All of our older children have DE during high school. For our kids it has been a very positive experience. The key factors that made it a good fit are that they have been completely self-regulating, self-motivated, and working beyond high school equivalencies. (Missing any of those 3 would make me leery of pursuing DE.)
Policies for acceptance of DE credits are definitely institution specific. Our experience has been that DE credit from regional universities made acceptance of credit much easier.
3 of my kids (in Michigan), did a dual enrollment program where you can start at any age and receive up to a Bachelor’s degree. One graduated this month with her BA at age 19. The high school and college classes are done at the same time, so it’s a BIG savings in time and money.
I took a dual credit course when I was in HS 25+ years ago. The high school had a partnership with a university, the high school teacher was trained by the university to teach the course, the same text was used as was used in the college classroom, some students in the class were simply taking it for high school credit, others were taking it for dual credit. Since I later attended the university that had the partnership with my HS, there was no issue in the credit transferring. It did not take me away from high school and did not require any additional time commitment.
My son had 2 types of dual credit courses during his high school years - the first were offered the same as my own dual credit course of ‘a few’ years ago - I paid $100/semester for him to get dual credit for those courses for a total for $400 for 14 college credits. He also had courses where the high school had a room with 2 way video conferencing equipment set up and the students literally attended a course from a local jr college remotely. They were taught by the college instructor via the video conference. It occurred during their school day and didn’t require any additional time commitment, in fact since the college courses did not meet every day during the week they had free ‘study’ time during their high school schedule on the days the college class did not meet. I paid $150/semester for those courses for, if I recall, a total of $750 for 15 credits.
All but 3 credits that he completed were counted by the out of state school he is attending (well all credits were counted, all but 3 were counted towards his degree program, the additional credits were counted as elective credits).
Before making a decision on dual credit, do thorough investigation on how it works in your region.
I did dual enrollment in Florida…took about 48 dual enrollment semester credit hours along to state university I attended after high school graduation. Most of the college courses I took right at my high school, a few courses I took on the local community college campus…everything was no cost to me, including books and lab fees. I was able to participate in many high school activities too including sports…I probably wouldn’t have done dual enrollment if I’d had to do it away from high school campus. Having the credits from high school allowed me to earn two bachelor’s degrees simultaneously (May 2012) in regular four years after high school graduation May 2008…ended up with over 190 undergraduate semester hours…had to petition for college variances several times to get the two degrees together and get financial aid I needed. The two bachelor’s degrees helped me gain admission to my present graduate school master’s program, which I’ll finish this summer, and also helped me obtain my current full-time job. Dual enrollment helped me in a lot of ways.
My S will take some dual enrollment classes on his high school campus next year as a junior. He will also take a couple of AP classes on his high school campus. At his school, DE and AP are weighted the same so they are seen as equally challenging. For him, it is more for scheduling purposes since he takes a few classes that have very small enrollment and only have one class time offered. I’m not concerned about whether the classes will transfer to college but maybe those credits will tip the scales in the favor of the state flagship which I would like. He might see it as an advantage to staying in state if he has some credits under his belt starting off.
At our school DE is taught at the high school and we have I think 7? Available courses for students to take.
I didn’t take any DE this junior year- only AP- but I did sign up for Spanish 101 which will leave me having 7 years of Spanish by the end of high school since I did Spanish 1-3 and then Spanish 101 is Spanish 1-4. From what I’ve heard from other students who took DE courses they don’t differ much from Ap classes since they’re at our high school and are taught just like any other course- but they do give you college credit, and they do start your college GPA in high school.
My S is in a formal dual enrollment program where he only takes college courses at a 4 year university. He took 16 credits this fall, for free. The university treats him like a freshman and the high school considers him a junior. He plays soccer for the high school and is in other clubs. He is planning to take some of the AP tests in case his college credits won’t transfer. crazy?
Yes, taking the AP tests for the material that overlaps his college courses can help if he attends some school that will not accept his transfer credit (particularly for subject credit and advanced placement), but he should expect double credit for the same material (college course and AP score).
@billcsho In some cases, you could get double credit, but the extra credits will not count toward graduation. In other words, on your transcripts, you may see 4 credits for an intro Physics class (based on DE) and then the same 4 credits again, for the same class based on AP credits. It’s a waste of credits, but doesn’t hurt anything. Not all colleges handle it this way, but some do!
This is something of a quirk in how some schools process DE/AP credits…
@Gator88NE I guess that depends on how your college works on transferred credits. In my D’s school, DE and AP credits are all considered transferred credit assigned to equivalent courses. So one cannot earn double credits for the same course. The same when one retake a class in college that has the AP credits already. Anyway, any credits not counted is not actually “credited”.
