<p>My daughter is planning coursework for her junior year, and we're trying to decide about AP versus dual-enrollment classes. Does anybody know if UVA has a preference? Many of her friends are opting for the AP classes, but I'm really not clear on the difference. I'm not sure about what weight is assigned to those courses at her high school. She isn't strong in math, so she's hoping to beef up her other courses as much as possible.</p>
<p>This is my first post here, so I hope this is the right forum.</p>
<p>UVa has a moderate policy in regards to AP - they give more credit than some selective private colleges, but are tougher in what AP scores they accept than most other public universities. I don’t know about UVa’s dual enrollment policies.</p>
<p>As a couple years ago, when my kids were making the same decisions, we found that many selective colleges refused to provide college credit for dual enrollment classes taken inside a high school. I understand that it is generally easier to get a college to accept dual enrollment credits if you are within the same state.</p>
<p>My kids only took AP classes instead of dual enrollment because they trusted the AP teachers, who they knew, and who were usually the best teachers in the school. They didn’t know what to expect from the dual enrollment teachers, some of whom were new part-timers who didn’t have experience teaching high school kids, and who may not have had any training in education. Also, it was easier taking a semester worth of college work over an entire high school year in an AP class, as opposed to trying to squeeze it into half of a high school year in a dual enrollment class.</p>
<p>That’s interesting. Some parents I know have indicated that the AP courses are actually more difficult than the dual-enrollment ones. </p>
<p>We are in Virginia (Charlottesville, in fact), so we may be more likely to get the credits. However, we aren’t particularly concerned about getting the credits - just the appearance on the transcript!</p>
<p>Since you are in Charlottesville, try to find some UVa faculty or admins to ask this question. My gut, based on years of following forums such as this, is that UVa prefers AP to dual enrollment because they know the AP curriculum. As charlie noted above, it is much harder for schools to assess CC courses of unknown content and unknown teachers. One exception to this would be in math, where a student’s skill level may exceed even the AP math offerings.</p>
<p>Again, this is just my opinion, though I would advise my own kids this way.</p>
<p>If you’re in Virginia then I might recommend dual enrollment because if it’s an accredited college then the credits must transfer to UVA (example, I took dual enrollment calc at VCU and UVA has to take my calc credits because they’re both public in Virginia). Try to meet with the dual enrollment/AP teachers or a guidance counselor, because the class quality varies from school to school.</p>
<p>I took unoffical dual enrollment (just enrolled as a high schooler, went to physical college campus) classes in summers and at night and it all transferred. I think it is ridiculous to say AP classes were harder than these classes (AP certainly was not harder than college work!). I took math and Spanish and both exceeded AP/high school rigor and pacing. I would have had a rough transition to college without these night and summer classes, for instance if I had only had AP classes. I would say that your child should take whatever is the most interesting to them, since both should be counted equally, so the admissions rigor part of the decision should be moot. The best thing about taking college classes was the scheduling - only 2 days per week. This helped me greatly in getting used to my college workload where homework can creep up on you if you are not used to that kind of schedule already. That is one of the big reasons why AP classes are nothing like college classes. The other main difference like I already said is rigor/pacing. AP goes very slow so that the school gets good test scores. College classes do nothing of the sort, and lecture rarely relates to readings (you are expected to master through homework and the next lecture moves on not reviews). I also liked how my college credit had to transfer as long as I passed while AP credit depended on my score/“grade (from 1 test!!)” more heavily. Of course, there were usually only 2-3 tests in the college class altogether (another huge difference between high school and college classes) but that is better than just 1 test. Anyways good luck with your scheduling decisions.</p>
<p>At our high school, the “best” students are recommended for AP rather than dual-enrollment which, I think, is viewed as more of an Honors level class. It seems backwards, but there it is. </p>
<p>The credits do transfer for the DE classes, but I’ve heard that different institutions view the AP vs DE courses differently. Not sure how UVa looks at it. Being a family of Hoos, we’re just trying to give the girl her best shot!</p>
<p>They might be a bit busy now, but remember you can always email admissions to see what they say! Their office is normally pretty helpful and prompt with responses.</p>
<p>Each counselor sends us a high school profile that outlines the curriculum at the school (along with grading scales and GPA/rank methodology). We read the file with the school’s philosophy in mind.</p>
<p>Many public schools in Virginia put AP/IB over DE, but there are exceptions.</p>