Hathaway Scholarship for Homeschoolers: Requirements, ACT Scores, and the Success Curriculum

The Hathaway Scholarship is real money — up to $1,680 per semester at the University of Wyoming or any Wyoming community college. And yes, homeschooled students are fully eligible. But the path to qualifying looks nothing like what public school students go through, and plenty of Wyoming families leave that money on the table simply because nobody explained the rules clearly.

Here's exactly how it works for homeschoolers, from the Success Curriculum requirements down to the ACT score you need to hit.

How Homeschool Eligibility Works (No GPA, Just ACT)

The first thing to understand: Wyoming does not evaluate homeschooled applicants based on GPA. The state explicitly excludes GPA from the homeschool eligibility calculation. Instead, your student's Hathaway tier is determined entirely by two factors — their ACT composite score and the completion of the Hathaway Success Curriculum.

This is actually an advantage if your student is a strong test-taker. A homeschooler who scores a 25 on the ACT qualifies for the Honors tier regardless of the grades in their parent-issued transcript.

The four funding tiers and their ACT requirements are:

One important note on Provisional Opportunity: this tier requires the student to begin at a Wyoming community college. If they earn an associate's degree, they can then transfer to UW and extend the scholarship for four additional semesters. It is a legitimate pathway, not a consolation prize.

All applicants must apply before their 21st birthday. There is no exception to this rule.

The Hathaway Success Curriculum: What You Must Document

Hitting the ACT score is only half the equation. Your student also needs to have completed the Hathaway Success Curriculum — a defined set of coursework that mirrors a rigorous college-prep sequence. The Wyoming Department of Education publishes the official Success Curriculum Plan form, and homeschooling parents are responsible for filling it out and submitting it as part of the scholarship application.

The core requirements are:

• Language Arts: 4 years
• Mathematics: 4 years, which must include Algebra I, Algebra II, Geometry, and one additional math course taken in grades 9–12
• Science: 4 years
• Social Studies: 3 years
• Elective sequence: Students must complete a sequenced two-course series in one of the following — Fine and Performing Arts, Career and Technical Education, or World Languages

The math sequence is the most common sticking point. It is not enough to accumulate four math courses. They must follow the prescribed progression. A student who took Algebra I, then a statistics course, then Algebra II, then pre-calculus may have done four years of math — but if the courses are not documented in the correct sequence, the scholarship application will be incomplete.

This is why starting the documentation process in ninth grade, not twelfth, matters enormously. Parents who begin homeschooling a high schooler mid-course face the added challenge of mapping what was already completed in public school against the Success Curriculum requirements. The WDE's 2022 Hathaway Success Curriculum Plan is the document you use to prove completion — it requires course titles, curriculum provider or materials used, credit hours, and a parent signature.

If your child is switching from public school to homeschool during middle or high school, request their official academic records from the district before withdrawal is complete. Those transcripts establish what courses already count toward the Success Curriculum. Missing that step forces you to reconstruct records later, often from memory, which creates gaps the scholarship office will question.

ACT Strategy for Homeschoolers

Because ACT score is the only academic metric that determines a homeschooler's Hathaway tier, test prep deserves proportionally more attention than it typically receives in a homeschool household.

Wyoming homeschool students take the ACT as independent test-takers. They register directly at actstudent.org and select any available test center, including those inside Wyoming high schools (districts are not permitted to block homeschoolers from using public facilities for testing purposes under Wyoming's Equal Opportunity Act framework).

Practical notes:

• Start ACT prep no later than the spring of sophomore year, with a first official attempt in the fall of junior year. This gives time for a retake.
• The Opportunity tier (ACT 19) is achievable for most students with structured preparation. The Performance tier (ACT 21) is a meaningful jump but accessible with targeted practice. Honors (ACT 25) requires genuine academic rigor.
• Wyoming has no limit on how many times a student can sit the ACT, and the scholarship office uses the highest composite score on record.
• WorkKeys scores can substitute for ACT for the Provisional Opportunity tier only — relevant for CTE-focused homeschoolers who may not pursue a traditional ACT track.

Documenting Coursework: The Part Most Parents Miss

The Success Curriculum Plan form is where scholarship applications break down for homeschoolers. The form requires the parent to act as the school administrator: listing each course, identifying the curriculum provider or materials used, assigning credit hours, and certifying that the coursework was completed.

Universities and scholarship offices treat the parent as the issuing institution. This is a feature, not a bug — but it means you carry the documentation burden.

Practical documentation habits that matter:

• Keep a course log updated each semester (not reconstructed at graduation)
• Assign course titles that map clearly to Success Curriculum categories — "Biology with Lab" rather than "Science Year 2"
• Keep records of major assessments, textbooks, and curricula used as supporting evidence
• A notarized transcript strengthens credibility, though Wyoming does not legally require notarization for a homeschool diploma

The Wyoming Department of Education provides the official Hathaway Success Curriculum Plan form for free. That is the document you fill out. What the state does not provide is any coaching on how to structure your high school course sequence from day one so that the form is easy to complete accurately at the end — that gap is exactly where families run into trouble.

If you are withdrawing a child from public school and transitioning to homeschool in high school, the withdrawal process itself has legal requirements under Wyoming Statute § 21-4-102(c) — including a mandatory in-person meeting with a school district counselor or administrator. Getting that step right protects your student's records and ensures a clean enrollment break.

The Wyoming Legal Withdrawal Blueprint walks through the full withdrawal process, including how to request academic records during the meeting and what documentation to preserve for later Hathaway applications. Getting the extraction right from day one prevents paperwork headaches when scholarship season arrives.

What Homeschoolers Cannot Use

Two things that public school students have access to that homeschoolers do not:

School counselor verification. Public school students have their Success Curriculum certified by their school counselor. Homeschoolers self-certify as the parent-administrator. The scholarship office accepts this, but the documentation standard is the same — every course, every credit, every year.

GPA bump. Public school students at the Opportunity and Performance tiers may use a qualifying GPA as an alternative to the ACT score cutoff in some circumstances. This option does not apply to homeschoolers. The ACT score is non-negotiable.

The Timeline That Protects the Money

Families who start homeschooling in elementary or middle school have the luxury of building the Success Curriculum from scratch. Families who pull a child out of public school in high school need to audit what already exists.

Here is the practical sequence:

1. Withdraw from public school and request complete academic records during the mandatory in-person meeting (these records document what courses already count toward Success Curriculum)
2. Map existing coursework against the WDE Hathaway Success Curriculum Plan categories
3. Identify gaps in the required math sequence and elective sequence
4. Build grades 9–12 course plans around those gaps
5. Begin ACT prep no later than sophomore year
6. Document each course contemporaneously — do not wait until senior year
7. Submit the completed Success Curriculum Plan form with the scholarship application before the student turns 21

The Hathaway Scholarship represents up to $13,440 over four years at UW. For most Wyoming families, that is not a rounding error. The documentation burden is real, but it is entirely manageable if you build the systems before you need them.

If you are in the middle of pulling your child from public school right now, start with the withdrawal — and the Wyoming Legal Withdrawal Blueprint covers that process step by step, including how to recover academic records that will anchor your Hathaway documentation later.

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