<p>My son started attending cc in what would normally be 10th grade. But, we never really did 'structured' homeschooling so to us the grades are sort of meaningless. He passed the Accuplacer and did well in those college classes, so in my mind he has officially been a college student since age 16. We essentially quit homeschooling at the time he started the cc, aside from finishing out algebra II and trig.</p>
<p>Now, one of his top college choices (a financial reach out of state) told us they need high school transcripts, SAT and a GED! Their website and brochure clearly state that those are only required for transfer students with fewer than 40 quarter (equivalent to 30 semester) hours. My son will exceed that requirement so he should not be required to provide those materials, imo. He has not taken the SAT because the local state school (which is the most likely choice he'll transfer to) does not require it. All of his college credits will transfer smoothly to it. </p>
<p>I realize that oos schools may have different requirements, but this has nothing to do with that. They've already told me that his credits should transfer just fine. Yet, they said 'we have a policy for high school students who take college credits while in high school.'</p>
<p>This sounds like discrimination against homeschoolers to me. He clearly meets the criteria for a transfer student. If those classes had not been labeled 'dual credit' then they would just accept that he started college early. But because he did it thru dual-credit (primarily because it was free that way) they think he was still a 'high school' student.</p>
<p>As homeschoolers we do things differently. I have no use for their silly grade rules. My son took college courses and got credit. It is an outrage that they are now telling him he should be considered a high school student just because he took those classes technically labeled 'dual credit.'</p>
<p>Colleges have varying rules regarding college classes for highschool students and they are not necessarily aimed at home schoolers. One college wouldn't accept college courses my kid took before junior year but would accept APs taken then. One semester later and it was a perfectly transferable course. Some colleges won't accept dual credit if it is taught at the High School instead of the college. This is even if the teacher is from the college and has the same syllabus and grading system as the course taught at the college. What matters is the location of the desk where your butt is parked for the course. A few will admit you as a Freshman with Freshman scholarships with many college credits but if you take 12 hours over the summer before attending college, you become a transfer student and loose your Freshman scholarship. One college my kid applied to was willing to accept her 45 hours of college credit (a mix of AP and concurrent enrollment at local college) with just transcript info but anything taken after she graduated in May would require a syllabus, etc for evaluation PRIOR to her enrolling in the course.</p>
<p>It was confusing for us as my kid tried to decide which colleges to apply to so it must be horrible for a homeschooler. I hope you can get someone at the University to rethink this on a case by case basis. Good Luck.</p>
<p>If he took "dual credit" courses he WAS still in high school. That's exactly what "dual credit" is, it's a program for high school students to take college courses WHILE they are still in high school. If he did not want to be considered a high school student, he would have had to enroll at the time as a freshman rather than dual enrolled, and would have had to meet the entering freshman requirements which most likely would have had more hoops (SAT etc.) than the dual enrollment program. It is really typical for colleges to NOT count dual enrollment courses towards class standing. So a student may have finished 2 years at a community college, but if it's dual enrollment they may still enter as a freshman once they are out of high school. (out of the dual enrollment program.) My son is currently dual enrolled, but he considers it a good thing to be able to enter college as a freshman later without having these classes boost him up to transfer level. The reason for this is that the schools he is taking dual enrollment at are not all that selective, and he'd like the opportunity to enter a more selective university as a freshman, down the road. Basically he is thinking of the dual enrollment courses as a challenging high school curriculum which will prepare him for a more demanding university experience later. Anyway, it certainly is smart for students to do the research and figure out ahead of time how they would like their early college counted. If they want to retain the ability to enter as a freshman, dual enrollment is the way to go. If they want to have the classes count towards advanced class standing, they should enroll as standard freshman rather than dual enrollment. Thanks for posting your experience, I'm sure it will help other families.</p>
<p>"Some colleges won't accept dual credit if it is taught at the High School instead of the college"</p>
<p>I know that many students don't want their dual-credit classes to count, because they want to apply as freshmen. In my son's case, he most definitely does not want to lose those credits. He will most likely attend UT Austin (which is an awesome state school) in which case they will transfer. The exact classes he took are part of their core curriculum, so it makes no sense to me to count those classes as just high school.</p>
<p>The classes were taken at the college, not at a high school. Thanks for pointing this out - I didn't think to mention that but maybe it will make a difference.</p>
<p>I guess my point is that why does it matter so much how the kid is labeled? It seems to me that it should matter more what level of classes s/he ihas actually taken.</p>
<p>Perhaps it shouldn't matter, but it does to many colleges. Your son was still officially a high school student if he was taking dual enrollment. You can just make up your own transcript, however, listing the dual enrollment classes, as well as the ones done at home, for his four years (or whatever) of high school. We did that, putting a symbol by each course to indicate where it was taken.</p>
<p>Although my sons listed these cc classes as dual enrollment, the colleges they ended up attending did give them credit for the cc classes once they were accepted. However, they still were able to compete for freshman scholarships, and take part in freshman programs, even though the credits moved them up to sophomore status rather quickly.</p>
<p>"I guess my point is that why does it matter so much how the kid is labeled? "</p>
