Homeschooling High School? Write AWESOME Course Descriptions

Is your homeschooler college-bound? Course descriptions will be an important part of their college applications.

I won’t lie. This was probably the most overwhelming part of high school for me.  Maybe even homeschooling in general!  I knew what I was supposed to write.  I knew how to write it.  But the writing itself?  I was afraid I’d do it wrong.  So I just didn’t do it.  Until the week before my daughter was ready to submit her applications.  BIG MISTAKE.    

(Repeat after me.  “I, __________, will not wait until my high school student’s senior year to write course descriptions. I pinkie promise.”) 

What are course descriptions?

The quick answer — high school course descriptions give colleges an understanding of what your homeschool student learned. Their high school transcript tells colleges the grades they earned.

(These are separate documents. You’ll submit them in different parts of your school profile in the common application if that is what your college-bound kiddo uses.)

Course descriptions are your chance to highlight what made the course unique!  Was the topic more niched than typical high school courses? Did it include any unique field trips or hands-on opportunities? Did they take the class with a true expert in the field?  

Some classes will just be standard, typical classes. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s hard to spice up advanced algebra or health! Don’t embellish course descriptions that seem “boring.”  But don’t be afraid to let the uniqueness of your class shine.

Three Questions You Need to Answer

“Okay, but what exactly am I writing?”

Good question. And I’ll answer with three more questions.

1. What did your student learn?
2. How did they learn it?
3. What did they use to learn it?

A great way to get started is simply google X (your course) + course description. “Algebra course description” or “human geography course description.” Copy & paste one or two course descriptions into your favorite word processor. But you aren’t going to leave them like that! You need to edit it for YOUR course.

Did your kiddo take a course at a co-op, community college, or from another local person?  Did they take online courses?  You can even look for a curriculum description at the website you ordered the curriculum from.  Lucky you — grab their description, edit it as needed, and you’re done.

That’s exactly what I did for the dual credit courses my kiddo took at the community college. I shortened the description from the course catalog, swapped out some words to sound like my voice, and added in the evaluation methods.

Course Description Template

1. Course Name: You’ll get different opinions on how you title these. Some people recommend giving them straightforward names, as you’d see from a public school.

Examples of Traditional Course Titles

• English 1
• American Government
• Chemistry
• Physical Education
• Piano

Others say this is one way you can stand out as a homeschooler. Since college admissions counselors are unlikely to read every course description carefully, eye-catching titles are better.

Examples of Eye Catching Titles

• 19th Century British Literature
• Chemistry in the Kitchen,
• American History through Movies
• Medieval Literature
• 20th Century World History

What did I do? I used a combination of both. When a course title stood out, I entered the basic title in parentheses next to the creative one. For example, Medieval Literature (English 2). A title to catch the reader’s eyes + a basic title to quickly mark off their list

2. Course Content: What did your student learn? How did they learn it? What did they use to learn it?

Introductory phrases could include:

• In this class, the student will…
• The student was introduced to…
• This course provided the student with a foundational understanding of…
• Topics in this course will include….

All the Materials

After you write your course description paragraph, you’ll start a new line to include all those fantastic materials you used. Don’t limit this to just texts! Include some of those documentaries you watched, relevant field trips, fiction books, etc…

What did I do? This is what I included for Kiddo #1’s American history course. I used the initial phrasing in every description.

“Materials included (but were not limited to)  Experiencing America: A Smithsonian Tour through American History (Richard Kurin, Great Courses), The Skeptic’s Guide to American History (Dr. Mark Stoler, The Great Courses), A New History of the American South (Edward L. Ayers, The Great Courses), U.S. History Detective (Critical Thinking Company), The NPR 100:  100 Of The Most Important American Musical Works Of The 20th Century, Orphan Train, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, FlyGirl, and The Help.”

Evaluation

How much detail about grades should you include? You’ll find varying answers to that question, too. Some people say that a simple breakdown is sufficient. (Tests 40%, Quizzes 20%, etc.). Others recommend including test scores, projects, research papers, etc.

If your student took an AP test, CLEP exam, or other similar tests, include that information in this section.

Here’s my confession — I didn’t set a breakdown for each course & not every course included a ton of graded work. At the end of each course description paragraph, I wrote something like: “Course evaluation included written work, unit projects, and discussion.” I did not include any test scores or such.

For Kiddo #2, I will include a breakdown. It wasn’t until we were well into high school with Kiddo #1 that it even occurred to me that I might want to set a breakdown of grades! Live and learn.

Tips to Get Started with Good Course Descriptions

1. Don’t procrastinate. Before each school year begins, at the very least, open your course description document, make some bullet points & list the materials you plan to use.
2. Write course descriptions in the future tense or past tense — be consistent!
3. I aimed for at least five good sentences. Some descriptions were twice that length, but most fell in the 5-7 sentence range.
4. Make them skimmable. Is the admissions counselor reading every word you wrote? Probably not. Make sure you have a strong first sentence that gets straight to the point. And make sure your last sentence is valuable.
5. Don’t overthink it. What did your student learn? How did they learn it? What did they use to learn it? You’ll have opportunities later to perfect your descriptions. Just get them started!
6. Resist the temptation to add too much information. 
7. At the end of each school year, finish up your descriptions. Make any changes from your initial notes (see point #1!!). Ensure your formatting is consistent.

Edit Them Well!

1. I used ‘find’ in Google Docs to look for some mistakes. For example, I wrote most of our descriptions in the past tense, but a few future-tense ones snuck in. (For example, I searched for ‘will’ in Find so I could quickly edit those mistakes.)
2. Have your kiddo read them. Use it as a writing activity! Did they find any mistakes? Anything you left out?
3. Switch with another homeschool parent. Someone unfamiliar with your day-to-day may have an easier time spotting mistakes.

Leave These Off

When you’re writing course descriptions, it’s tempting to include far more detail than needed. College admissions officers have so many applications to get through, and including more detail than necessary is not in your student’s best interest.

• Grades go on their homeschool transcript.
• Extracurricular activities can go on a school profile.
• That reading list you may have kept? That’s a separate document, too.

Summing It Up

• Answer: What did your student learn? How did they learn it? What did they use to learn it?
• Write it in paragraph-style
• Include a list of the materials you used
• And a description of how you evaluated your student.