AP or Dual Enrollment? (For my specific situation)

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

<p>Next year will be my senior year in high school- I have exhausted art and math classes at my high school. I am taking AP Calc BC right now, and my counselor is telling me to take a class at our local community college next year, so I would be taking Calc III basically.
Also, I am in AP Studio this year, and I can either repeat AP Studio next year with a different portfolio (2D instead of drawing), or I can take a class each semester at the college.
Finally, I am taking AP Physics this year, and I am thinking of majoring in physics when I go to college, so I was looking at taking University Physics II next year at my cc. </p>

<p>Basically, I'm wondering if I should take these, or focus on other (AP) classes. If I weren't to take any dual enrollment classes, my schedule would be like this:</p>

<p>AP German
AP Environmental
AP Studio
AP Language
AP Psych
and (possibly) AP Chem</p>

<p>If I DO do the dual enrollment, my schedule would be like this:</p>

<p>University Physics II
Some art class that I haven't picked yet
Calc III
AP German
AP Language
AP Psych</p>

<p>With the first option, I would actually have more time on my hands and not be all over the place. </p>

<p>What I'm asking, I guess, is will taking the dual enrollment classes pay off? Will it make me stand out and make me a better candidate than if I took those other 2-3 ap classes? </p>

<p>I've read a lot that colleges prefer AP courses to dual enrollment because the rigor is standardized, but with my situation, the courses I'm looking at really have no alternative AP version.</p>

<p>What are your suggestions??</p>

2

<p>I say the dual-enrollment. Because you can take the AP classes, you can pass the class but if you fail the exam, you don’t get the college credit and which in my opinion would be a waste and of no use. But with dual-enrollment, you’re actually taking the class for the college credit. </p>

<p>And it depends on the school. I know exactly what school I’m going to and I emailed them and asked which was better, AP or DE, and they said dual-enrollment for the reason I stated above. But not all schools are like that and sometimes your DE credits won’t transfer with them, which is something else you should look into.</p>