Can cc classes taken during high school be counted for general ed classes? Like IGETC courses (without being a transfer)?
I will be applying as a freshman and not a transfer.
Also, can dual enrollment satisfy general ed requirements w/o being a transfer? Some courses are listed as transferrable on assist.
Yes, if they are equivalent to a course at UCLA that is on the GE list. What cc did you attend and what was the course called at that school?
Sorry, late reply - but nothing yet. I’m still in 10th, just trying to plan out for what’s to come.
The college courses will 100% transfer to the UCs as long as they articulate with your community college (check Assist.org) but as far completing IGETC while in high school, its not possible because the IGETC is only for California Community College TRANSFER Applicants. BUT, you can complete the specific General Ed/ Breadth requirements as a high school student by taking the classes listed on Assist.org. The Breadth requirements are the alternative to IGETC and as long as your courses transfer and fulfill those requirements, you can finish your GenEd in high school and apply as a freshman, possibly graduating in only 2 - 3 years. I personally took nearly 20+ community college classes in high school and all of them will transfer to the UCs. Go for it!
@need2go2UCLA Thank you so much! I’ll go ahead and check assist.org
Another quick question - when in HS, are you allowed to be enrolled in 2 community colleges and not only 1?
@mltiere Yes, you certainly can! When I was in high school I took classes at two different community colleges at the same time. This is also very advantageous because most community colleges place a limit on how many units that high schoolers can take, so if you desire to take additional classes your only option is to enroll at a second college. For example in my Junior year of high school I wanted to take 17 semester units of college classes in the Spring, but the CC I attended capped the units for high-schoolers at 12, and so I decided to enroll in a second CC for the remaining 5 units. I would also highly recommend that you consider taking online classes offered by the community colleges, as these are very flexible, easier, and give you the same transfer credit as the on-campus classes. Good luck!
(P.S. - When I graduated high school I had accumulated nearly 79 UC-transferable semester units from community college classes, and earned straight A’s in all of them - so it’s really not that difficult to succeed in them if you research the professors wisely and choose the classes that genuinely interest you. I started taking my first college classes in the summer after 10th grade, and maintained full-time college and high school schedules until my hs graduation)
If you have any other questions, I’ll try my best to respond!
Thank you so much for this information.
I’m in 10th atm, and was hoping to take some college classes in the summer - so summer after 10th 
And yes, I’m hoping to have 75% of my cc classes be online.
My dream university is UCLA as well (assuming from your username) - I wish you luck as well!
“As far completing IGETC while in high school, its not possible because the IGETC is only for California Community College TRANSFER Applicants.”
I have few questions for you:
- Are you sure this is not doable? Some people on College Confidential claimed that they were able to obtain IGETC while still in high school. Perhaps it's different for each community college?
- What kinds of classes did you take at community colleges?
- Did you take any AP classes while in high school? I am just curious if Berkeley or UCLA treat the community college courses the same in terms of rigorousness as AP classes.
- Did you also apply to top private universities or colleges? Did you find yourself at disadvantage taking community college vs AP classes when applying to private schools?
@StevenToCollege 1. As far as I know and from the UC website, the IGETC is only for CCC transfer students, high schoolers taking community college classes must apply as freshmen and are therefore ineligible to transfer with IGETC. BUT, it is possible for high schoolers to work towards completing the classes for IGETC during high school so they can only spend one additional year at CC after high school before transferring. This is what I am doing right now - spending one year at CC after HS graduation and transferring to the UCs with everything completed.
2.I took lots of different CC classes when I was in high school, mostly social science, humanities, and foreign language type classes. For example, I took 12 units of Russian classes, 9 units of History classes, a few science classes and many of the IGETC requirements for transfer. (Total 79 semester units at the end of Senior year). My strategy was to take as many college classes in high school as possible in order to spend only one year at CC after my HS graduation before transferring.
3.Yes, I took eight AP Classes and exams while in high school, and as far as the application goes, the AP classes and CC classes are both counted as weighed honors classes and both are looked on very favorably by the UCs. Some AP exams can even fulfill IGETC requirements, and the AP English, AP Stats, and APES exams all satisfied the English, Math, and Lab Science requirements of the IGETC for me.
- I only applied to UCs back in high school, and I did the same this year as a transfer. It is important to note that some top private universities have their own policies regarding high schoolers taking CC classes and whether the units can transfer or not. USC for example, limits the amount of CC classes that can be transferred from CC classes taken in high school, and because of this I was and still am ineligible to transfer to USC because the majority of my CC units were taken while I was in high school. So because of this, yes in a way I felt a bit disadvantaged when considering applying to private universities, and I ultimately decided not to apply to any privates. The general consensus is that CC classes are more beneficial if applying to public universities, while AP classes and exams are looked more favorably by the top private universities.
@need2go2UCLA Your high school allows you to attempt 17 units in a semester? I thought they limited students to 11. I want to take more college classes in my senior year because I will have almost nothing left to take at my highschool, but I thought (legally) a student could only do up to 11 credits.
@mjt182 You are correct - dual enrollment high school students can only take a max of 11 semester units per semester at any INDIVIDUAL community college (because of state funding), but you can enroll in as many community colleges as you wish and thus take as many units as you want. For my high school, they allowed me to take 17 units in a semester because I enrolled at two different CCs, and because I had to assure my HS counselor that none of the Dual enrollment classes I would be taking would count for HS credit.
You can definitely take more than 11 units in your Senior year, (it’s a wonderful idea), just enroll at two different community colleges and you will have the ability to take as much as 22 units if you want to. You will need to take separate Dual Enrollment permission forms from each college to get signed by your HS counselor, but as long as you do not desire to earn HS credit for the CC classes you take, there shouldn’t be any problems with your HS allowing you to take more than 11 units of CC units.
P.S- If you do end up taking more than 11 units of CC classes in Senior year, I strongly recommend you take fully online classes because It will get hectic and stressful to juggle all the high school classes and then driving in the evenings to the CC classes that could last more than 2 hours. With online classes, you will get the same credit (no difference in how they are reported in your college transcripts) and you will save a lot of stress by not commuting and simply working on your assignments from the comfort of your home.
Dang, that really changes everything for me then. I can take a lot more classes! (:
Thank you for this information.
In practical terms, you probably won’t want to and/or be able to take 11 units per semester, which is 2 or 3 classes. Here’s why:
- if you need to achieve any sort of high GPA in college, you WILL regret losing out on opportunities to take so-called GPA booster classes, since you’ve already taken the class in CC.
- if you don’t plan your CC courses accordingly in HS, you may hit unit thresholds and be forced to renounce some of these classes.
- online classes fill up fast, especially those that can articulate into a breadth class for a given school. Most CCs give HS students very low priority for signing up for classes.
- quite a few CC classes are very time consuming. My kid decided to be slick and take a Nutrition class, thinking that an easy class that would fulfill a Biology breadth at Berkeley would be awesome. The class wasn’t difficult, but he would up spending about as much time with homework as a typical AP class, doing research work.
- some majors, especially in Engineering, require a lot of classes that need to be taken in sequence. So it would be near impossible to graduate in under 4 years, which is most likely a reason why you wanted to take so many CC classes in HS to begin with.
Having said that, my kid will start at Berkeley with 40 CC semester units and (hopefully) 38 AP semester units, so the one advantage he will get will be to register with the juniors perhaps as opposed to with the freshmen. And he’s got half of his breadth classes taken care of already, as well as 2 of his lower division Computer Science requisite classes.