<p>I was wondering what colleges think of college courses taught at a high school. My school has a program called concurrent enrollment and basically some teachers at our school teach courses taught at the local community college for college credit. So would colleges look at these as better than average courses, like honors or AP? I could take the following 4 courses
Basic Photography (ART 1310)
Computer Essentials (CIS 1020)
Conceptual Astronomy (PHYS 1040)
Intro To Writing (ENGL 1010)
Would it be more impressive to take these courses than the alternatives? which would be (honors english, web page design, psychology 2, and computer technology) all of which are on the high school level. Any comments are appreciated thanks!</p>
<p>bump 10 chars</p>
<p>My D's hs offers what they call the 'college experience.' She is taking Statistics and English comp for college credit. We pay $100 per course and she gets a college transcript for 6 credits. Anyone know if colleges will be likely to accept those credits?</p>
<p>Conceptual astronomy looks interesting, but if it's a non-mathematical course (and that's what it sounds like), I don't think it would be too impressive.</p>
<p>Without knowing course content, I'm not sure about this answer, but I think there's a strong probability that these courses are entry-level community college courses and, as such, would not be the least impressive. Computer essentials, for instance, sounds like a basic "how to operate a computer" course. It doesn't sound like computer science to me. Intro to writing also sounds like a course to get bad writers up to speed instead of to refine very good writers, but I can't know that for sure. Photography is photography. I doubt it matters if you take an intro class in high school or college.</p>
<p>Now, if you attend a rural school where honors and AP courses aren't availalbe or (in some cases) even chemistry and physics may not be available, then you might get some benefit out of one of these courses. But if you have high school honors classes, or even rigorous non-honors classes, my guess is that you'd be better off taking those.</p>
<p>well yes they are all entry level courses, but most of them will satisfy high school graduation requirements. For example computer essentials will satisfy the basic computer credit I need to graduate (otherwise I just have to take high school computer technology) Intro to writing will satisfy half of my english requirement, basic photography would satisfy my CTE requirement (but I just got word of an internship so I'll probably do that instead) and yes conceptual astronomy is just a class that I would enjoy, its eiher that or psychology 2. My main question is how colleges look at these courses.... Is it like taking an honors class.... an AP class? Or is it just looked at like taking another class?</p>
<p>Michael:</p>
<p>I was actually trying to answer the question of how colleges would look at these classes, but didn't do a very good job of it. The real issue is academic rigor. The more academic rigor, the more colleges like your schedule. To my eye, these classes don't look at all academically rigorous, but perhaps they are more rigorous than your high school classes. I wouldn't know. </p>
<p>I will say that my best guess is that, in a school with IB/AP courses and honors courses, these community college courses will look remedial to an admissions officer, but that's JUST a guess. I have no idea of their rigor and/or content. I DO think it's safe to say that most ad. officers will not look kindly on a conceptual astonomy course if you had mathematical physics and chemistry available to you, nor will it look good to take computer basics if you had computer science available.</p>
<p>I'm sure that whether a college accepts these courses for credit depends on the college. One place we visited told us they only accept college courses for credit if the student attended the class at a college. They would not give college credit for courses taught in the High School whether by college profs or by the HS teachers. Additionally, they would award AP credit only for courses that corresponded to courses on their curriculum. Probably worth checking with colleges you're interested in for their policies.</p>
<p>At my schoool, we have, "duel enrollment" classes. From what I've found out, they seem to be counted about the same as honor level classes, or a bit above, but not as high as AP classes. It probably depends on the individual school, howevor. Do you have a community college in your area? I would recommend taking classes there, if possible. It provides a more challenging atmosphere, and I believe (I could be wrong) colleges will favor it compared to college courses at the high school. Actually, does anyone know how colleges look upon community college classes?</p>
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It provides a more challenging atmosphere, and I believe (I could be wrong) colleges will favor it compared to college courses at the high school. Actually, does anyone know how colleges look upon community college classes?
