This page used to be built around five schools he is no longer applying to. His only application is GCU, and it is rolling, free, and worth doing this week. The old five-school ladder is kept below as historical reference, not as anything to act on.
GCU application, free, rolling, this week. Plus the honors application in the same week. The reason for NOW rather than later: Chancellor awards are limited and first-come, first-served. Full ordered list on the GCU page.
The transcript blocker is fixed. This had blocked Biola, Baylor, Pepperdine and Point Loma, none of which are active. Per Cooper directly: "my transcript is fine, urs is outdated." Still worth fixing the email typo (cooperjohnson2008@gmail.com, missing the "a") and the empty senior year for its own sake.
The rest of this page describes the five-school deadline ladder from when Biola, Point Loma, Cal Baptist, Baylor and Pepperdine were all active. None of them are being applied to. It is kept for the record of the reasoning, the same handling given to the master comparison and the Stanford page. Nothing below is a current to-do.
| Biola | Point Loma | Cal Baptist | Baylor | Pepperdine | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Early deadline | Nov 30 EA | Nov 15 EA | Dec 5 priority | Nov 1 EA, earliest | Nov 1 EA, earliest |
| Decision notified | Jan 15 | Late Nov through Dec | Early, then rolling | Feb 1 Dec 15 if ED | Dec 21 |
| Regular deadline | Mar 1, 2027 | Feb 15 priority | Rolling, no hard cutoff | Feb 1, 2027 | Jan 15, 2027 |
| Binding option | None | None | None | ED, Nov 1 | ED I Nov 1, ED II Jan 15 |
| Deposit due | May 1 | May 1 | Rolling | May 1 Feb 15 if ED | May 1 Feb 1 if ED |
| Application fee | Common App | $55 | $45, possibly waived | not checked | not checked |
| Test policy for you | Optional, but scores set your award | Optional, but 1470 earns money | Not used for admission | Required, homeschool | Required, homeschool |
| Move-in | Late Aug Inferred | Late Aug Inferred | Late Aug Inferred | Move2BU, slots set late July Unverified | Housing opens May 1 Unverified |
Every other early date on this table buys you an earlier answer. Baylor's Nov 1 Early Action triggers automatic merit consideration and unlocks their invitation-only specialty scholarship events, where Invitation to Excellence typically wants a 1420 and you have a 1470.
Miss it and you still get the base grid, but the upside round is gone. That makes November 1 the hardest deadline on this page to slip.
Stanford's Restrictive Early Action on Nov 1 prohibits applying early to any other private college, but GCU is rolling admission, which REA explicitly permits. This used to cost four schools (Baylor, Pepperdine, Point Loma, Biola) when they were active; none of them are now.
Apply Regular Decision on January 5 if you want the lottery ticket, or REA if you want the earlier answer. Neither one costs anything else on this site anymore. Full Stanford breakdown.
Baylor and Pepperdine are the only two schools here offering Early Decision, and both share the Nov 1 date with their non-binding Early Action. Make sure the box you tick is Early Action.
Correction, 8/23: the cost of that choice is $2,000, not $25,000. Pepperdine's admissions FAQ, verbatim, says ED "does offer preferential consideration for admission and includes an exclusive $2,000 scholarship." An earlier version of this site had that wrong. Going EA over ED costs a small guaranteed scholarship and some admissions edge, not a merit floor.
You asked about move-in, and the honest answer is that fall 2027 term dates are not published by any school on this site. Unverified
Both Biola and Point Loma start August 31 in 2026, so late August 2027 is the working assumption, and move-in is typically three to five days before classes. Treat that as approximate until the 2027-28 calendars post rather than booking anything around it.
This was true of the five now-eliminated schools. At GCU it does not apply at all: Chancellor is GPA-only and already the top of the grid, so no test score adds a dollar there. Kept below for the record.
Baylor says it outright: homeschoolers must submit SAT, ACT or CLT. Pepperdine requires strong scores plus documentation of the curriculum followed and the grades obtained.
So the 1470 is not an optional extra you might submit for money. It is the thing that makes a homeschool transcript legible to an admissions office, and at two schools it is a hard requirement. Submit it everywhere.
Their merit grid needs any 2 of 3 criteria, and SAT 1430 or higher is one of them. Your 1470 is literally half of what earns the $24,000 President's Gold.
Withholding the score here would be expensive.
Tiers are awarded on "unweighted GPA and scores received on the SAT or ACT". Scores feed the award, so the same logic applies.
Their grid is GPA-only (4.0 earns the $18,000 Trustees), and they state scores are "not required or used for admission", accepted only for English and math placement.
Submit or skip, it makes no difference. The only school on the list where that is true.
Homeschooled applicants must submit SAT, ACT or CLT, even though Baylor is test-optional for everyone else.
It also pays. Middle 50 percent is 1180 to 1350, so a 1470 sits well above their 75th percentile and points at the $32,000 President's award, plus the 1420-and-up scholarship events.
Strong SAT, ACT or CLT scores are required from homeschoolers, alongside documentation of the curriculum followed and the grades obtained.
Their middle 50 percent is 1240 to 1410, so a 1470 clears the 75th percentile and is what puts the top 8 to 10 percent Regents band in play. The grades half of that requirement is exactly what is missing from your transcript.
Background, not a to-do: the Trustee Scholarship, full tuition, roughly 10 awarded, due mid-January on its own application. Cooper has dropped this chase as of 8/23. It has a published floor, 1500 SAT / 34 ACT / 110 CLT, that a 1470 does not clear. Full reasoning, kept for reference.
Who writes the academic reference for a homeschooler whose teacher is his mother? Unverified Point Loma does not publish guidance, and most schools will not accept a parent for the academic letter.
Possible answers are a co-op instructor, a dual-enrollment professor, or an exception granted by admissions. This is the kind of thing that quietly kills an application if it surfaces in November. Call now.
Their Early Action is worth more than most. Point Loma has capped enrollment, which makes the cycle genuinely more competitive later. Applying November 15 is a real advantage, not a formality.
CBU asks homeschoolers to "contact your admissions counselor regarding proper formatting standards for your official transcript."
You already have one. A CBU admissions counselor emailed you personally on 2025-12-11 offering to answer questions. That is exactly what this contact is for.
The one deadline on this page you cannot slip without losing money. Full Baylor breakdown.
Pepperdine publishes three numbers, not a grid, and they disagree. Regents and Blanche Seaver "start at $20,000 a year" on one page; the affordability page puts Regents Scholars at $40,000 to $45,000 for the top tier. Confirmed, both pages The planning number on this site stays the conservative Common Data Set average of $18,152 until a call sorts out which applies. Scores are required for this award even though Pepperdine is test-optional for admission, submit the 1470.
The gap between the floor and the confirmed top tier is roughly $25,000 a year. One call to Seaver financial aid tells you where in that range you actually land, and whether this application is worth writing. Full Pepperdine breakdown.
FAFSA for the 2027-28 aid year should open around October 1, 2026, though it has run late in recent cycles, so watch for it rather than assuming the date. Watch, do not assume
At roughly $300k of income it will produce no need-based aid at GCU or anywhere else. File it anyway: some institutional and outside awards require a FAFSA on file regardless of need.
This replaces the list that used to be here. That list described five schools he is not applying to.
Full detail and the deferral-question wording on the GCU page.
None of this is current. Kept for the record.
Deadlines, fees, essay requirements and homeschool policies all come from the schools' own admissions pages. The items below are about the historical five-school ladder above; for GCU's own confidence notes, see the GCU page.