Our school district is a high ranking one among our state and in nation. No top 25% student takes any dual credit class . Our community college is pretty good but our school’s AP/IB courses are more rigorous and students get significant number of college credits, specially ones who go for in state universities. If high school students go for college courses then they take it at local universities, not community college. Ones who try DE at CC, are usually disappointed by low rigor of courses and low standard of peers. Our state schools are quite generous with merit scholarships so only lower tier of students end up in community colleges.
It would be rare for any school, especially UMich, to not have calculus placement exams. While you may not get credit for Calc 1-3, I personally would find retaking Calc 1 particularly to be painful. Calc 2 and 3 are sometimes taught on a more rigorous level at a highly selective school like UMich. If you don’t get credit, there should be some interesting classes in the math department that would be a lot better than relearning how to differentiate again.
I don’t think DE is offered, but we have a great AP program … and 23 credits is enough … especially for an engineering major. Few 18 year olds would be ready to enter junior level classes (I remember these as being brutally hard).
Another alternative is to take Calc BC test and get a 5 (or even a 4), that would give you credit for Calc 1 and 2 at almost any school and would require limited self-study, if the CC college was taught at a reasonable level of rigor. If you can’t get at least a 4, it is very prudent to take Calc 1 and/or 2 again (your Calc AB subscore should be at least a 4 to skip Calc 1).
AP tests are not held until May … and seems like a good investment of $90 if you are not sure your school would accept the credit. AP class registration is absolutely not required.
@PickOne1 UMich has Math placement exam but not Calculus placement exam. It only test for up to pre-calc level maths. So the exam can only place one into Calc 1 at most. For taking higher level Calc, you will need to have AP, DE or college credits on lower level Calculus.
It is not the number of credit but what are those credits matter. If one took AP Chem, AP Physics C, AP Calc BC (with 5 in exam), AP Comp Sci, plus those LAC/humanities electives, one may get around 40 useful credits for CoE at UMich. Nevertheless, it is not likely to start as junior (or expect to graduate in less than 3 years) even if you have a lot of credits from AP/DE due to course sequence and pre-requisites. My D got 33 AP credits for Calc1, Calc2, Chem1, Phys1 and most of the required elective credits, and yet she needs 3.5 years to get her ChemE degree. The nice thing is, now she only need to keep the minimum 12 credits for each semester as a full time student to graduate in 3.5 years. She would have a very light course load and has plenty of time to do research or other things.
UMich, unlike some other public schools, seems to be very stingy with subject credit for transferred college credit (as indicated in its transfer credit articulation pages), so that a transfer student, or a frosh student bringing in college credit earned while in high school, may have to repeat a considerable amount of material already learned.
I think it really depends upon the type of DE you’re doing, and the university you’re doing it with. My 3 kids were/are in a unique program where they attend college full time and it counts for both high school and college. So one of my daughters graduated last spring with her BA from SVSU (no debt and at age 19). I have another daughter graduating with her BA next May (also age 19). The early college program pays for tuition and lets kids start at any age (mine started at ages 14, 15 and 17). With this program, you can do all your college (undergraduate), so if you stay with the same university (to complete your BA and high school diploma at the same time), there’s no issue with transferring credits, which ones will count, etc.
Dual enrollment is a fabulous option. In my state, it is completely funded (tuition, fees and books) by the state and local school system, so the only cost to the student is commuting. For my oldest daughter, spending her senior year on a college campus instead of the high school was a huge improvement. She was done with the high school social climate and wanted nothing to do with it what so ever by the end of junior year. She made some wonderful friends at the community college, and unlike high school, she wasn’t forced to spend time with or socialize with anyone she wasn’t interested in. Having control over her schedule was great, and learning to deal with the administrative side of the college experience while she was still living at home meant that her transition to “real” college was much easier. She didn’t have to adjust to college academic or administrative expectations while she was learning her way around a new city and adjusting to living in a dorm with someone she never met before. Her LAC accepted all of her credits, though she choose to enter as a freshman so she could receive merit aid.
For my children, DE was a terrific option and it worked well for them. We paid the cost of tuition at our local comm college. All arrived at their 4 year uni with about a year’s worth of credit and two were able to graduate early. Another one was able to have a heavy work load during college (she had a job that tied in to her future profession) and she took fewer credits per semester - but the college credits she earned during high school allowed her to do this and not ‘fall’ behind.