<p>Keeping freshman status matters if a student would like to attend a highly selective university. Some of the most selective universities have very few transfer spots. Also freshman are often eligible for more scholarship money. A student who takes dual enrollment classes and then enters a university as a freshman, doesn't "lose" the classes they took. They are usually placed out of the courses they've already taken and have the opportunity to take higher level courses, moving into graduate course work while still an undergrad. Another reason for a young student to want to enter as a freshman is if they would like to delay undergrad graduation until they are a bit more of the typical age, so that they don't run into age issues when job hunting or applying to grad school. Probably not a huge issue if a student is just a year or two younger ,but can be an issue if a student is a lot younger. Saying all of this, I still think that for some kids, using early college as college credit to transfer to another 4 year school is the way they are happiest. So much depends on the individual student, their goals, the schools they'd like to attend and what they want to do after their undergrad degree. Glad to hear your son was able to find a school that suited him, and tthat allowed him to count all his dual enrollment courses.</p>
<p>Thanks for the explanation. I've posted about this topic before and gotten some responses, and I find that I am STILL confused. One mom told me I could pick and choose whether to list him as a freshman - list as freshman for some colleges but a transfer to others.</p>
<p>The admissions person at UT Austin told me he HAD to apply as a transfer - that there was no choice. So we continued on that path. I even asked again and again whether there was any advantage to taking the SAT and 4 different people in admissions assured me that they did NOT look at SAT for transfers and yes he was definitely a transfer. I think I need to call them yet again to make sure they will even have transfer slots availalbe - no one said anything about that.</p>
<p>"Although my sons listed these cc classes as dual enrollment, the colleges they ended up attending did give them credit for the cc classes once they were accepted. However, they still were able to compete for freshman scholarships, and take part in freshman programs, even though the credits moved them up to sophomore status rather quickly."</p>
<p>That sounds like the best of both worlds. I don't understant why the admission officers didn't explain to me that he had that option!</p>
<p>If you were independently homeschooling while your son was in high school, you would have retained the ability to indicate that the college courses your son took were, or were not, applied towards his high school degree. However, in your instance, you say your son was enrolled in a dual enrollment program, was able to take the courses free or at reduced cost because they were part of his high school dual enrollment, and that took away the ability to say that the courses were not part of dual enrollment where the courses were counted towards high school. </p>
<p>Some homeschooled students are enrolled in college, and are paying for their college courses, and are not part of an official dual enrollment program. They will have a choice of putting those college courses on a high school transcript and indicating they counted towards high school, or indicating they did not count towards high school and were not part of a dual enrollment program if they prefer to enter a 4 year school as a transfer with credits. Does that make sense?</p>
<p>Yes, thanks! He definitely wants those credits counted as college, not high school. So, the way I understand it, he is therefore applying as a transfer student and not eligible for freshman scholarships (which is ok since he'll only be going to school 3 years instead of 4, so it balances out).</p>
<p>One person told me we could count them on some applications but not for others. </p>
<p>He is busy with his job right now and just doesn't have time to suddenly cram for the SAT in order to take in in Nov, which would be necessary if he wanted to apply as a freshman. He made the National Merit Commended on his PSAT so I know he'd do well on the SAT, so it's not that I am afraid for him to take it. But I would rather he have some time to prepare, by doing some of the practice tests, brushing up on his algebra II, etc. and realistically, between his college classes, his job, and having to write 8 essays for scholarships in the next month, he just doesn't have time to prepare for the SAT too. He could have done that last summer but at that time there did not seem to be any reason at all. If he has to take it, I'd want him to do his very best.</p>
<p>So it looks like that one school is the only one that might require the SAT (and I do intend to contest it - it's worth a try anyway). He still has several other options. That school sounds really cool but it was a major stretch anyway - not academically so much as financially. There is no way he could go there unless he got a lot of financial aid. (It's oos) So I am trying to put this in perspective - I guess it's not really a big deal if he doesn't apply to that one anyway.</p>
<p>"realistically, between his college classes, his job, and having to write 8 essays for scholarships in the next month, he just doesn't have time to prepare for the SAT too." </p>
<p>That makes sense. He IS busy, isn't he? :-) Good luck on appealing the SAT requirement for the one school. Let us know how this all turns out, eh? Hopefully he ends up at a school he's happy with, and where he can get the credits counted as he wants them.</p>
<p>you mention that he will be busy writing eight essays for scholarships -- just an FYI, scholarships are a major reason that many kids want to keep their freshman status. Make sure that he is eligible for the scholarships he is applying for. If they are for kids going to college for the first time next year, for graduating seniors, etc (which most are) he would be ineligible if he is a transfer student.</p>
<p>Also -- you might want to clarify his status at UT-Austin. Many schools have the kids apply as freshman that have been part of a dual-enrollment program (like your son). Then they award the credit for the transferred credit and AP test scores sometime during the first year -- bumping the kid from freshman to sophomore or junior. That way the kid is still eligible for scholarships and merit aid and he gets the best of both worlds. That is the beauty of dual-enrollment.</p>
<p>Thanks. I had thought I'd already done that, but I did find that different people in the same office sometimes gave different answers, so I will now go back and ask again and make sure I get this cleared up. If it does turn out that he has the choice of applying as a freshman, we'll have to decide whether it's worth it to do that, being that he'd have to hurry and take the SAT ASAP.</p>