University of Washington Homeschool Days

This Friday and Saturday, my mom and I went to the University of Washington to take part in the activities put on by the Homeschool Advocacy Group on campus. Overall, it was a pretty great experience, and I'm really glad we went.

This stretch down to the fountain is very pretty. When you're in the main part of the campus, you almost forget that you're in downtown Seattle.

On Friday, we sat in on a couple of classes, and went on a campus tour. The first class we went to (an English Literature class), we went in and sat down in the back, and waited, and waited, and waited. Nobody showed up, including the professor. We were positive we had the right time and the right room, but unfortunately, we didn't get to see the English class. I was a bit disappointed mainly because that was the class I was most looking forward to, but also because it was a small class, while the other ones we saw were quite large.

We spent some time wandering around campus before sitting in on Psych 101. It was in a huge lecture hall, with probably about 400 people in it. We ate some lunch, and then headed back to the homeschool people for a tour of UW.

The Gothic Reading Room (AKA the Harry Potter room), in the Suzzallo library.

In the afternoon, we went to see an Art History class (in the same room as the Psych). It didn't have as many people in it, but it was still really full. It was kind f strange for me, because it felt like something out of a movie. At 2:30, the professor walked in and started lecturing about Rembrandt. She continued to talk continuously about other artists and paintings until 3:20, when the bell rang, and everyone immediately got up and left. It felt like such a stereotypical college lecture. There was no class interaction, no time for questions, just her talking for 50 minutes.


After that, we drove home. Saturday morning we got up early to make it back to UW (which is a little less than two hours away) by 9am.

Mary Gates Hall, where the events on Saturday were.

All the things Saturday were workshops about applying to college, particularly as a homeschooler. The first part was about preparing your transcript, and how to make sure you cover all the classes required to get into college. We then talked some about finding a college that is a good fit for you, and then ate lunch.

The campus is full of beautiful old buildings like this one.

After lunch were the more interesting parts (in my opinion). First, there was a session on writing your personal statement, which I thought was really helpful. They had great tips and ideas to help write a good essay, and some warnings about what not to do. The last part of the day was devoted to how to pay for college. Since my mom is a college counselor, this is a topic she knows quite a bit about, but I found it helpful. The woman leading did a really good job of explaining financial aid in a way that made a lot of sense to me. She also talked about applying for scholarships, which was helpful.

Red Square on Saturday afternoon. On Friday, where were hundreds of people in this space.

Overall, I thought it was a really good thing to go to. Even though the idea of going to a a huge university like the University of Washington is a little scary to me, this definitely made me start thinking more about applying to colleges, and about where I might actually want to go.