<p>My school offers decent AP classes for junior and senior year, but we also have a program called Running Start (WA only) that allows us to take classes at a community college for dual credit to WA public universities after graduation. I suppose my classes at community college can be considered rigorous when you look at how they transfer to my high school credits. I've heard that these college in high school programs look bad on college applications (I'm applying to Cornell, Stanford, Carnegie, Pomona, UCB, LA). Does anyone know if this is true?</p>
<p>Classes at Comm. College Junior year:</p>
<p>ENG 101, 102 = 2 years HS credit
MAT 151 (Calculus) = 1 year HS
CHEM 100 = 1 year HS
HIS 111 = 1 year HS
+ other non-core</p>
<p>Senior year (projected):</p>
<p>MAT 152 (Calculus II)
HIS 112
POLS 202 (political science)
CHEM 139
MAT 148 (Business Calculus)
ACCT 201 (Accounting)
+ more</p>
<p>The problem is the rigor is in question but also the courses are important. You will receive no credit (As far as I can see) for these courses at the schools you have listed. You will have to take the AP exam. </p>
<p>
I don’t really see an advantage in taking political science, accounting, or business calculus (business calculus is a lower version of calculus and one is typically not allowed to take both regular calculus and business calculus). </p>
<p>I don’t see a problem, however, with taking your math, science, English, or Foreign languages at a community college. Just know that the instructors vary and you might get a harder class than you expect. (I’m taking 4 years of college Spanish this year and skipping the labs… I’ve recently realized that 2 years of high school Spanish was expected before enrollment)</p>
<p>Hmm, the dual credit program only applies to WA state universities, so I don’t expect any credits to transfer over to those schools.</p>
<p>The only reason I am taking political science is because it is required for my high school graduation (equiv. of AP U.S. Govt at my school). I wanted to take accounting and business calculus because I want a taste of what’s to come. I intend on majoring in Business/Finance. The counselors give us pretty much unlimited freedom in choosing our classes, so I can take any classes at the college.</p>
<p>Right now I’m taking 3 classes at college and 2 at my high school (equivalent of 11 HS credits/year, which is almost 2x regular 6 period schedule at HS). Would it be better to throw Physics and Calculus III in the mix for spring quarter? If it doesn’t make that much of a difference, I’d rather take it easy in the spring. </p>
<p>I spoke to University of Washington admissions officers and they said that they look at many of these core classes as on par with AP, but I highly doubt that’s the case with other schools. I’m just not sure if taking these college courses instead of taking high school AP classes will hurt my transcript/application =/.</p>
<p>Unless you plan to go to college in Washington State where adcoms have a better idea of what’s going on in your local community college, AP classes probably count for more in college admissions than community college classes. There’s more uniformity in AP course content across the nation, so adcoms have more confidence that they know what they’re looking at when they see those AP classes on your HS transcript. And that’s so even if your community college classes turn out to be more work or harder than your HS AP classes; because the rigor of community college classes varies widely across the country and from school to school, non-local adcoms just don’t know what to make of them.</p>
<p>We have a somewhat similar program here in Minnesota called PSEO (“Post-Secondary Educational Opportunities”) that allows qualified HS juniors and seniors to take classes at any college or university in the state at state expense. Some kids use it as an opportunity to earn college credits to get a free jump-start on their college degrees. Others take a few classes to supplement their HS curriculum, essentially treating their PSEO classes as part of HS rather than looking to build college credits. We homeschool, so the PSEO classes my D is taking now at the University of Minnesota represent a major part of her junior year curriculum, and a workable alternative to AP classes that are not available to her. We expect these classes she’s taking for graded credit at the U to be viewed favorably by college adcoms as evidence that she’s pursuing a rigorous and challenging HS education, especially if she continues to do as well in them as she has so far. But we’re dealing here not with a community college, but a well known and fairly well regarded major research university, one of the top schools in the state. I wouldn’t expect community college classes to be looked upon quite as favorably. Other things equal, community college classes themselves won’t hurt you; but what might hurt is if you elect to pass over AP classes at your HS in favor of additional community college credits.</p>
<p>We have a similar program at my school; I plan on taking Calculus I and Physics 101 this summer at the Community College of Philadelphia. My school is fairly new and only offers AP Biology(I took the regular class at the school I was at before I transferred to the school I’m at now, so I can’t take this class), AP US History, and AP English Literature. I will be taking APUSH and AP English in my senior year because my school requires juniors to take Pre-AP versions of those classes before they can take their actual AP counterparts.
I was just wondering if you guys/girls think that my lack of AP classes will be frowned upon by colleges, as well as if it will make a big difference to them that I will have taken those two community college classes. Thank you!</p>