I’ve been thinking of dual enrolling for my last two years of high school. Can I full-time dual enroll, like only take college courses, but just be “enrolled” in the high school? Also, if I complete two years of dual enrollment, does that mean I will enter college as a third-year student? Am I understanding DE correctly? Thank you
I don’t know if each state varies, but typically a student can be a full time DE student or part time (half high school, half college). Depending on how many credit hours you have and which transfer to the college of your choice, you will be considered a freshman applicant or transfer student.
My daughter does full time dual enrollment (no high school classes). This is her senior year and second year doing what her school calls early college dual enrollment vs regular dual enrollment which is a full high school schedule plus 1 dual enrollment a semester. Her high school has a rotating daily schedule and only allows one a semester or all and you can’t start until fall of junior year. The dual enrollment classes and books (rentals) are free and open to students at just about any academic level. The class grades are averaged into the high school gpa and count the same as an ap class. The classes are at a college campus taught by college professors and taken with college students. Students are responsible for their own transportation. For my daughter the 1st semester she was only allowed to take 4 classes then 5 after that.
My daughter is still a high school student. She can participate in any high school extra curricular though she needs to have a schedule that works with it and meet requirements. She can also participate in college extra curricular. There are a few required meetings at the high school but very few. She has a high school guidance counselor (not her own) who is in charge of dual enrollment and schedules meetings to check in with dual enrollment students, help with scheduling, give out books, return books etc. This year as a senior she had some extra meetings where she joined a senior ap English class to go over things related to applying to college. The college grades count as ap classes when averaged into her high school gpa. She took the PSATs at school with her class her junior year. However her senior year she didn’t do the special senior activities on the PSAT day since that wasn’t necessary and she had a class. She still sees her own guidance counselor when she needs for things like actually applying to college, getting a guidance counselor letter of recommendation etc. I’m on the high school announcement list and get all the automated phone calls so from a parent perspective I find out about all the parent things like FAFSA night. My daughter will graduate with her high school class with a high school diploma.
My daughter will be considered a college freshman at all the colleges she considered though with advanced credit standing. As to how many credits you start with it depends on what you take and what the college you go to accepts so that is more of an individual answer than a set answer. If your taking dual enrollment as a state school and attend a state school afterwards your most apt to get the most credits. The more standard a class is the more apt it is to transfer such as intro to psychology may transfer easier than a class called the life of college confidential. Many colleges have some sort of way to look up transfer credits on their website often found under the transfer student section. Not every college accepts college credits earned in high school and some say they do but not if ysed to meet a high school graduation requirement.
My daughter will have 61 credits when she finishes but will not have an associates. Her first priority above all else was to make sure she completed her high school graduation requirements. For instance she needed a junior year and senior year math credit so she took at least two math classes whereas an associates only needed one. She thought about what she might still need in terms of applying to college so if she needed say another year of language she took a semester of college language even though that wasn’t part of an associates. Basically she found it wasn’t possible to fulfill high school graduation, classes for college acceptance, and an associates in 19 classes. While my pocketbook would love for dd to start as a junior, I think it is more realistic to anticipate one year’s worth of credits and since she may go for a dual major she may still do 4 years of undergrad.
I started taking dual credit (Spanish) my sophomore year and will graduate next spring with 63 hours. I will be attending Baylor University. They will accept the hours transferred. However, I must complete the last 60 there. So, I am going to double major. Three of my dual credit hours will not count and they choose which ones to accept. My GPA, which I expect to be a 4.0, will not transfer. So, your GPA will begin anew. The community college I attend told me that I can only transfer 30 hours, but that is not true. There are many homeschoolers in the area who have transferred more than 30 hours. I also have the choice of entering at a freshmen or transfer. Entering freshman are offered more scholarship than a transfer would receive. I will enter as a freshman because my SAT score from November would give me more merit-based aid. However, I will begin junior level classes. Each college is different. You need to check with your intended college because not everything may transfer. Check your degree plan, the community college you are attending, and your intended college to make sure the classes align. One positive element of entering as a transfer is that you will not be required to live on campus, which could save money.
Another thing that is highly recommended is to save all syllabi for dual enrollment classes in case a college wants to see them. Some colleges have a way of checking if a class gives credit often found under the transfer section. Typically classes like intro to psychology have matching classes and give credit but a class like I love college confidential wouldn’t have a match or give credit. Also just because a college gives credit doesn’t mean the credit is really used. For instance it may count as a free elective which you only need so many of or perhaps doesn’t give credit but simply allows you to start at a higher level etc. That is very specific to the 4 year school you attend. My daughter has been accepted to 2 out of 8 schools she applied to and and waiting to hear from others so she doesn’t know how the classes will be used yet. At one school I talked to when she was a sophomore they said they will only accept 60 credits but if goes over 1 or 2 credits due to say a 4 credit science class vs a 1 credit extra class they tend to understand and accept that. Another thing to look at is even with 2 years worth of credits is if a class has prerequisites you don’t have you may still need longer than 2 years. Around me all colleges we looked accept at least 60 credits. From a financial perspective it is often better to be a freshman with advanced standing than a transfer. Another school said that even though my daughter would be a junior credit wise they recognize that she just graduated high school and would still be required to take whatever freshman orientation type class they require. It will be interesting to see what the college my daughter attends does with her credits but she did check that the ones she applied to will all accept dual enrollment credits (but some will not accept dual enrollment if taken at the high school with high school students only).