Hi,
I am a student who will be a freshman next year. I know senior year is far away, but I was recently accepted to a well-respected, career-focused magnet school. This program has many great feautures, such as: a class built in to the schedule to work with animals (it is an animal science academy school), while still maintaining a regular coarse load ( with honors classes). Additionally, this school offers a great option: to earn college credits and to have an internship senior year. I am very excited to attend this new school, but I just want to know how colleges will view dual enrollment if this school offers only 3 ap classes ( only in calculus, computer science and physics). Thought I would include a little background as well…
I am a motivated student and hope to major in biology or environmental science
My dream school is Bates college ( I am unsure of how they view dual enrollment as a Liberal arts college)
Give them a call and ask… I know that a few schools wanted to see dual enrollment for my son … it’s college level so they should see it in a positive way
I think colleges view Dual Enrollment as though you are challenging yourself…if your HS has that program, that that is what you are supposed to take. Don’t worry about it. Will you get college credits for it at a LAC? Probably not.
You or your parents can call and ask Bates admissions directly though it might be better to call again closer to the actual time. We found that in general colleges looked favorably at dual enrollment classes for admissions as long as they were taken on a college campus with college students. However it can vary quite a bit in terms of credit if any and how it is used. Although Bates is your dream school slowly start thinking about other schools.
AP classes are only one way to show rigor. Dual Enrollment can be another way. IB classes too. Some private schools have done away with APs in favor of their own honors curriculum, and that is yet another way to demonstrate you are taking challenging classes and are prepared for college work. Colleges will look at how you’ve made the most of the opportunities available to you.
Thank you so much for the feedback!
Note that dual enrollment in the form of taking college courses with college students at an actual college with college instructors may be viewed more favorably than dual enrollment taking college-certified courses with other high school students in the high school with high school teachers.
The former also gives you a better preview of how college courses are run, giving you more practice at your own time and work management, compared to the much more supervised and progress-checked environment of high school.
“Note that dual enrollment in the form of taking college courses with college students at an actual college with college instructors may be viewed more favorably than dual enrollment taking college-certified courses with other high school students in the high school with high school teachers.”
For private schools, absolutely, especially highly selective private colleges. If OP is targeting Bates, that is likely to apply.
However, all public colleges in my state, including the flagship (considered a “public ivy”), guarantee students (with good grades) college credit for DEs taken through state 2 & 4-year colleges, as well as those that take place at the high school in cooperation with the local public colleges. This certainly varies state by state, but ours is not the only one with that policy.