Hi, everyone - I hope your first semester has been great!
I am a junior this year, and I am thinking of applying to Georgia Tech’s dual enrollment program.
I want to major in biology, and I feel that dual enrollment would help me do more major-specific
I have read that colleges consider community college DE to be between honors and AP in terms of rigor. As Georgia Tech is famously rigorous, would this make a difference?
If I were to do dual enrollment, my schedule would be something like this:
Fall: French (probably intermediate, depends on placement), Integral Calculus, Chemical Principles I, Intro to Organismal Biology
Spring: English Composition II, Linear Algebra, Chemical Principles II, Genetics or Ecology + Lab
Is this more impressive, less impressive, or the same as the following schedule:
AP Calculus BC, AP Physics II, AP Lit, AP French, Advanced Drama, AP Computer Science (or AP Environmental Science)
What schools are you planning on applying to? Some colleges have different policies regarding how AP and dual enrollment is accepted for credit/placement.
@Dax123 I plan on applying to Georgia Tech, Barnard, Sewanee, Reed, and Auburn.
If Georgia Tech is your first choice and you have a strong chance of being admitted, I’d do the dual enrollment. Otherwise go AP. I honestly cannot see a college picking someone else over you solely because you did a DE program at an accredited university while someone else did AP. However, it seems the only Georga Tech and Auburn will accept all of the credit you might earn as a DE student, while every university will accept most of the AP tests, making it only worth it to do if you head to one of those colleges.
Thanks @Dax123 - Tech is my first choice right now because of the HOPE scholarship etc, so I think I’m going with that… there aren’t a lot of rigorous classes at my school that I want to take right now.
Yes, they would acknowledge the difference between taking dual-enrollment classes at a local community college versus a research university.
Be sure and check on those DE credits - Auburn did not accept many classes my son considered taking at a local regional college 1st summer between Freshman and Sophomore year at Auburn but Georgia Tech accepted just about everything he was considering.
I disagree with @Dax123 on other schools not taking DE credits – in our experience, DE credits are accepted everywhere so long as you passed, though it’s true that some schools may only count them as electives and make you take “their version” of a specific class. On the other hand, you could get an A in your AP class and still fail the exam, in which case you get no credit from anyone, OR you could get an A and score a 4 on the exam and end up attending a school that will only count your class if you got a 5. In terms of college-applicable credit, DE credits are a surer bet.
The real benefit of DE, to my mind, is that it’s an early acceptance to a university you might then attend. My senior is currently dual-enrolled and was relieved to head into senior year knowing there was a sure thing in his back pocket. Furthermore, I think most schools view it as more rigorous than AP, as we all know sometimes AP courses aren’t really taught at a college level, whereas classes at a prestigious university obviously are.
My son is DE at Georgia Tech. There are only 7 students that are actually taking all their classes at GT. I don’t know if that is because few students applied, or if that’s all they admitted. There are many, many students taking the math distance learning courses. He still had to apply to GT for fall as an entering freshman. He also had to re-send his transcript even though it hadn’t changed since he sent it over the summer. He was told they do not “share” information from the MOWR application…completely separate and different process. I noticed that Georgia Tech’s yield rate is 32.5%, lower that GSU (52%), Georgia Southern (57%), and UGA (45%). Compare this to MIT (72%). My son has heard many students he met at GHP (he went in math) say that Georgia Tech was their safety school. Perhaps GT’s yield rate is low because of the lack of financial aid? I know that even if my son gets accepted (with 2 As and 2 Bs from his fall semester at GT), I don’t know if he can afford to attend. He has been accepted to Georgia State’s honors college and is a strong candidate for their Presidential Scholarship. He’s also applying to other schools such as Duke, John Hopkins, Uchicago and other reach schools. We will have to see where he gets in and compare financial aid packages. I asked where he would like to go if money was no issue. He immediately responded Georgia Tech. He loves Tech, whether or not we can afford it is a different matter.
Thanks so much everyone! 
Obvioulsy you live close enough to tech to be dual enrolled. With hope or zell it either covers 100% or 85% tuition. Getting a better deal than that would be hard to come by. Based on his gt grades i would be shocked if they did not accept him.