Do activities listed in activities section have to be extracurricular?

D19 is starting to organize stuff for the common app. Next year, she was selected for a course called Biotechnology - it is a dual enrollment course that results in 8 college credits from a local college. The course involves working in a lab every day conducting research and learning proper lab procedures. It is taught offsite (not at her high school) but it goes onto her transcript as a high school science 1-credit course. Admission to the course is competitive - there are limited spaces, as the course takes only a few students from each local high school.

D19 is planning to major in a science field (currently leaning toward biochem/neuroscience) and one of the colleges she wants to apply to has a special STEM scholarship which requires that you show “significant research experience”. D19 only discovered how much she loves science late in her sophomore year and she has never done any extracurricular science activities such as science fair etc. (partly because her weekends are already consumed by her current music-related extracurriculars, marching band and drumline). She is doing a science camp-type thing this summer at a local med school but other than that, biotech will be her only real “lab research” experience. That said, it is a full year and 8 college credits worth of research experience, which seems pretty significant to me.

Just having it listed as a 1-credit high school course on the transcript doesn’t seem to convey the depth of what it entails (and the college she wants to apply to is out of state, probably doesn’t get a ton of applicants from our area, and may not be familiar with the program.) I am wondering if she can list it as an activity in the activities section, or, if not there, where is the best place to describe the course so that the AOs understand what it entails. Thanks!

Oh, in case it is not clear, the course is taught during the school day - she reports there for first period then goes to her regular high school for the rest of her classes. (Her school has block scheduling so her first period is about 1.5 hours long – I think for normal high schools with 45 minute periods, it would be the first 2 periods.)

Perhaps she can find a way to write about it in her essay?

Significant research experience ≠ a class.

It’s a waste of time and ink to try to explain a class. At the end of the day, it’s still a class.

Now if this class results in a significant research project, then perhaps sending an abstract as a supplement (if the college allows supplements) is a better way to go.