I am currently enrolled to take AP US History next year. Today I was presented the opportunity to take ACP (advanced college project) American History instead. ACP American would be a dual-credit college class for both college and high school credit, and it would be taught at my high school by a former college teacher. Instead of an AP exam or final exam, there would be 4 unit tests throughout the year. The ACP American History class would be $150 for 6 credit hours over the year. The credit would appear on a state college transcript but this may not be able to transfer everywhere. If it matters, I wasn’t planning on going Ivy League, but I hadn’t ruled it out either.
Thoughts? What do you think about this?
I have to make my final decision by Friday.
Bump
First even though it is a college class since it is taught at your high school not on a college campus there are some colleges that won’t accept it as college credit. However you seem fine knowing it may not count beyond the state school so that is fine if your okay with that.
My next question is why is a college class 6 credits and full year. A typical college history would be 1 semester for 3 credits which is equivalent to 1 year high school credit. Do you want/need two high school history credits in American history. We do have to take American History 1 (CP or Honors) then either American History 2 (CP, Honors) or APUSH in our high school. If you want to take the college history class to get a true college experience it doesn’t sound like yours will give you that. I’m guessing the name ACP is your school district’s terminology for dual enrollment classes.
My daughter took 2 years of American History at our high school then did dual enrollment World Civilization from 1500 to give her credit she needed as a modern world history credit (high school she would have taken either Modern World History H or APWORLD). She found it to be very much a writing based class with lots of analysis from the firsthand documents. The textbook wasn’t really needed since the work was almost all based on a separate first hand document book and of course extra handouts and looking up articles online Perhaps you can get info on how both your high school and the college class are taught to see if one sounds more interesting than the other for you.
both ap and dual enrollment may show rigor for ivy applications but chances are neither will give you college credit. Is the college class taught during the regular school day as a regular class? If not how does it fit into your schedule? Is the cost okay for you? Is there an additional cost of books to think about? Besides the 4 tests are there lots of reading and papers.
What else would you be taking?
@momtogirls2 Yes, let me clarify. It is technically American History I and American History II, each for 3 college credits, but since I am taking it through the high school, it is considered a year-long course as I must take both semesters. I have not taken an AP or dual-enrollment history course before, but I am for certain taking either APUSH or ACP American. Cost is not a huge factor, as the ACP course is not much more expensive than the AP exam would be. I might also add that ACP American is a new course at my school, but the teacher has taught world history and US history over the past year and US history at a private university before that.
I’m still deciding, and since this is still very new, I think I will talk to my guidance counselor about it.
Thank you! Your response definitely helped.
I’ll be taking the following next year (junior):
Honors Physics (comparable to AP Physics 1; some students in honors take the AP1 exam at the end of the year)
Honors Spanish IV
AP Calculus (most likely AB)
PLTW Medical Interventions
Speech/Creative Writing (I’m still holding out hope for AP Lang, but when I met with my guidance counselor I was told that not enough people signed up for AP Lang so they are not offering it as a class next year)
Either an introductory engineering course or computer science 1
APUSH or ACP American History (Dual-credit through a state college, offered on high school campus)
I’d go with ACP American History since you haven’t taken any APs before- you’ll have the level of rigor but not the strict format (Dbq’s etc). See if you can convince friends to ask their GC for AP English language because it’s a key AP for College admissions.
Most highly selective schools regard AP as the more rigorous. It is easy to google around and read the unbiased articles.
Also, most schools give more weight to AP than Dual Credit, so check with your college counselor about how it will affect your ranking. Good luck!
AP is a semester college class spread over one year.
The DE class you are talking about seems like 2 semesters over 2 semesters. So it will be faster paced.
^ actually, since the best evidence of success in college is actual success in college classes whereas most AP classes are college level but at high school pace, the jury’s out on DE v.AP.
In this case however 1) this student (OP) would have to adjust to the social science AP format which would make it harder for them and 2) would be taking a ‘college in the schools’ class rather than a college class at a college. Therefore, the ACP class would likely be easier while potentially holding as much credit as APUSH.
Also, it’s more important for op to take AP English if at all possible due to the importance this class has in helping for all other classes (reading/writing is found everywhere).
If the student has not ruled out Ivy League (and the OP says that they have not), why would they take the “easier” option, even if the credit is the same? Wouldn’t they want to show that they are challenging themselves? Dual credit courses have ridiculously high pass rates. Some probably are difficult, but many are not. There is no standardization. That is why Dual Credit classes are not as accepted as IB or AP. Very few students earn 4/5s on AP exams. All the reps that came to our school, told us to take AP if it was available, if not take DC?
I guess it’s a gambit then. All in all admissions at Top 25 universities/LACs won’t hinge on a class. So strictly speaking it makes no difference whether OP takes ACP American History or APUSH. Both are supposed to be the default preparation for top universities.
If we’re talking Top 25, though, what matters is meeting a benchmark (and with 2 core honors, 2 and possibly 3 core AP/DE, the OP meets that benchmark) and getting the “most rigorous” checkmark from the GC. What will matter most for admission will be achievement and impact in EC’s.