In November, as applications start pouring into the University of California system, UC Riverside will become the first UC campus to specifically recruit homeschooled and other nontraditionally educated students.

UCR will offer a Web site and an admissions process that includes a faculty review of a portfolio of the student's projects and curriculum.
The campus' effort kicks off with an information workshop for interested families from 9 a.m. to 12 noon Saturday, Nov. 12, in the University Lecture Hall.

"UCR is interested in students with high levels of achievement, promise, and contribution," said LaRae Lundgren, director of admissions. ""We are looking for creative ways to discover these students."

She said actively recruiting nontraditional students fits with UCR's profile as a place serving a diverse population. The same portfolio review process can handle students who come from small charter schools, which might not have all the resources of a large comprehensive high school.
The effort at UCR started at the request of several faculty members familiar with homeschooling.

"Among the homeschool community, we find large numbers of students who are smart, mature, creative, independent and well-socialized people," said Frank Vahid, a professor of computer science who has three children who are homeschooled. "We want such excellent students in our classes. They have a lot to offer the university community."

And as a parent, he said, it is exciting to see a recognized public research university not only accepting homeschool students, but actively recruiting them. "I think this will be a very welcome development in the network of families in California who are homeschooling their children," Vahid said. "Most universities have not yet recognized the importance of that group."

The U.S. Department of Education reports that 1.1 million, or 2.2 percent of all students, are homeschooled in the nation. While some private colleges have recruited homeschooling families, UCR would be among the first public research universities to do so.