Hi everyone,
I am looking for some advice for my D20. She attended public school for two years but left for this year (11th grade) and next year. This year she took 3 dual enrollment classes at a local university and the other classes were online. I’m not concerned about whether she gets credit for the DE classes this year because they were basically substitutes for high school classes. But next year she’d like to take the college general biology class that would be the equivalent of AP Bio so that when she gets to college she isn’t starting completely at the beginning of the Bio sequence. I’ve noticed that a few of the schools she’s considering say something to the effect of no credit will be given if the class was taken while in high school and counted towards a high school degree, or if high school credit was also given.
We’re in Texas where homeschoolers are treated as a private school, so technically I can set her degree requirements as whatever I want, with just a few requirements. She will have satisfied the basic public high school requirements, will have 4 years of the 5 main core subjects, and the Bio would actually be her second science next year because she’s also taking another, so there’s no real “need” for the Bio to apply towards her degree. But I’d like to include the class on her high school transcript so colleges can see what she’s taking when she applies, and obviously if she does well I’d want it in her GPA. She already took PreAP Bio in 9th grade at public school but her old school required both Bio and Chem before AP Bio so couldn’t have taken AP Bio while still enrolled there.
Anyone else run into this issue about no credit for DE classes? Any suggestions? Oh and for a couple of reasons, we really strongly prefer taking Bio at the school live over taking AP Bio through an online provider so that’s not really an option we want to consider for her senior year.
I have a feeling that I’ll be coming to this forum quite a bit or maybe PMing some of who have successfully navigated college applications with homeschoolers, if that’s ok. I have read your various postings about course descriptions and transcripts and have already gotten to work on some things because of you, so thank you so much for what I’ve already learned because you shared your experiences, and thanks for any advice you can offer about this situation.
Could she take the college course and the AP biology exam in case she attends a college that gives credit, subject credit, and/or advanced placement for one but not the other?
I thought about that. I think we’d have to enroll for the test in the fall with the new registration rules so she could do that as a back up plan depending on where she’s accepted. It may be our best option.
If she is considering being pre-med or pre-law, she should be aware that college courses taken while in high school and their grades do count for the purpose of calculating GPA for medical or law school admission, even if they are not counted by the college she matriculates to as an undergraduate.
Thank you for that information because I wasn’t aware of that. I thought the course would need to appear on the college transcript. But I guess those classes are on a college transcript, just possibly not the undergraduate one. She’s not sure of ultimate graduate school path but will have her keep that in mind.
As a homeschooler, be careful with AP. All public and private institutions are able to refuse administering the test, even after committing that they will give it… right up until your child takes the test ?.
Did you have that happen, @Shaunannew? Even after you paid for it? If so that’s terrible! My D returned to her previous school to take her AP test and we didn’t have any problems but I would have been livid if we’d paid for it and then they refused.
Every college has different policies regarding awarding credit for college classes taken during high school — just make sure to research the schools she’s interested in.
Like someone else noted, no matter what the policy is regarding acceptance of credit, any college class she takes becomes part of her official college transcripts for graduate schools — whether or not her undergrad accepted the classes for credit or not, she will always have to show her transcript of the college classes she took in high school.
Even if a college doesn’t grant credit (policies vary from college to college, and even can change year to year) they often allow placing out of entry level classes based on prior course work.
I wanted to pay, but they said they would collect the funds on the day of the test ?. Then they forgot to order it and upon looking into how to order a late exam, got a memo from the Superintendent that they don’t offer AP tests to homeschoolers which has evidently been their policy for quite some time, (interestingly they don’t have it in writing and don’t keep their schools informed about the non-existent ). I learned later on that they did the exact thing to another homeschooling mom 6 years ago ?. It was incredibly stressful trying to find a school who would proctor a late exam when school had already let out, but we were fortunate enough to have a private school administrator who offered to donate her time so the kids could still take the tests (we gave her flowers and multiple gift cards to thank her… I probably have bought her a pony if she had wanted one, lol ?). It blows my mind that technically, there is nothing that protects us as homeschoolers if the schools change their minds about offering the tests, or realize it’s against their policy, even after they’ve committed to do it. But I’m hoping to change that ?! Fingers crossed!
?! Fingers crossed!