My daughter is a junior this year and really dislikes the whole high school environment. She would go to college now if she could. She’s talking about doing dual enrollment her senior year at a local community college. Anyone experience this or have thoughts about it? How it might affect college admissions? She’s looking to study physics. Thanks!
I would think that would be something she would have to discuss with her guidance counselor. Our high school lets you take classes at the local CC, but, if they’re required for graduation, you’d be expected to take them at the high school. Unless they’re specifically a dual enrollment class, you’d have to pay for them too. YMMV.
My eldest did dual enrollment junior and senior year. She was in a competitive program with 30 kids. They met for a couple hours in the morning in a class on the CC campus to study English and History and then took up to 12 units at the CC to fulfill everything else. It was exactly what my eldest needed… more choice, faster pacing, less hand-holding through the material, more time to devote to her activities. She did well in college admissions and attended a high ranking LAC, Graduated with honors, off on the fellowship of her dreams. She chose not to shorten her stay at the university but it was an option.
I will say that if she’s looking for Ivy’s specifically then alternative educations are generally not a good idea. They take from a pretty narrow path. However, if she’s looking at top public schools or the next tier of LAC’s then she should be fine so long as she’s taking quality courses and doing well in them.
My Middle did some dual enrollment at a local university but in conjunction with his project based high school. Also a good experience with good college results.
I had the same situation with my daughter in high school years ago. Dual enrollment saved us! To be honest I was afraid that she would drop out of high school if she couldn’t avail herself of the program. But it worked out great, she happily spent the morning at high school taking her required classes, then hit the local community college each afternoon for more engaging and challenging classes and a more serious environment. It didn’t seem to affect her college admissions, she got accepted to her first choice school, a small, well-ranked private LAC.
My kid is a rising senior and started DE at a community college as a junior. It’s been great for him and it’s free in our state. At least in our state, most kids doing this are still applying to college as freshman. It’s hit or miss on credits transferring unless you go somewhere with direct transfer agreement. Since it’s common here in my urban area, I’ve seen these kids get accepted at a huge range of schools including elite schools.
Thanks all! She’s not looking at Ivy’s. So far the only tour we have done with her is RPi and she loved it. I do think there will be a cost, but I think it will be affordable. She goes to an arts based charter school so there will probably be some classes she needs to take at her school to fulfill the arts requirements. She’s also not looking at it to shorten her college experience, just to get out of the high school environment and hopefully take some more challenging courses. At least in the maths and sciences.
My daughter did dual enrollment senior year for all of her classes at a four year university. At the time, people were nay saying. While she did not apply to Ivy’s it did not seem to negatively impact admission decisions. The state paid for the dual enrollment and for her it worked great. To get an idea of the rigor look at the transfer equivalency tables to your state flagship. The pitfalls of dual enrollment are professors do not excuse illness, visiting colleges, vacation schedule will probably not align to the high school vacation schedule, scheduling classes around high school classes and driving in inclement weather. The advantages are extra credits in college to lighten the load, higher class standing to register earlier, a taste of independence with parents still in the picture.
Good Insights! Thank you!
My child dual enrolled because she grew out of hs and is graduating early from College as she has grown past that as well. Do not discount the idea of graduating early. Kids grow at different rates and their needs change. Also even if tuition is paid via scholarship the cost of living expenses are very expensive in certain regions and next thing you know those costs are running 20k+ a year. There is practicality when it comes to how much you can, want, or need to pay. Each credit not only translates into tuition but all the other costs associated with it.
One thing to keep in mind is
- If she goes to a state college/U she will have the best chance of her courses transferring
- Many private colleges say “if this course is taken to meet a HS requirement, then they won’t give credit for it”
So for example if she takes Differential Equations at the CC but it is her math for senior year, that would be fulfilling the 4th year of math requirement. - Her GPA at CC may carry into her college GPA
- Expectations on college students are different than HS…with HS they want you to do well so may give you extra chances to take a test /do the material…with college they don’t.
Dual enrollment has become so,popular in my area that it is organized and open to many more students than a dozen years ago. The state schools are most open to accepting credits, and some colleges accept none.
