Fifteen-year-old Erica Bassler certainly has aspirations to go to college. She has even considered attending Iowa State — after all, she enrolled in ISU’s German 102 when she was only in eighth grade.

But there is something else atypical about Bassler.

When she works on her schoolwork, she never has to leave her home. If she has a question about her text, she asks her mother for help, not a public school teacher.

Bassler is part of a growing trend of “home-schooled” students, meaning instead of attending a public school, her classroom is her living room.

She has been home-schooled for five years.

Bassler said one of the reasons her parents decided to take her out of public school was because they wanted “more control over what values [she] would be taught.”

“We wanted to all be able to decide what I wanted to learn,” Bassler said, adding that with home-schooling, she can work at her own pace.

Bassler has taken both the SATs and the ACTs, and she said she definitely has an interest in attending college.

She said she hasn’t encountered any problems maintaining friendships with her peers, even though she might not see them everyday.

Bassler noted that she is not the only home-schooled student.

“It has become more and more common just in the years I’ve done it,” she said. “Now, there are so incredibly many.”

For the most part, Bassler said she has enjoyed being home-schooled.

“I love it,” she said. “It’s not for everyone, it’s for me.”

Bassler is correct. Teaching children at home instead of sending them off to public or private schools is a rapidly-growing trend in the United States.

But are home-schooled students academically and socially prepared for life at public universities such as Iowa State?

The answer is yes, according to education experts.

Phil Caffrey, associate director of admissions, said the topic of home-schooled students applying to ISU is an important issue for his office.

The Office of Admissions has only recently begun tracking the progress of formerly home-schooled students who are enrolled at ISU.

Caffrey said the exact number of formerly home-schooled students is not known, but he estimates his office receives between 10 to 20 applications a year from home-schooled students.

“This is an issue that has come up more and more in the recent past,” Caffrey said. “It’s growing, and I suspect it will continue to grow.”

Parents often contact his office to inquire whether their home-schooled students will be able to attend ISU, he said.

“Interest in home-school [issues] has really grown quite a bit,” Caffrey said.

ISU’s largest concern about admitting home-schooled students is whether they will be as prepared academically as public- or private- schooled students, he said.

Although there are organizations that provide assistance to home-schooled children who wish to continue their education, he said there are no requirements regarding the students’ transcripts or applications.

“We’ll get records that look very similar to high school records, and with other students we get very thick portfolios,” Caffrey said. “It can take a lot of time to shift [through the applications]; typically it takes much longer for us to evaluate [home-schooled students].”

Admission to ISU requires students to have completed three years of mathematics, including algebra, geometry and advanced algebra.

Prospective students must have taken three years of science, including at least two years in one of the following subjects: biology, chemistry or physics.

Two years of social studies also are required.

Students who wish to enter the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, must have completed a third year of social studies, as well as at least two years of a single foreign language.

Mary Terpstra, coordinator of the Ames Home-Based Education Program, said the state of Iowa does not officially approve home-schooling curriculum.

Instead, the state operates on an “out-put” basis, meaning the state looks to see how much the student improves academically.

The student may also opt to take one of seven standardized tests the state of Iowa has approved.

The state also allows programs like the one Terpstra is involved with to assist families who are home-schooling their children.

Terpstra said 68 students are involved with her program this year.

Between 600,000 and 1.2 million students are currently being home-schooled in America, but she said there is not a clear answer as to why this trend is growing.

“Everybody has a variety of reasons,” she said, adding that some of those reasons include parental concerns about the curriculum (some parents want their children to learn more “Bible-based” lessons) and too much or too little peer competition.

Katie Paulding, an Ames resident, and her husband are currently home-schooling their two children, ages six and eight.

Paulding said she took her children out of the public school system because she and her husband wanted more control over their children’s education.

“We felt responsible as parents to see to our children’s education,” Paulding said.

Terpstra said the students who are being home-schooled are from two extremes: either being exceptionally gifted or having special needs.

For obvious reasons, the Office of Admissions has some difficulty deciding whether prospective ISU students with a home-schooled education have successfully completed courses.

The office does not bend on the requirements, Caffrey said, but decides whether the students have completed equivalent courses.

Caffrey said when ISU officials consider admitting students, they typically look at the student’s class rank, ACT or SAT score and the courses completed.

Obviously for home-schooled students, these criteria could create a problem.

It is because of this, Caffrey said, that the office of admissions heavily focuses on the prospective student’s ACT or SAT score.

Caffrey said the average ACT score for incoming freshman is 24 or 25.

Caffrey said although there are exceptions to the rule, the vast majority of home-schooled students are accepted into ISU, and he said many of them have above-average grades.

“I would say the vast majority are admitted,” Caffrey said. “Home-schooled students are [generally] very well prepared.”

Terpstra agreed, saying that she has not heard of any cases where a student did not get admitted to the college of his or her choice because of a home-schooled background.

“[Typically,] home-schooled children excel,” Paulding said, adding that as home-schooling becomes more common, “opportunities probably won’t be as big of a deal.”

Since more than one-third of home-schooled students are over the age of 12, she said, it is certainly a concern for the parents whether their children will be admitted into college.

Caffrey said through his experience, the majority of home-schooled students tend to have parents who are well-educated, and many of these parents have teaching certificates, thus showing their household puts a high value on education.

Caffrey said currently there are no student support programs at ISU for formerly home-schooled children, some of whom may find it difficult to adjust to a larger university.