<p>Hello, this is my first post, so I hope I do this right! I've poked around as best I can, but haven't been able to find a thread about this issue. Apologies in advance if I've missed it.</p>
<p>Here's our situation: My dd is in a rising junior at a cyber charter school. She is trying to decide whether to take AP American History (and then the test, of course) or an Intro. to Cultural Anthropology course at a local college in the Fall. She is interested in both topics, and we're wondering which looks better to colleges? Is there a clear winner, or would they be weighted the same way? I'd rather she take the college course to get the experience (the professor of the course is a family friend who I think could be a real inspiration to dd), but if the AP course would be the better choice then that's fine too.</p>
<p>It really depends on the college. You can check the websites of any colleges you might be interested in to get an idea. If the college course is not included in the high school transcript, then either is really fine, depending on the personal preference. Both show rigor and achievement.</p>
<p>It depends a bit on the colleges, but many colleges will expect at least a year of some sort of World History and a year of American History. If she hasn’t had that yet, I think she should take American History. Also, many colleges will give credit for AP courses, but not for other college courses.</p>
<p>You are right though that if the professor could be a source of mentoring or recommendations that is a big plus.</p>
<p>Thanks for the quick reply! So admission pages of colleges have descriptions of the kind of classes they prefer in applicants? Obviously I’m completely new to this. Ack. The college course would be on her transcript, as well as earning credit at the college, which, btw, is a four year undergraduate school, not a community college. I don’t know if that makes a difference.</p>
If it’s included in the high school transcript it will not generally be accepted for credit by colleges. If you don’t care about that, it’s fine. Mathmom is right about a year of world and a year of American history. Those are important. College classes should supplement, but not necessarily replace, the normal selection of classes.</p>
<p>Ah, I see. No “double dipping?” That makes sense. So AP courses might yield college credit, if the test is taken and the score is high enough, but college courses probably won’t? It also sounds like one isn’t clearly better than the other, in terms of admission, as long as the grades earned are excellent and the overall course of study is within the college’s requirements?</p>
<p>When my s was a senior he did a year of college physics at the local university instead of AP Physics. I think it impressed the colleges he applied to, and without it I dont believe he would have received the merit award he did. It made him stand out.</p>
<p>You would want to check this out carefully. My D (rising HS Sr) has both APs and Dual Credit college courses on her transcript.</p>
<p>What we are finding at her schools of choice, (strong Midwest LACs) is that, in many cases, the opposite is true; they are more likely to give credit for the college courses than the APs – in some cases, even with a “5” on the AP test.</p>
Yes, check carefully. I’ve looked at literally dozens of colleges for two kids and have never found a single college (other than the institution at which the class was taken) that would accept a dual enrollment class. Generally, this is the answer:</p>
<p>As other posters have said, many colleges do not grant credit for dual enrollment. Since I did a lot of dual enrollment in hs, I factored that into my college search. I would suggest that your D call the colleges that she’s interested in and ask if they accept dual enrollment credit and how it transfers. There is a possibility that the college course might transfer, but only as elective credit that doesn’t help fill complete a core curriculum requirement.</p>
<p>You mentioned that you D is in a cyber hs, so I assume that the AP class will be online and that the college class will be on-campus. As long as your D can fit the college class into her schedule, a change in class format might be good. I’m not sure if there would be an additional cost in your situation, but your D could take both courses. My state permits students to have up to a 2 FTE (full-time equivalent) course load without an extra cost and a 1.25 FTE is certainly doable.</p>
<p>All this information has been so helpful. Thanks to all who took the time to write. I think we’re going to stick with mostly APs, except for lab sciences and probably Calculus senior year. </p>
<p>The cost and credit transferability is an issue for us as my husband teaches at the college where she’d take the course, so tuition for the class would be free. The hitch is that the employee benefit is only good for a certain number of credits overall, 125?, I can’t remember specifically. If she takes lots of credits in high school that don’t transfer into college, we could “run out” of the benefit before she graduates. She doesn’t plan on attending this college, but the benefit contributes some tuition assistance where ever she goes. Lots to consider.</p>
<p>I have had a lot of experience with both APs for my kids and actual college courses taken while in high school. If I had to do it again, I would have had them take all college courses and ignore the APs. Why?</p>
<p>First, Most colleges give credit for similar courses if the student gets a “C” or better. The only time credit isn’t given is if the course doesn’t match what they offer. Thus, you should stick with basic courses that are offered everywhere such as American or World History, Calculus , Statistics, etc.</p>
<p>Second, in order to get college credit for APs you MUST get a 3 or better on the AP. You could get A’s in the class and not get the credit because of the AP exam.</p>
<p>Moreover, even if you get a “3” or better on the exam, many colleges require higher scores for the credit. In some places, you need a “5.”</p>
<p>So here is the downside for taking college courses:</p>
<ol>
<li>It is more expensive than that of APs</li>
<li>Some colleges really want APs because they know how to evaluate them for admission purposes. AP exams are uniform exams. College course quality does vary as does the grading. Thus, it is supposedly harder to evaluate a grade from a community college. APs become particularly important if you are applying for out of country universities such as Cambridge or Oxford, who want either IB degrees or some APs for evaluation.</li>
</ol>
<p>My personal recommendation, however, is to take all college courses and ignore the APs unless you have a kid that wants to go to the UK for college.</p>
<p>Another “it depends on the college,” but I want to point out that it’s generally only highly selective colleges that won’t let you count your dual credit courses. Most schools will allow those courses to transfer, althouigh they may cap the number of hours. State schools often have to allow cc courses within the state system to transfer as they have articulation agreements with the ccs. </p>
<p>My advice to my own child was take the dual credits. She’s not looking at top tier places and getting some courses taken now gives her more time to explore in college. Over the last 20 years, the size of gen ed has increased, leaving less time for electives, so transferring in some credits might also save a student from a 5th year. </p>
<p>Finally, the Talent Search advisors at my institution (I’m with an SSS program) always tell kids to go with the free credits. Granted, ETS targets low-income students, but I imagine that for most people, money is a consideration.</p>
That’s only true if the course does not appear on the high school transcript. If they are dual enrollment classes, they do not generally transfer to other institutions.</p>
<p>My D will enter college this fall with 27 credits for AP, IB and college courses taken in high school. She had a great experience with her college courses and earned the credit, but only because she went to the college and took them there with college students and they didn’t show up on her high school transcript. Her friends who took dual enrollment courses only got credit from the institution that gave the courses.</p>
<p>
I’m sorry, but that is just not true. If you look at the requirements at individual schools, you will see what I mean. Neither of my Ds applied to highly selective schools, but they did apply only in the northeast and mid-Atlantic.</p>
<p>At least for our high school, if courses were taken at the local community college, the course appeared on the college transcript and NOT as a duel credit course. None of my kids every had trouble getting college credit for these courses. I can’t say the same for the APs.</p>
Someone at your high school obviously knew what they were doing. That’s not the case everywhere. Although some high schools want the college courses to show up on the high school transcript because of the particulars of weighting in some schools.</p>