Dual Enrollment Classes vs. A Charter School

Hello everyone, I am a homeschooler in the United States who is going into 11th grade, I have been planning on taking a lot of dual enrollment courses this coming year. Three per semester and then an additional chemistry course not at the community college. I have taken dual enrollment classes last year and completed all of them with a 4.0 GPA. The only problem is that my mom thinks that colleges would like it better if I instead went to a nearby charter school that just opened. I thought that colleges would like it more if I take dual enrollment courses, but she doesn’t think so. Do you guys know which colleges would prefer? Assuming I would get the same grades in both of them. Thanks everyone!

Sounds like you are doing well with your dual enrollment courses. We are a homeschool family that took advantage of dual enrollment courses, and felt it was a huge positive for our child in the college admissions process.

BUT…it depends on the colleges you are planning to apply to. Some are more homeschool friendly than others. Give us some more details and you will get better answers.

What state do you live in? What are your SAT/ACT scores? What is your GPA, weighted/unweighted? What is your eventual career interest? Are you looking for public/private college? Large or small student population? Liberal arts college or research university? Do you have any geographic restrictions about where you want to attend college? And what are your financial restrictions about paying for college?

Dual enrollment and AP classes can reduce the amount of time and money that you spend in college. My D will graduate a semester early bc of her dual enrollment classes. That is huge, considering the cost of a private LAC. Will your charter school offer AP classes?

The colleges you are interested in are the best source of information as you decide where you will apply. I would strongly urge you to follow your passion and the best source of education for you, and not just pick what you think a college would prefer.

If something is working for you, I wouldn’t change your education route just to get some perceived advantage for college admissions. Usually, we parents are so eager to make our students “perfect” in the college admissions game, when in reality it doesn’t matter. The charter school may or may not give you a good education, and if you are stuck doing the whole 8-4 schedule 5 days/week, it may feel like being back in elementary school. The rules and restrictions for traditional schools can feel like being in prison after having the freedom of homeschooling and dual enrollment. Describe the charter school and how it might be helpful for your college admissions.

And if you go to the charter school, would you lose your homeschool status? For some colleges, being a homeschooler could be a distinction. It could be that a school would want to draw in homeschoolers, and you could be in a smaller pool of applicants for them to choose from.

Good luck to you. This is a great forum for learning about the admissions process. Keep reading, and keep asking questions here.

An unknown, first year charter isn’t going to highlight you. Many charters are frankly mediocre – hopefully the one you’re citing won’t be, but who’s to know?

There is no inherent “wow” factor of being enrolled in a charter school vs. any other HS system (public, private, home school).

“a nearby charter school that just opened”

No. Just no. That place has no track record yet. If the charter school survives its first year, it will probably be three or four years before the bugs are worked out of its systems. The only reason to attend a new charter school is because you and your parents are super excited about participating in an educational experiment.

I missed the fact that the charter school will be brand new. That changes my response to Definitely stick with dual enrollment.

Charter schools with a rich history of producing intelligent students who know how to think critically and write well can be an asset to your college admissions chances if the admin counsellors know their reputation.

Not only will you be taking chances with your education, but your charter school will be too new to have built up a stellar reputation in time for your college application season.

Stick with what is working. Use your homeschool label to your advantage in essays and interviews.

You guys are mainly confirming my viewpoint, but, for the sake of fairness my mom would like me to add that this charter school’s main draw is the fact that it uses a classical curricula based on the “trivium”, if you know what that is. So, there’s that, if it changes anything.

You guys are mainly confirming my viewpoint, but, for the sake of fairness my mom would like me to add that this charter school’s main draw is the fact that it uses a classical curricula based on the “trivium”, if you know what that is. So, there’s that, if it changes anything.

Nope.

If she thinks you will be better off in school all day with students who are your own age and/or and she wants to be able to stop coordinating your studies and/or she wants you to have a different set of extracurricular activities available to you, that is fine. If she’s met the principal and the staff and she knows all about their plans and she thinks it is really cool, that could be a fine reason to go the charter school route. But just so you can say you studied somewhere that the curriculum was based on the trivium? Naah. If she really wants the trivium, the two of you can plan your coursework around that yourselves and take a whole bunch of classes in logic and rhetoric.

My D attended a one day/week homeschool study center/school that was based on the trivium. It is a way of schooling from a very young age, so just getting the tail end of the trivium doesn’t really serve as much purpose, unless you have been homeschooled for years using that same methodology. I don’t think that will impress any college admissions officers.

It is not wrong to go to the charter school, and you can decide if it interests you. But don’t make the switch just because you think that it will impress the admissions counselors. Decide based on the education you are receiving with dual enrollment, the college credits you can earn there vs. whatever perceived benefits you will have at the charter school.

Good luck to you!

Yeah, I have always been pro-dual enrollment and want to continue that, I have only had a few years of the classical curriculum so I don’t think it would hurt to not finish it. I really enjoy the dual enrollment and also like getting free college credit. Because I mean, admissions officer’s do like seeing dual enrollment, right? As opposed to regular high school classes. They are even considered equal to AP classes if I remember correctly.

Admissions officer do like seeing courses outside the normal homeschooling routine, to prove by an independent teacher/professor that you are capable of the most rigorous work.

AP credits serve a similar purpose for traditional high school students, but I think taking the classes on actual college campuses by real college professors is a better reflection of your abilities to handle college level work.

Have you taken any standardized tests yet? SAT/ACT, and the SAT Subject Tests are other ways that admissions officers can judge your overall success as a homeschooler. It is not a fair way to be judged, but it is the game we play to get into college.

Some colleges will have a higher regard for homeschoolers than others, and you will have to decide where you feel most comfortable attending.

Yes. I’ve taken the SAT twice and the PSAT three times. My SAT is about 1900, and if I continue my pattern with the PSAT I should get National Merit Scholar next year. My kind of dream school is Williams College or Harvard or Yale, but I realise that those are very, very selective. So, my more realistic dream school is UF, which is quite convenient because they are required by Florida law to except my college credit because they are in the public university system. I want to major in history, and eventually go to
medical school.