<p>I am a senior in high school. As I have worked through the dreaded college admission process and applying for scholarships, I am REALLY starting to wonder if it is actually a bad thing for high school students to take a lot of college credits. </p>
<p>I attend a traditional high school and my state has pushed for students to take community college courses while in high school. I have embraced this and through college courses, AP exam scores, and CLEP exams, I will graduate with over 60 hours of college credits. </p>
<p>While this seems like it should be a feather in my cap in regards to being impressive, it seems the opposite. Only NC system schools will accept all of my credits. So, unless I want to repeat two years of college, more impressive universities such as Harvard, Georgetown, Duke, etc are off the table. I would rather not repeat everything I have already worked so hard for so I am applying only to NC public universities. There are some great ones in NC. As I've applied for merit scholarships at these colleges though, I get the impression that they aren't interested in me for a 4 year scholarship with the main reason being that I probably won't be there 4 years, ie why waste that opportunity on someone who won't be there the whole time to really gain the most advantage from it.</p>
<p>So, that being said, are college credits while in high school a mistake for college options and scholarships?</p>
<p>I don’t mind going in as a freshman, because I know I will be moved up at the semester. Plus, I was under the impression as a “freshman with special circumstances” I would still be eligible for 4 year scholarships, but I am getting the feeling that isn’t the case. They don’t even give me a chance to tell them how I want to double or triple major, do internships, study abroad. I could easily stay there 3 or 4 years to do everything I want to do, but those college credit numbers seem to be a death sentence.</p>
<p>Am I wrong? Anyone on here receive a 4 year scholarship but have a lot of college hours?</p>
<p>I have seen some schools will not even consider you a true freshman and hence ineligible for scholarships. Be careful about applying without disclosing college credits. You could (I’ve seen it happen) get kicked out of the school.</p>
<p>Ultimately, life is about choices. You get to have college credit coming out of HS, but that is really a better option for kids who are struggling financially and cannot handle the coursework and entry exams of the elite schools.</p>
<p>As for 'I don’t want to repeat college…you didn’t really. You did 4 years of HS and took community college classes. Look on the bright side. Many kids cannot even attend a community college.</p>
<p>I hate to hide my great work, but I have started leaving it off of scholarship applications. Most that I am applying for state that the scholarship is only for students entering college for the first time. I am entering a four year college for the first time and just graduating from high school, but I don’t want them to immediately hold this against me. </p>
<p>When I told my mentor teacher at my high school my thoughts about this keeping me from being selected for 4 year college interviews, he paused for a moment than said, “Yep, you are probably right.” Seems like a huge slap in the face to be penalized for doing more and doing well.</p>
<p>I am trying to be positive and see this as a “glass half full” situation. Getting a four year scholarship is a long shot anyway. I don’t think I would have done anything different since these credits are a definite thing that isn’t like playing the scholarship lottery. It will save my family $30,000-$45,000 and that is like free money. </p>
<p>I probably could have stood a good chance at getting into an elite college because I do have a strong GPA, 1st in my class, and very strong SAT scores. Also, in my opinion, have greats ECs, ie national awards, statewide leadership. Probably could have gotten in, but family couldn’t afford it. We fall into the middle class world where we do well, but can’t afford to pay a huge college bill. My frustration is with feeling penalized for doing well and trying hard. Life isn’t fair though.</p>
<p>If schools like Harvard, Gtown and Duke are on your radar, your reward is that they’ll be convinced that you’re a serious student, willing to challenge himself/herself – this will firm up a big requirement: academic achievement and potential. This is bad?</p>
<p>Let’s talk about a “what if” scenario:
Your dual enrollment classes indeed get you noticed and come March, you get accepted by Harvard, Georgetown and Duke. BTW: your local college accepts you too and gives you 1.5 years of credit – allowing you to start as a 2nd semester sophomore.</p>
<p>Would you say this means you’ve “wasted” your dual enrollment coursework? Of course not.</p>
<p>Did you run NPCs for a school like Harvard? It’s more affordable for my kid than my local top ranked public college.</p>
<p>sloth: any ability to show that one is a serious student is good. It would appear that the OP exhausted his/her classes within the school district and took advantage of a local program that allowed high achievers to shine.</p>
<p>Dual enrollment in CC isn’t a magic bullet, though. For you it could be IB or AP classes. For some, they graduate early. Others do dual enrollment. Others win competitions. It’s not that Harvard says: “oh wow! A dual enrollment kid”</p>
<p>But a dual enrollment kid who excels shows concretely they’re engaged. There are several ways to do this IMHO</p>
