Hi everyone,
Sorry for a rookie question but we have no guidance at our school.
My daughter wants to take Econ at the local CC this summer to free up room in her schedule next year. If she does, how does she send that information to colleges?
Also, is there any downside to taking a CC course?
thanks!
My daughter has taken several classes at local college via dual enrollment. Her GC said they would be able to add those classes to HS transcript, but they would be listed as 4, not 5 point classes, and would actually dilute D’s gpa. So we decided to leave them separately, and if D goes to college that would accept those cc credits, will send in the cc transcript then. I can’t see a downside to taking a class and can’t see a downside to mentioning it in college apps.
We had to get the guidance counselor’s approval for dual enrollment and my son had to test into the CC classes. Some of them have prerequisites.
Your DC has to request that the CC transcripts be sent to the college, that is not something that the HS does for you that I’m aware of.
This will be high school specific. In general, if it is a DE course that is listed on the HS transcript, a separate CC transcript is not needed. Conversely, if it is not on the HS transcript, she would need to have the CC send the transcript to colleges that require transcripts. But again, it’s HS (and college) specific.
Thanks everyone. What is a DC?
Your daughter. DC=Dear Child
LOL! OK, I thought it was a new kind of guidance counselor.
My daughter took several classes at the local college, NOT affiliated with the high school in any way. She just submitted the college transcript along with the high school transcript.
One thing to be wary of: Courses taken at the local college after your child graduates high school may make him/her ineligible for Freshman scholarships. A summer course taken between junior and senior year of high school is fine; a summer course after senior year is not. (Check with individual colleges on your list, but this is what we found at all of the colleges we checked.)
My daughter is a senior completing her second year of all dual enrollment. In my daughter’s case she can only take dual enrollment classes from a specific college with approval from both the high school and the college. The grades are automatically given to the high school guidance counselor and put on her high school transcript and used for her high school gpa. She does not have a choice not to include them. She doesn’t pay for the courses or books. She also had to take a college placement test in math and English.
However all 8 colleges she applied to wanted college classes on a college transcript separate from her high school transcript as well. The guidance counselor had my daughter get a signed/sealed official copy that she put up on naviance. We did this at the end of junior year and at the end of first semester senior year.
Now that the actual college for the fall is finalized and deposit paid dd had to send them a copy directly from the dual enrollment college in order to get her credits evaluated for transfer credit. They wont’ accept that from a high school transcript (even saying they are from the college) or naviance. At the end of this semester she will have to have an official transcript sent over again with her final grades. She will also need her high school transcript sent over which is automatically done by the high school. In her case it really will only be used to show she graduated.
Colleges may ask for copies of syllabi from dual enrollment classes so it is a good idea to save all of them until you know what the college you choose to attend will want. Also when my daughter had the official transcript from the dual enrollment school sent to the college she had to choose from 2 electronic ways and an email or it would take 1-2 weeks to mail out a copy. She had to call the college to find out which method was preferred.
@skieurope - the courses are listed on his HS transcript. We also sent his transcript from the CC which also indicates dual enrollment.
momtogirls2 - explains DE well. That has been how it has worked for us, too.
We sent both the HS and college transcripts, even though the HS listed the courses (with weighting).
Our HS transcripts list only the college name and course number (like CMPSC 138 or INT 95R). We didn’t expect adcoms would want to look up the course names. The college transcripts list the course titles.
It’s best to have your HS print your kid a copy of the transcript before they start sending it to colleges. At our HS, there are often mistakes that people have to get corrected. (For my son: a DE class was listed for the wrong year and another DE class was listed twice.)
“Also, is there any downside to taking a CC course?”
It’s best to take courses you can do well in. Depending on what college you attend, the grade may stay on your college GPA.
IM CONFUSED WITH THIS ASWELL!! I’ve finished all of my mandatory classes this year and for senior year I just have English to take and French( mandatory for everyone no matter what) I want most of my APs and electives to be taken in CC but my GC says he doesn’t recommend BUT I know that I’m ready. I also, don’t see the point of staying in school the whole day for only two classes. how would I go about accomplishing this? I’ve also heard about students completing bachelors degrees in two years in high school. it’s too late now but should I focus on classes in CC towards my major later on? can i complete an associate in one year?
@confusedK it is harder than you might think to coordinate a schedule that would accommodate the 2 HS classes that you need to take along with a schedule at the CC for the DE classes that you might want to take.
I would listen to the GC on this and take AP classes at the HS. Prioritize the 2 classes that you must complete to graduate.
@flmom26 do you mind if I message you to talk about it more? there is actually more details on this and my decision on taking classes at CC.
@confusedk - Thank you for asking me that. I prefer to talk out here on the board so that if I say something incorrect or unclear others can point that out. This is my first experience with DE and, while things are going relatively well for my son, I don’t have the benefit of hindsight quite yet. Not all states do things the same, not all schools do things the same. In general, you really need to talk to your GC about this and if you don’t like working with that GC for some reason you should request to speak to another GC. You will need your GC’s approval to take DE courses.
@flmom26 overall thanks for the information I will try to talk to my GC again. maybe I could show him how I’m ready for CC instead of just flat out asking
@confusedK Our high school offers 2 options - option 1 take a full day high school schedule and add 1 college class late afternoon or night (per semester) which is simply called dual enrollment. Option 2 is to take all classes as dual enrollment (5 per semester) and no high school classes at all which is called early college here (but I just say dual enrollment). Both options are available with principal’s permission in terms of behavior and guidance counselor in terms of academics for both junior and senior year.
For 11th and 12th grade ELA for early college students they are replaced with College ELA for two semesters. My daughter did take intermediate Spanish but it wasn’t needed for high school graduation but more so to basically have 4 years of high school Spanish when applying to colleges.
With 1 year of full time dual enrollment you can’t obtain an associates. An associates is commonly about 60 credits . My daughter is not getting an associates even though she will have 60 credits. The priorities were 1 - take required classes needed for high school graduation - in her case she needed at least two math classes but an associate’s only needs one etc. 2 finish taking what might be needed to apply to 4 year colleges (whatever you might need). The third use of classes for my daughter was electives for her potential major. She talked to colleges ahead of time to get an idea on the best classes. She preferred those classes over some needed for an actual associates.
For many students in our high school the only required classes left for senior year may be ELA and math. That doesn’t mean though that anyone just gets to take 2 classes. I think the minimum is 5 credits out of 7. Each school or district would have its own policies so it is important that you talk to your guidance counselor. Actually just taking 2 classes would probably not look the best for college but again that is something your guidance counselor would know about.
@gallentjill - if your daughter is taking a summer class to fulfill a high school requirement it would most likely need to be approved by the high school ahead of time to get high school credit. A negative about taking it over the summer is it could take up a lot of time. Economics can be a reading and writing intensive class though it depends on how it is taught. Our high school counts dual enrollment as AP classes for the gpa but the college only goes to A so no way to get an A plus which is possible at the high school