I am wondering if it would be a good idea to take a university class while in high school to try and ease my course load in first-year university. The reason for wanting to do so is because I have an extremely light course load in the last semester of my grade 12 year (English, Calculus AB and Physics). Hence, I would be able to take a university class in the morning and then go to high school for the rest of the afternoon. I am an extremely motivated student and have gotten over 90% in all of the courses I have taken in high school so I am definitely up for the challenge.
Not all colleges will take the credits. And if you don’t finish the course before HS graduation, your future college might want to consider you a transfer student, which is not good. And not all local colleges will let non-degree high school students take class for credits. So you need to check on all those aspects.
Colleges look at how easy you take your senior year in college. University isn’t a bad thing however in my opinion most colleges will only accept those hours if you did it at their college. For example HCC (Hillsborough community college) is a popular university students go to while in high school as juniors and seniors. One of my teachers told me how AP is better then doing this. Also just as “Intparent”(previous commenter) said not all colleges will take the credits
Some colleges will take transfer credits, but there is no guarantee unless you check with the college you plan to get your degree from and see what they think about the specific class and school where you would be taking the course. You would have to worry about transportation, tuition and scheduling (it may interfere with college visits to schools you’ve been accepted to, or make you miss out on special senior class activities near the end of the year). It could work out well, but since AP classes are also often given credit, it might be simpler to take more AP classes in the spring of your senior year.