I am a sophomore in high school. My dream college is Duke University. I have already did a semester of dual enrollment. Should I continue with Dual Enrollment or AP Classes junior year to better my chances of getting into duke?
(duke likes rigorous courses).
Take courses which are right for you and your career path, not the “better[your] chances.”
In general, when offered a choice of AP vs DE for the same subject, I advise choosing AP; it’s a known commodity to college AOs. So if the options are AP Lang vs. DE English 101, take AP. If you’ve exhausted the HS offerings in a subject, then take DE.
AP and DE are just two out of several ways to show rigor in your schedule. IB is another, but there are gifted/talented programs and schools running an all-honors curriculum that are also very rigorous.
AP is a known commodity, and colleges will usually tell you up front if those credits will transfer or not. DE credits may or may not transfer. AP grades stay on your high school transcript, but a poor grade in a DE class will come back to haunt your graduate school applications.
DE classes are appropriate if your high school doesn’t offer the subjects, if there are obvious scheduling conflicts, or if you have exhausted the course offerings in a certain department at your high school - or need flexibility in an otherwise homeschooled schedule. Beware of taking DE’s to avoid high school, though. College won’t like it if you appear - as some kids in a rush to get high school over with - impatient or egotistical, and they want to see that you can “play well with others”.
I disagree with beware of taking DE’s to avoid high school. DE is becoming more and more main stream and colleges are very aware of that. Check with your high school but taking DE classes here does not stop you from doing high school ecs if you work your schedule around it. My daughter did two full years of dual enrollment but still did some high school activities. She also did some college activities.
Since every college is different in if/how they accept de credits if that is a goal here is what Duke says online - https://trinity.duke.edu/undergraduate/academic-policies/credit-AP-IPC-PMC#PMC
You can also call Duke to ask but it looks like it can’t be needed for high school graduation or taken before senior year and must be taken at a college campus not at high school or online.
D’s experience with AP and DE courses might be instructive. Wake Forest’s policy is similar to Duke’s and it did not accept her DE coursework because it was taught by university faculty at her high school, and not on the university campus. Had she known where she was going to attend college she would have opted for AP courses instead. AP coursework (assuming the test score was satisfactory) was accepted with no questions asked.
Two points regarding DE:
If your ultimate goal is Law or Med schools, don’t take DE classes casually. The grades will count as part of your GPA for admissions to Law, Med and possibly other professional programs.
In terms of being a boost to college admissions, not all DE is created equal.
To give an extreme example, college admissions officers will not be as impressed with a high school kid getting an A in Calc at a local community college where the average SAT is 900/1600 as they would be with a HS kid getting an A in a class like Math 1207 at Columbia or Math 25/55 at Harvard.
It depends on the actual dual enrollment class. Precalc is different than multivariable. Physics 2000 level courses are different than Physics 1000 courses. It depends on the institution. Is it a CC or four year university. Then lastly look at a strong state flagship and look at their transfer equivalency tables. If it will not transfer it says something. So long as you take a rigorous course load either or a mix should be fine. However, Duke is not likely for any student so you need other schools.
The regular calculus at the local community college would have content more similar to Columbia Math 1101/1102 or Harvard Math 1a/1b (or AP calculus in high school).
Columbia Math 1207/1208 or Harvard Math 25a/25b or 55a/55b would be more advanced courses taken after the student has completed calculus. They also happen to be honors courses of that content, as opposed to regular courses like Columbia Math 1201/1202 or Harvard Math 21a/21b or similar regular math courses at other colleges (multivariable calculus, linear algebra, differential equations).
@marrast All my classes are taught on the campus not at my high school. What about taking online courses in the summer?
Yeah, my institution is a CC
@elledd if you want credit from Duke for a summer class they come right out and say they don’t give credit for online courses. However if you want to use a summer online class towards your high school graduation requirements you need to speak to your own high school.
A general recommendation for DE classes is to save all syllabi. It is possible that the college you end up going to will ask for them when deciding to give any credit or not. That happens more when it is a class they aren’t familiar with but can happen for any class.
Even if you do not get credit toward graduation for the college courses taken while in high school, keep your syllabi in case you want to get the course evaluated for advanced placement so you do not have to repeat the course.
In general, DE courses are frowned upon compared to AP or IB or AICE courses. This is due to some CC’s easier grading, which could mean you do not actually understand the concepts that the class was supposed to provide. AP and the other exams are uniform in their syllabus. If you want to get to Duke, I’d probably say AP classes.