CHARLESTON - A book by German philosopher Martin Heidegger sits open on the coffee table in front of the fireplace at Peter Borah's home.

It's weighty material for someone like Borah, who is high school age, but he says spending time poring over such works is a valuable opportunity for him.

"There's just no time to read a German philosopher in school," he said, explaining that having the chance to read Heidegger's book is one thing he likes about being schooled at home. "It's given me opportunities to explore things that I'm interested in and to work at my own pace."

Borah's academic work has paid off in another way, too; he recently learned he'll receive a full-ride scholarship to the University of Chicago.

He gained the scholarship through QuestBridge, a Palo Alto, Calif., organization that matches students with scholarships.

QuestBridge, a nonprofit organization, screens students and forwards applications to 20 colleges with which it partners; the schools make the final decisions and provide the scholarships.

Borah said the QuestBridge process let him complete just one application instead of several to different schools, and there were no fees to pay. Also, he learned of his scholarship in November, earlier than most high school scholarship recipients heard about their applications, he said.

"It simplified everything in a lot of ways," he said. "It made it much easier to apply to those schools."

His mother, Jena Borah, homeschools her three children with help from her husband, Bernard. Their daughter Meg is also high school age, and daughter Melissa is middle school age.

The older children take some classes at Charleston High School - art for Meg and choir for both of them. Peter also went to a private school for ninth grade when the family lived in Texas.

Jena Borah has a degree in elementary education and said she thinks homeschooling her children gives them the best chance to succeed.

"I've always thought rather philosophically about education," she said. "Just the idea of one-on-one or almost tutoring is something all educators believe is the way to go."

The University of Chicago was Borah's first choice for college, and he said he'll probably study philosophy or psychology when he starts in the fall. The scholarship comes to more than $200,000 for his four years in college, and he said he couldn't have attended the university without financial aid.

Applying for the scholarship was a "fairly long" process, part of which was writing essays on three topics, including on a concept the applicant found interesting; Borah said he chose American politics. He also had to list extracurricular activities, which included work in community theater and time at a summer film camp at Northwestern University, which he thought gave him an advantage.

"I had a more real-world experience with my extracurricular activities," he said.

Borah said he thinks there are pros and cons to being homeschooled, but it is good overall because it gave him "the flexibility most people don't have."

There are no requirements for homeschooled students, such as taking the state tests that public school students have to take, Jena Borah said. Still, her son had a score of 35 on the ACT, one point below perfect, and he's a National Merit Scholarship semifinalist.

"I'm really excited for him," she said. "When you take the homeschool track, you worry, so just the fact that it turned out so well, I'm really happy for him."

Dave Fopay can be reached at dfopay@jg-tc.com or 348-5733.