<p>I'm a sophomore in high school and since I have nothing to do this summer, I'm considering taking college classes at my local community college for college credit. Since I'm going to have 1 fewer year of AP classes, I've got to get as much college credit as possible.</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure there are 2 semesters of summer classes at my local community college so I will have to sign up for courses each semester. </p>
<p>-Is taking college courses at a community college looked down upon by colleges compared to going to those expensive "pre-college" programs at Columbia, Harvard, and etc.?</p>
<p>-Also, I've never taken a college course before so I'm not sure what it's like compared to normal courses. The ones I am looking at are all lectures. Can anyone tell me about this lecture format of class? </p>
<p>-How many courses would you recommend taking per summer semester? I don't know what a reasonable amount is. It's all I'm going to be doing over the summer (in addition to maybe an internship). How many do you think is reasonable for a rising junior who has only taken 1 AP class before (but does well in it)? </p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>A community college course is a real college level course, unlike many AP classes, and certainly unlike most “pre-college” summer programs. It also is much less expensive than almost every “pre-college” program!</p>
<p>Take one class each summer semester. This will give you plenty of time to adjust to the level of expectations and to the work load. It will also leave you time for other things that you want to do or need to do this summer - like a part-time job, some volunteer work, or reading trashy novels while you work on your suntan. Don’t forget to make time in your life for some fun.</p>
<p>Each instructor will do things a bit differently, just like in your HS. Usually in a college catalogue courses are listed as “Lecture” or “Lab”. Sometimes the lecture is just that: the professor gives a lecture and you take notes, you go home and study, you take tests or write a paper, you have a final exam. Sometimes the professor expects more interaction with group projects, class discussion, and individual and group presentations to the class as a whole. A Lab course might be the time you spend in a science laboratory, or it might be the time you spend in other practical activities such as observing teachers for a course in the Education department.</p>
<p>Hey,</p>
<p>I would highly doubt that taking courses at a community college would be looked down upon by a more prestigious college. The fact that you are using your summer to take college courses at all sounds like it would be more in your favor. Not to mention you’d be geting college credit as well. </p>
<p>From my experience with lecture courses (the only lectures I’ve had actually are in my science courses) the teacher pretty much explains the material to the class as you take notes on it. This could vary depending on the professor and class, but that’s the jist of it. </p>
<p>As far recommending how many classes to take, I honestly don’t know. Sorry. :(</p>
<p>I took two classes last summer (one online, one in person), and found it to be a bit frantic. Especially since the summer classes had less time but the same amount of credits as a semester-long class. Mostly what I noticed the difference between community college and high school is that the professors are much better. They generally give less busy work (instead of assigning 50 problems, they’ll assign 10). It was a bit hard too because a lot of the time they would give you the material, and next day a test.
This might sound a little rude too, but I’ll say it anyways: A lot of community college students are not as bright. If for example, you take a lower level math class, like Algebra 2 or something, a lot of the students this is the 2nd or 3rd attempt to pass after dropping out of the class previously. That means they only got as far as geometry, or maybe algebra by senior year in HS. If you are a good, AP straight-A student (or near enough) in high school, you should’nt have any problem keeping up, you just have to work hard and learn fast. It’s not that hard to set the curve in some classes.
If you are taking introductory classes, they aren’t that much harder than high school classes. I don’t know, it would probably be very difficult to take a class, like for example, multivariable calculus, though.
What classes are you thinking of taking? Depending on difficulty, you could either take one or two. I wouldn’t reccommend taking more than 2, though.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone.</p>
<p>happymomof1, I know you said 1 class per semester but I’m thinking maybe 2 per semester. I know it might be hard but hopefully it won’t be TOO overwhelming. This way I can take 4 classes by the end of the summer and since I am not going to be able to take the 4 AP classes I wanted to take, this might be a good substitution. (then maybe I should take classes that are the same subject as the AP classes I wanted to take? hmm…)</p>
<p>chocobok, I am thinking of classes in Economics (maybe Intro to Economics or Principles of Econ or something like that) and Political Science/Government. I like learning about Poli Sci/Gov’t but I’m not actually going to major in it, I want to major in Economics. So I’ll try to take one class in each of those areas. My high school doesn’t give you credits for community college courses so I am just doing it to earn college credit/save money. Yeah I probably want to take 2 per summer semester. I like the thing you said about less busy work in those classes, busy work is stupid and can be a total waste of time.</p>
<p>I would say the material is very similar to what you would do in high school if you were taking an AP. Like intro to Econ is probably similar in depth to AP econ.
