idea of providing moral and spiritual insulation for their children. This is one of the major reasons parents choose to homeschool and none ever seem to regret the choice. Raising our children with a sense of morality, ethics, wholesomeness and self-reliance is not isolation, but insulation. However, it seems to be difficult to find such an appreciation of wholesomeness in the “outside” world. Parents of young homeschooled ladies will be pleased to learn about one such place in the wide world that values our values; nurtures as we want our children to be nurtured — no matter how “old” they may be.
From that perspective, a perfect two-year college for homeschooled girls is Cottey College, a small school with an enrollment of 350. Cottey is located in a rural area of Missouri, 100 miles from Kansas City; 60 miles from Joplin, Missouri., in Nevada, a town with a population of 9,000 (county population is 20,000). Not only is Cottey’s country atmosphere perfect for homeschooled girls– the college seeks homeschoolers and maintains a high academic attitude that coincides with the usual homeschooler’s laser focus. The average SAT score for Cottey entrants is 1070; average ACT is 23, and a 3.3 GPA. Cottey graduates compete successfully for $30,000 Truman Scholarships and $25-30,000 Jack Kent Cook Scholarships. They also go on to prestigious four-year schools including The American University in Paris, The American University, Richmond, in London, Mills College in the Bay Area, Mt. Holyoke in Massachusetts, Stanford and Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, to name a few.
Cottey is owned by the P.E.O. Sisterhood, a philanthropic educational organization founded in the mid-1800s by seven college women at Iowa Wesleyan College whose goals were to provide the same educational opportunities to women as were offered to men. Guided by the belief that women deserved the same education as men, Virginia Alice Cottey had founded Cottey College in 1884. Shortly thereafter, Virginia Alice Cottey was invited to join the P.E.O. Sisterhood and in 1927 donated the college to that organization. Today, P.E.O.’s membership is 250,000 and is a major women’s organization, providing scholarships and other assistance to women in the U.S. and internationally, who wish to obtain higher education. Members of P.E.O. believe in education for women and to that end, they will “adopt” a student or a dormitory suite (explained below) of students and send them care packages or keep in touch with cards and letters throughout the year. This contributes to Cottey’s feeling of community and establishes a personal college environment. It also provides a network atmosphere that can be very important for success in one’s career. Class size is small and Cottey students do not feel as if they are lost in a sea of faces as they might at larger colleges. The college also enjoys a strong financial base and is able to offer its students the best equipment in the science department and excellent resources in the other departments.
Cottey has a system of host families for students, arranged through local churches and Rotary International, that also makes it a perfect fit for homeschooled girls. The girls live on campus, in suites that accommodate 8 to 12, thus providing a homey, close-knit atmosphere. The host family gets to know the student they are hosting, offering to pick her up for church on Sunday, have her over for dinner, and include her in other activities throughout the year. Church affiliation or attendance is not necessary, as Cottey is not a religious school per se, but in a small town like Nevada, much of the local life revolves around the churches.
Cottey College is very strong in the sciences, the fine arts, the performing arts and in developing leadership skills. At Cottey, young women learn that their opinions matter in the wide world; their voices are heard at the school and living in such an environment helps to develop the expectation of being heard in post-Cottey life. Francine Irving Ness, former United States Treasurer and National Director of the U.S. Savings Bond Division, was a Cottey graduate, as was Kelly Smith Tunney, the first female General Manager of the Associated Press. More modern Cottey graduates include Carol Littleton, who was the editor on the film “Brighton Beach Memoirs” and another is on the staff of the new Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.
One of the most interesting perks of attending Cottey College is that each March, the college takes the 2nd year students to Europe for a one week educational exploration of a major European city. Airfare, lodging, and some meals are paid by the college, leaving only the cost of souvenirs and incidentals to be paid by the students. The college is closed for two weeks at that time and many students go with the class and then spend a second week in Europe with friends and parents. What a great way to wrap up two years of hard academic work!
Cottey College offers homeschooled girls (and their parents) a safe, wholesome environment in which to develop and achieve academic and leadership success in a relaxed, quiet, idyllic surrounding. Please visit the Cottey website and do not hesitate to contact their Admissions Office for further information. M.L. ■