I’m a sophomore at a public high school in Massachusetts. I was involved with a program in which I was able to take high school classes while in the 8th grade. This has gotten me ahead of my peers, to the point where I will run out of advanced math and science classes before I graduate. My question is, do you think that dual enrollment as a high school senior will increase my chances of college admissions? And if I were to do dual enrollment, should I seek out a more prestigious private university, or will a state school do? Thank you so much for your advice!
P.S. I am currently in AP calc AB and AP bio as a sophomore, and the only other AP math/science classes my school offer are AP calc BC and AP physics, which I will be taking as a junior.
It will show you are taking the most rigorous curriculum which is important in college admissions. Don’t bother with trying to do it at a private U. No difference.
We are a homeschooling family with DE experience, and no APs. My comments are intended to be general in nature, and not exhaustive of all the possibilities.
DE has been great for our son, but there are some issues to be aware of. When we first started looking at colleges/universities, it seemed like some of the elite institutions “favored” AP credits more than DE - i.e., the DEs were not necessarily transferable because they were part of high school requirements, but AP credit might be given in a particular subject. Then there were elites where neither option was accepted in certain subjects (thinking of MIT for math?).
On the other hand, at almost all the state schools were we applied, our DE credits came in very handy - especially within our state of Florida where course numberings are generally consistent throughout the state university and community college system (Florida law IIRC). The elite school issue turned out to be moot for us, because he did not apply to any.
Our son has dual enrolled at three different public institutions (two of which are next door to each other - a community college and university) so when he applied to college I had to order an official transcript from each institution. Also, those grades go with him and factor into his college GPA. That’s something to be aware of.
If I were you I’d think about where you might like to apply and start combing each school’s web site to see how an institution treats DE credits. Also consider how you would handle the logistical issues of getting to and from campus. And finally, make sure that you are ready to be around college age students and adults. Our schools emphasized that parents are not to be involved the way we are in high school.
We do not have experience with DE at a private institution. We stayed with public and our county pays for it (nice perk).
Good luck with the rest of your high school career, and I give you credit for looking at all the ways you might challenge yourself as a student!
Thank you so much! From your experience, will the DE courses have any weight on my high school GPA, or is it only incorporated into my future college GPA?
OP, for our homeschool transcript we weighted the DE credits the same way that you would weight an AP credit. You will need to ask your guidance counselor how they would handle those classes on your high school transcript.
^ Yes. The HS defines how DE classes are used in GPA.