<p>Even if the credits are not accepted in terms of potentially letting your graduate early, you may be able to get subject credit and/or advanced placement, so that you will effectively be substituting more advanced courses or electives in place of common frosh-level courses over the course of your undergraduate career. There is no real reason to try to hide such courses on your record.</p>
<p>All of the elite privates that my son was considering do not accept dual enrollment classes as credit (even if taken in the same state). However, most give placement tests so if you perform well enough, then you can place out of a class. And if you don’t place out, don’t think of it as repeating a class … think of it as learning the material to their standard.</p>
<p>Thanks for input, but still asking if having too many college credits penalizes a student in regards to receiving traditional “4 year scholarships?”</p>
<p>I know of 6 students from my DD’s school who graduated last year and went on to UC Berkeley, Stanford, Yale and Princeton on 4 year, full ride scholarships. All of those students also earned AA’s while in high school, and the overall class size was about 50 students. Several other students also earned full tuition or full ride at various state schools, primarily in the Midwest. My DD will graduate HS in May with her AA as well, and we are hopeful that she will also be awarded a full scholarship. </p>
<p>@mich5225. Short answer is yes, but it all depends on the scholarship and the school. It CAN. Some are only for incoming freshman. If you are transferring in credits, especially more than a few, they may consider you ineligible.</p>
<p>Remember, scholarships are intended to help people who cannot otherwise pay obtain a degree. If the school gives you credit for work earned in HS, they are already giving you a scholarship for the credits for which they received no money. You are then blocking a kid looking for a full 4 year scholarship from getting one since you only would need <3 years to finish. (yes, I know some scholarships are to reward high achievers…I have one of those. His scholarship will pay for 4+ years even if he brings in credits…so he can work toward and MS if he chooses.)</p>
<p>^ The OP is a senior in HS and will be considered a freshman for admission. Having that many college credits will in no way disadvantage the OP, and will be a major plus. </p>
<p>It had some interesting benefits(?) in other ways for my D. She was notified by that she was eligible for an additional $1000 in non subsidized loans by the government because she was officially a sophomore based on her number of credit hours. We didn’t use it but it was available. It is also going to allow her to take fewer hours in her later years. It won’t really shorten the time to graduation because she is planning on doing a 5 session coop. It should make her work load more manageable.</p>
<p>Though there are some scenarios where it could be a mistake, most of the time it is not. You can’t expect every college to accept your credits. These days schools are becoming very finickly about residence requirements and what courses they will accept for credit. Most of the schools my kids visited do not take CLEP at all, by the way.</p>
<p>But all of this adds to your knowledge store. Retaking a course can give you advantages in terms of GPA which is critical in some pursuits, like medicals schools, certain jobs, professional schools. Personally I would not recommend kids to use CC courses they took in some of the more difficult subjects as a base even if a college allows it. CC basic bio may not have the same difficulty level of a top schools’ bio course. The same with math. My son skipped Calc 3 at college due to his AP calc score combined with his performance on the college math departmental exam, but he regretted it as he did not have as strong of a base on some things that the college course would have covered more intensely. He certainly would not recommend the skip to anyone. </p>
<p>My other son, however, benefitted greatly from getting all of those college credits going in, as he was able to skip most all of the required foundations courses for which he had no interest an focus his time on the fine arts courses which was what he wanted to do. He still took 4 years to get out since he needed sequential courses that took that long in his discipline, but he had a heck of a lot more flexibility that another student trying to do the same and having to meet the core academic requirements at the same time. </p>
<p>But if my theatre son had wanted to be a bio major instead, it would probably have been wise to retake the Bio Foundations course rather than try to depend upon that AP Bio course he took years ago. To use it so that he had no science requirements with no interest in science was one thing, to build on it and to depend on it for upper level courses, a whole other.</p>
<p>@PetraElise: “I know of 6 students from my DD’s school who graduated last year and went on to UC Berkeley, Stanford, Yale and Princeton on 4 year, full ride scholarships.” … I’m guessing these were need-based, not merit-based though. </p>
<p>I have also had Admissions Officers (at public schools and private schools) say to retake the basic course again (whether taken as dual enrollment, AP or IB) if the course is a “core course” for your major. For ex: If you took AP Chem in 10th grade and made a 5, it’s difficult to skip straight to Organic Chem. 2 years later in college for a Chem or Chem E major. </p>