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<p>I'm not at all sure that community college always provides a more challenging atmosphere. In fact, I guess I can pretty much assure you that AP/IB/Honors classes in my area are head and shoulders above community college courses.</p>
<p>In general, I think it's accurate to say that many (but not ALL) community college courses are considered somewhat remedial by four-year colleges. </p>
<p>Don't get me wrong. I LOVE community colleges, because they give kids who are late bloomers a chance to get their academic acts together and go on to get four-year degrees. Having said that, I have had many conversations with faculty/administrators from community colleges over the years, and it is clear that their main focus is getting their kids, who are mostly academic underachievers, through the two years there. They cannot teach most of their courses to a level comparable to that of most four-year colleges or college-level courses taught in high school.</p>
<p>Note that there ARE exceptions. For instance, some community colleges offer pre-med courses, for instance, that are well-regarded by four-year colleges. Kids might attend there to get a break on costs for the first two years. I also have to believe that any high school kid who takes, say, organic chemistry at a CC just because he/she wants to take it and the high school doesn't offer it, would be well looked upon by admissions departments.</p>
<p>Tarhunt- I think you're getting the wrong impression of me. Taking these courses would not displace harder courses.</p>
<p>Heres what I've taken:</p>
<p>10th: AP European History, French 3H, Language Arts 10H, Algebra 2/Trig, Biology, Health, Choir</p>
<p>11th: AP Biology, AP U.S. History, Chemistry H, Language Arts 11H, Precalculus, Human Anatomy, Comparative Anatomy, Personal Finance (FIN 1050) </p>
<p>12th: AP Calculus BC, AP Chemistry, AP U.S. Government, Physics H, Language Arts 12H, Psychology 1..... and than 4 other courses</p>
<p>So I'm not going to be displacing mathematically challenging chem/phys classes by taking conceptual astronomy, I just like science and I take a lot of it.</p>
<p>Also the computer essentials course is required to graduate.... you either take computer technology (HS) or computer essentials CIS 1020 (college), you can't replace it with computer science. I was just wondering if colleges see taking the college intro vs. the high school intro as better.</p>
<p>And English 1010 is typically seen as a step down from AP English, I was just wondering if colleges see this as the way my school does.</p>
<p>Tarhunt: I wasn't saying that community college is in any way comparable (in almost all cases) to a four year institution or even many AP classes, however, it does seem to show initiative to take classes out of high school.</p>
<p>I can only recount my experience as a parent but perhaps it will help someone. My children's HS offers dual enrollment. Older son took AP Euro in 10th grade, APUSH in 11th and Econ/Govt. dual enrollment senior year. Our high school weights those grades and doubles the credit. Thus instead of 5 credits per semester, the dual enrollment is 10 credits per semester. So an A in those classes really pulls up the kids class rank. For some schools which are trying to improve their stats, the class rank being in that top 5% makes a big difference.<br>
When he went on to college, he got credit for the APs where he scored 4 or 5 on the test. The college had me send materials on the community college classes and he did receive credits for those classes too. Our cost is $14. per semester total.
He did not attend a top 20 school so I have no idea how HYPS would evaluate the community college.<br>
For him, it was a good fit for several reasons. The community college class was a zero period which enabled him to get out earlier every other day and the AP Euro, APUSH and AP Govt/Econ teacher is the same for all three years. I found that after the junior year, the students get tired of the same teacher, same political agenda, etc.
That said, it is something that each student has to evaluate based on what else they have taken, what community college offers the classes, transportation, money, future college goals, etc.</p>
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Tarhunt: I wasn't saying that community college is in any way comparable (in almost all cases) to a four year institution or even many AP classes, however, it does seem to show initiative to take classes out of high school.
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<p>Yes. I understand. I believe the OP was asking if these classes would seem impressive to ad. officers. I was trying to point out that they would not be impressive if he/she could substitute more rigorous high school classes. That's all.</p>
<p>Michael:</p>
<p>Look, all I can tell you is to take the tougher courses if you want to impress admissions. I don't know what those are in this case. Only you and your couselors would know.</p>
<p>This is a really stupid question but what is an AP course then? My school only has honors classes and once a student is a junior they can take classes through the community college. My school stops offering a lot of honors classes in favor of classes through the community college that are taught by teachers in our school and for which we get college credit. I take 3 of them because, for example, there is no honors u.s. history so I take the college one and its the same case in many other classes. I was always under the impression they would look impressive. Are they really looked upon poorly?</p>
<p>Tigerlily,
They will not be looked upon poorly if your school does not offer AP. And there is no stupid question. Your school obviously does not offer AP and thus provides the Community college option. The goal here is to take the most rigorous courses your school provides.</p>