- If your child plans to apply to medical school or other professional school programs (law, veterinary, physician assistant, physical therapy, etc), any dual enrollment credits earned during high school will be included in GPA calculations for admission to those programs.
My daughter did full time dual enrollment her junior and senior year. She didn’t need to take any classes at the high school but could (and did) participate in any high school extra curricular she was interested in. She still had a high school issued chromebook to use for her classes, could go see guidance whenever she wanted etc. She had to finish high school graduation requirements. The classes were all free (limited to 5 classes a semester) and book rentals were free.
Senior year my daughter did have to attend a few high school guidance group meetings (usually sat in on a AP English class) when guidance did group presentations for college/financial aid and saw the guidance counselor individually etc. She was able to participate in most college activities though occasionally you had to be 18. She could go to college math lab or writing lab if desired. A high school English teacher would have proofread her essay if asked but she had a college English teacher do that. Classes were picked the same as a regular college student based on number of credits.
Some things to think about - how will the student get back and forth? What if there are gaps between classes? Are meals an issue depending on school hours. What if the student needs to take afternoon/evening class to get a desired class. There may be a lot less homework and grades based on just midterm and final or there could be a lot more work than in a high school class etc. My daughter tried to be friendly with students in her classes so she could have a contract in case she had questions. Extra credit wasn’t really and scaling grades wasn’t common.
My daughter had no interest in top 20 schools. She got into all 8 schools she applied to and received merit from the schools. Her high school treated her college classes the same as an AP class for class rank, gpa etc. For me I had one child (middle school) with vacation in Feb and April and my oldest with vacation in March which for families who always go away can be harder. Since the schools are in different cities weather cancellations can vary. For me my daughter took public transportation to/from high school or dual enrollment so cost was the same but can be something to think about.
My daughter received 61 credits through dual enrollment and all 61 were accepted by her 4 year private college though some are just free electives. She gets credits but they don’t apply towards gpa She applied and was accepted as a freshman for all schools. The school she is attending has her under a freshman for housing etc but is listed as a junior. I guess technically is everything works perfectly she could graduate in two years. That isn’t the plan and things like dual major, taking allowed graduate classes, internships, study abroad etc are tbd but the credits give her some freedom to decide and graduate in 3-4 years.
All three of my children have done dual enrollment. Two were part time, one full time. Best decision ever. Both of my current college students received full credit for their dual enrollment courses, and both received full tuition merit scholarships at private liberal arts colleges. In my state, dual enrollment is fully funded, so there was no expense to us outside of transportation.
My older kids really enjoyed escaping the high school environment, and really benefited from learning how to be a college student before they moved away to residential colleges. My current HS Sr is in the second year of part-time dual enrollment, taking on class a day at the HS and all others at the college. He still participates in extra-curriculars and unlike his older siblings, still enjoys the HS social environment.
S took 4 or 5 DE classes at CC (junior / Senior yr). Some kids took so many they actually graduated HS with an AA from CC. However, that AA only really applied to them offsetting requirements at state U. I use the word requirements specifically because, in my son’s case, he received “credit” at his highly selective private, but still has to satisfy all the core requirements because they want them taken at their school. So he will graduate with a bunch of extra credits but they won’t knock off a semester or free up room to take additional electives of interest.
They did count certain AP classes (only with a 5) to offset some divisional requirements. That speaks to the perceived level of difficulty in AP vs DE. S would tell you his DE classes were the easiest he took in HS (basic class in HS was honors - whatever that means). He wished he would have taken more DE as he thinks it would have been an easy GPA boost compared to taking AP (counted the same). AP has more weight in admissions so I’m glad he took those.
DS20 has been asking us if he could attend community college full time his senior year. This totally caught us off guard as we were already planning for him to dual enroll part time. The school system offers an opportunity for students to go to community college full time and they must pass two semesters of English and that will satisfy the 4th year of English for graduation requirement.
DS is not fond of the high school environment. He says if we let him go to community college full time his senior year that he can just stay a second year and transfer to the state flagship. I am really surprised by all of this because he has only talked about going to college out of state and we have been planning for that and exploring where he would get enough merit to match our instate cost.