No one completely grasps the alchemy of college admissions, where an applicant’s fate often depends on an over-caffeinated twenty-five-year-old reviewer, sifting through dozens of applications each hour.

Luckily, Acton Academy graduates have a choice:

• Translate badges into a diploma and transcript identical to those issued by top college prep high schools, a strategy most effective for second tier state universities with more bureaucratic admission hurdles; or
• Present a rich portfolio of work and a fistful of reference letters from apprenticeships, an approach favored by alternative schoolers and homeschoolers for more selective universities like Stanford or Harvard.

Increasingly universities like Harvard and Stanford covet self-directed, focused graduates like ours and offer large discounts on tuition.