My D is choosing classes for next year and she has the option for AP classes or dual enrollment. She plans to apply to a Direct Entry nursing program for college.
Does it matter if she chooses dual enrollment classes over AP?
I’d like to hear the answer to this as well 
Probably varies by nursing program as to whether the AP credit or the college courses through dual enrollment are better accepted to cover subject requirements (e.g. general education requirements).
With AP, your results depend entirely on how you do on the AP exam in May. That’s it-- one test determines whether or not you’re likely to get credit. The college then decides-- get a 5 and your odds are good (depending on their AP policies of course.) Get a 4 and you may be OK, but get below a 4 and your odds are probably pretty poor on getting the credits accepted.
Dual enrollment means a local college will give you credit for the course. The caveat here is that the college you’re applying to can decide whether or not to accept credits from that particular institution.
Adding to what was already said- some schools will give an extra point for AP courses when recalculating GPA but not for dual enrollment courses and others give points for both. If you take dual enrollment courses, make sure the HS reports the course and the grade on your transcript. If they do not, (they should if it is DE), request the transcript from the college.
We chose the DE route. It fit better, our state paid for it, and student gets a practice run on what it is like to take classes on a college campus.
What concerned me about AP courses was the final test. All AP tests are clustered at the end of the year, along with any regular HS course final exams. At the end of Senior Year, there are many extra events and lots of emotions to distract from studies.
Of course, DE courses have final exams also, but the pressure riding on AP test score is much more intense.
The ultimate answer lies in what the college policy is. Start at the End and work backwards. Check out every college website of schools your student is applying to. Figure out what works to satisfy the majority of those colleges, and what might give your own student the best advantage. (If your child stresses out taking standardized tests, maybe AP isn’t best option.)
My D did both DE and AP and both counted at her nursing program. DEs seem like a slightly better option to me because no later test is required. Also at our high school some DE courses count as double the weighted score toward the high school GPA. For instance, an A would count as a 5 twice for those courses. Now that she’s a freshman nursing student both DE and AP courses show on her college transcript equally. And they both count equally toward her nursing GEs. She was able to go to SDSU’s website to see the course equivalents for AP and DE credits. And then reconcile with SDSU 4-year roadmap. For Nursing I recommend Psych, Stats instead of Calc, Poli Sci, Bio but check your intended schools’ 4 year road maps know to gauge the highest benefit.
My info is a few years old, and may be out of date. However, at that time, the most selective colleges did not give credit for dual enrollment classes taken inside a high school. Almost all colleges accepted AP credit, but some limited the amount that could be used. At that time, the less selective colleges gave credit for a 3 out of 5, while the most selective colleges required a 4 or 5 for AP.
If the AP class allows the material to be covered over a full school year, vs. the dual enrollment class is for only 1/2 a year, the AP may be preferable.
I’d also ask older students about the quality of the teachers, if you are choosing between a DE and an AP class. In many high schools, the very best and most motivated teachers teach the AP classes. Depending upon the school, the Dual Enrollment classes might be taught by less experienced part-timers.
If the Dual Enrollment class is 2 hours long, it can make it hard to fit other desired courses into your schedule. Also, some young people may have trouble paying attention for 2 hours.
It depends on the program. In general, our experience (non nursing but college in general), was that there were more schools that took AP credits vs DE. This was especially true looking out of state.
Yes, momof, as of a few years ago, I read that most in-state public colleges would accept DE classes that were sponsored by in-state community colleges, but they didn’t guarantee they would accept out of state DE.
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1970298-dual-enrollment-vs-ap-classes.html
There are a few threads discussing this topic on CC. I don’t think the issue is peculiar to nursing, except it probably would not be a good idea to skip the freshman bio course in a nursing program, even if you get AP or Dual enrollment credit.
My daughter got AP credit for bio, but her college gave her credit for a very basic bio class, and made all of the nursing students still take the standard challenging freshman bio class for nurses. That worked out well for her.
Thanks for all feedback!
It depends – at my kids HS some of the classes themselves were the same. By the time AP testing rolled around, my D knew where she was going to college and was able to find out if the college would accept the credits. It did and she skipped the AP tests and just did dual enrollment… she got 12 credits this way