Dual Credit and AP Classes

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

Hey!
I’m in an early college program at a public school, so early college students, and students from the original school are combined for the class rank.
In my early college, they offer us 20 college classes.

PE DC (online college class)
Music Appreciation DC
Health DC
Psychology DC
Sociology DC
Public Speaking DC
Business Computer Applications DC
English 3 DC (2 college classes)
US History DC (2 college classes)
Economics DC
English 4 DC (2 college classes)
Pre-Calculus DC(2 college classes)
Biology DC (2 college classes)
US Government DC (2 college classes)

I asked my dean of early college if i could take AP classes so i could boost my GPA, but she said it isn’t fair for the students outside of early college, since i am taking advantage of the program.
Is it truly unfair if I am willing to put the effort for AP classes?

2

I don’t see how it isn’t fair. Aren’t students supposed to take advantage of everything available to them in high school?

What isn’t fair is barring a student from APs because other students can’t/don’t want to take them.

A kid at my high school took more APs than the rest of us, starting his freshman year–and my school was AP heavy. We never thought it was unfair.

3

Their school, their rules.

As I have said before on this site: To quote Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest: “Ah, but nobody ever said life was fair, Tina.”

4

It might be unfair to the other students because they can’t take the DC classes, while you can. So you would use up a AP spot.

5

At our high school you could opt for 1 dual enrollment class a semester after school/evening in addition to a full high school schedule but if you wanted to do more it was full time dual enrollment and no regular high school classes. Our dual enrollment classes count as ap for gpa so it wouldn’t help with that. Gym and health wouldn’t count towards gpa no matter where they are taken though you do get a letter grade.

My first thought is someone wants to take extra classes beyond what is typically allowed to game the gpa system to become valedictorian which if it is the case is something that doesn’t sound fair to me. If the school isn’t weighing de classes the same as AP classes did you know that before? Both AP and dual enrollment are valid paths to take and colleges know taking all dual enrollment classes at a college campus may mean no possibility of taking an AP class.

6

Odd that they offer dual credit precalculus but not calculus.

7

You could argue it in front of the school board if you want to, but that’s not a good use of your limited time in high school, especially if your motive is not to learn more or challenge yourself so much as to juice your rank.

DD’s school allows simultaneous APs and dual enrollments (she is doing it this year as a matter of fact). However, her school does not rank students and DE classes do not get the honors boost.

8

Just curious - why would you need two classes in the same subject at a college? Classes like precalculus, English, history, and government are normally just 1 semester college classes. Do you need to take both to get credit at your high school?

9

i honestly have no clue, i’m pretty sure each semester college class is 1 full high school credit. but my early college makes us take English 1301 and English 1302 for English 3 our sophomore year, and senior we take English 2322 and English 2323 for English 4.

10

dual credit Pre-Calculus is Math 1314 (college algebra semester 1) and Math 1316 (plane trigonometry semester 2)at my early college.

11

@Groundwork2022 - the reason our high school doesn’t allow a bigger mix of ap/dual enrollment is that college classes are at set times and days whereas our high school schedule is on a rotating schedule so that each class is a different time each day.

12

^ Ah, I see. But now you’ve answered your own question as to why you can’t be in both, no?