<p>Hey CC,</p>
<p>I just graduated 8th grade and got A's in a full load of 9th and 10th grade classes at an online school (Stanford OHS). Next year I'm set to go full time to a local non-magnet public school and take H. Precalculus, H. English 10, AP Chem, and AP World His as well as AP Chinese online. I also swim at the club level and it requires 15+ hours a week.</p>
<p>The problem is that I live in Las Vegas and our school system is terrible. My parents are worried that the courses might not be as challenging as they appear. A coordinator at the talent search urged me to enroll in the University of Las Vegas's early studies system, which usually accepts juniors and seniors. They've contacted somebody in the admissions and she's said that I'm eligible to take a freshman English course (I have a 770 SAT critical reading, 760 writing, and 36s on the ACT English and reading). I'm not one of those genius kids with stratospheric IQs, and if I did dual enrollment I don't know how I would find the time to sleep, much less get As.</p>
<p>Is dual enrollment for a high school freshman a bad idea? I would like to take the course and English is a passion, but I'm not sure whether I have time to. Any feedback is much appreciated.</p>
<p>From what I’ve heard, dual enrollment classes aren’t that much harder than AP classes (obviously depends on the subject and the college).
I’m a senior and I’ll be a full-time dual-enrollment student this fall. I don’t think I’m smarter than I was when I was a freshman, and I think I would have been capable of doing the kind of work I’m doing now if I’d had the necessary knowledge (and your test scores indicate that you have that). The biggest difference between freshmen and juniors/seniors is in maturity, and it’s probably not as big a difference as juniors and seniors would like to believe.
You should also consider what the social life will be like, with most of the students being older than you. Will you be able to make friends?</p>
<p>If you’re pretty much skipping 9th grade, I say it’s not worth it. Do it over the summer. You don’t need dual-enrollement. As long as you’re eligible to take a college level course, take it over the summer. Summer sessions are usually a little over a month long, which is nothing considering summer is about 3 months. Take it at a community college not University of Las Vegas considering that the tuition difference between a university and CC is staggering. </p>
<p>Since you’re skipping a grade, you will be taking plenty of challenging courses in the upcoming three years. You can go as high as Linear Algebra for math, you’ll have a ton of APs, I’m assuming your SATs are already stellar from the two subjects you mentioned already, you should have little trouble with AP exams and SAT IIs. I say focus on your classes since you’ll have plenty to take and they’ll be challenging enough. If they’re not challenging enough, you can fill (and you should) with leadership positions and volunteer work. A 4.0 or anything close to it is pretty valuable. If you have an easy time with these classes and easily manage such good grades, good for you–we will all sit here, envious. :)</p>
<p>Leave the college courses for the summer. They’re not as challenging as they appear (especially English and the humanities) and definitely not worth it to take during the school year given your already stellar credentials. You have to do something in the summer anyway, right?</p>
<p>Usually when a kid has been encouraged to dual-enroll (coming from someone in a rural town where it’s a pain to even find a dual enrollment class, let alone take one) I say go for it: make use of your opportunities. But in your case, I think it’s best to maybe wait till sophomore year. You already have a lot on your plate next year- your first 3 APs, a sport, and high school. In addition, you’ll be in English 10, so it’s not like you’re completely slacking in English. As thisisgreen said, it’ll be more valuable to do something a little different with any extra time you have next year- ec’s like clubs and volunteering. In fact, you could even take that interest in English and apply it to a journalism or writers club at your school if you have something like that. Have fun with whatever you do! :)</p>
<p>Thanks for all the helpful advice. I’m actually not skipping 9th (graduating in '17), but I think it’s still a great idea to do clubs and such. Maybe I can do AP English instead as a challenge.</p>
<p>Let me just say, I’m glad you’re graduating in '17 instead of '16.</p>
<p>DE while fun is brutal when it comes to the time commitment. I did one class this past semester, I spent 3 hours in class a week and had around 10 hours of homework a week. If I had an upcoming exam or an essay due I could easily spend an extra 10-15 hours working that week for the class. When a huge essay was due I basically didn’t do any ECs for a couple days. If you are committed to your ECs I would not recommend DE this early into your time in high school. Online classes would be a better choice.</p>
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<p>I wouldn’t, AP Lang and Literature are the only AP Language classes and as far as I know the only language college courses would be like Comp 2 or humanities. Also most math/science degrees at most colleges that I’ve looked at only require you have Composition 1 completed. I’m going to tell you, your going to be all excited about doing your classes now but when it gets there and you have EC’s and a social life you want, your going to be losing a lot of sleep. Once your done you wont regret it, but if you think of taking the course load again, you’ll think how you wouldn’t want to go through that. To me APUSH was that class because I love history but AP makes it an unenjoyable experience because of the time you have to commit reading each night about things in history you see as irreverent or boring. (For me this was the political machines)</p>
<p>Much appreciated. I’m not sure what I’d like to major in, but it probably will be in the social science area.</p>
<p>New problem- my parents will not accept my decision. They’re chalking it up to “teenage problems and stubbornness”. I’ve tried explaining that I won’t have time to balance all of it but they won’t listen. What do I say?</p>