Over summer, you could take 2 classes, if you feel you could handle it (you might not have a time for a good break though). While your in session in school, I would recommend taking 1. I had to drop a class this semester at the communtiy college because I simply did not have time to keep up with it. But I am planning to take some over the summer.</p>
<p>But then again, maybe you could handle 2 classes per semester. It depends how rigourous your current HS work is, and what EC’s/ how time consuming they are. For me, my HS work isn’t very vigourous, but my EC’s were after school everday for 2 hrs, so I couldn’t handle even taking one class this semester. But over the summer, it’s much easier because that’s the only thing you have to focus on.</p>
<p>Oh, then I probably shouldn’t take that because I’m taking AP Econ next year. Hm, this is quite confusing. I want to do the community college thing sort of as an AP substitution since I can’t take the AP courses I wanted to take, but that would mean those credits I earn wouldn’t even count toward my major and it could be a waste of money.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t say it’s a waste of money. No matter what class you’re taking, you’re learning something. Plus, compared to how much that actual class would cost if you took it at a pre-college program or in college, it’s super cheap.</p>
<p>Also, ask counselors at the community college for recommendations and desciptions or what you’ll learn for classes. Maybe different material is covered in intro to Econ than AP econ, I dunno.</p>
<p>Some of Ivies and other top schools will not give you credit for any college class taken while in high school or after. I have been comparing the schools that offered fall admission to my D. The state schools seem to give credit for CC classes and any AP score over 3 but the privates have different rules. You should look at the schools you will be applying to see if they will give you credit.</p>
<p>OP - if you can afford to think about expensive pre-college programs, why are you taking summer classes at a community college? They are fine, however I would EXTREMELY recommend that you take summer courses at a full, 4-year state school (or ideally, simply the most prestigious school within distance to you). Depending a ton on the quality of the community college and quality of your public high school, jr college classes are about as challenging as high school courses or less challenging (as compared to an AP course).</p>
<p>So if you plan on taking AP Econ, clearly you should not take Intro to Econ at a jr college because they will be basically the same thing (chocobok is incorrect, it is the same material and probably same textbook, although the jr college might actually use an easier book).</p>
<p>So again, if you’re serious then you should take courses at the best school that you can afford and can travel to. I know that there are some pre-college programs at top schools that aren’t the typical bogus crap, but actually have you take college-credit courses, taught by that schools professors, alongside other students from that college. However, they are very expensive. Do you live near any colleges at all - public or private - that aren’t junior colleges? Every one will have summer courses offered for their students, and most will allow high school students to register for them.</p>
<p>Edit: in response to nodebtmom’s post, just to be clear this is about accepting credit from community college courses. A lot of private schools lately (NYU being the latest) won’t take community college courses as college credit. Of course, if you happened to take a summer course at NYU as a high school student (that was an NYU credited course), you will clearly get college credit for it wherever you go.</p>
<p>I have to disagree with you mcgoogly, especially if money is of concern
Where I got to community college, 1 unit = 20 dollars. so a 3-unit class would be $60, 5-unit class would be $100. Books are around $100, but you can rent or sell back so probably net would be around $20. Compared to a precollege program, which can range anywhere from $1,000-$5,000, that is a huge difference. Precollege programs wouldn’t be offering any harder classes for HS student, because they’ll likely be introductory as well. </p>
<p>Intro classes will be similar to difficulty as AP classes, but if you stick to the subject, you can progress to higher levels. For example, math you may start out at Algebra 2 or something, but if you take a math class every semester you can progress to 3rd year calculus. </p>
<p>There’s also the option of taking a class at the local CC, for example intro to Econ, and not taking the AP class at HS at all, but take the AP exam at the end of the year for credit. </p>
<p>Plus, at community college, you can continue your studies every semester. At pre-college, it’s only over the summer.</p>
<p>nodebtmom- That’s unfortunate. Oh well, I’ll just take the classes for the learning experience, to be more prepared for college-level courses, and because I’m interested in them.</p>
<p>mcgoogly- I definitely won’t be able to afford classes at a 4-year state school. My older sibling currently attends a 4-year in-state school and my parents are struggling to pay for her education. But how much really are credits at 4-year state school? Like chocobok said, I could afford each unit for $20 so a 3-credit course at $60, but definitely not classes that are thousands of dollars. My parents want to save up for when I actually go to college so I don’t want to cut into that. But as you said, it also might not transfer over, but I guess I can just use this as a way to be more prepared for college-level courses.</p>
<p>“There’s also the option of taking a class at the local CC, for example intro to Econ, and not taking the AP class at HS at all, but take the AP exam at the end of the year for credit.”</p>
<p>My school won’t let me. ):
AH… my school and its ridiculous, nonsensical policies.</p>
<p>chocobok - I agree with you and I feel that I may have been a little harsh in my first post. Taking CC colleges is great and shows an initiative and love of learning - I’m not denying that. However, courses at state and private schools would most definitely appear “better,” because they are universally without-a-doubt accepted as college credit wherever you go, and are more difficult (so I disagree with you there, even an intro class at a big-name state school is a much tougher class than the same intro class at a CC).</p>
<p>However the OP can’t afford such classes, and its not that big of a deal, so I would recommend that you take the CC classes. And you don’t have to take the AP test afterwards, although now that I think about it that might be a pretty good idea (I’m sure you’d be prepared for them). Perhaps you should petition your school, or just sign up for the AP test anyways and see what the hell they’re going to do (not recommended).</p>
<p>You want to major in Econ, right? So maybe you could use this time to get ahead of your grade in math (economics is extremely math-heavy). So take Algebra 2 at the CC, then you can take pre-calculus next year in high school, and then you can take calc in CC, and then by senior year you’d be in either Calculus BC or some other more advanced class. As a side, colleges love that.</p>
<p>^Classes probably are harder at state universities. Especially if you take in to consideration the curve. It’s likely you may be setting it at the local CC, but at state, maybe not. Just in theory they’re supposed to be about equal so students can transfer credits over. But I guess other universities are no longer counting courses as credit, which sucks :(</p>