<p>Be aware that engineering degree programs may have long sequences of prerequisites, so that graduating early may be more difficult than many assume. Generally, the most helpful college courses to take while in high school to accelerate college graduation would be math and physics (the courses suitable for engineering majors).</p>
<p>If doing the dual enrollment option while graduating high school on normal schedule can give you the option of graduating from college earlier than graduating high school early can, it may make more sense to do it that way, at least if the dual enrollment courses cost less than taking those courses while actually being in college.</p>
<p>Dual enrollement wouldn’t allow me to graduate college earlier than graduating high school early. If anything, it would be the other way around. Dual enrollement at my school only allows 14 credit hours a semester, and we have some restrictions on how many classes we are allowed to take per year high-school based (DE classes would count). Looking at the general schedule of the engineering classes at the college I would go to, some semesters the students end up taking 19+ credit hours a semester. </p>
<p>As of high school math courses, I will be a sophomore next year taking AP Calc BC, and the only math class left at my high school would be AP Stat, which I would rather take at a college than an AP class. I will definitely be doing DE for math. For science classes, I was planning on doing either Chemistry I+Lab or Physics I+II DE if I graduate a year early. If I don’t, I’ll do both of them.</p>
<p>Dual enrollement does cost less, and if I don’t get accepted into a preitigious college that we can afford and there are no other benefits of graduating early, I would definitely do DE since it would be at the same school but payed for by the state.</p>
<p>^^Bringing that up made me think of another question. If I went to the DE university after I graduate, I will try to get in the honors college there and have a very good chance of it. The general ed classes are different though, so I’m worried that I’ll have to retake many of the DE classes since they won’t be honors, and a lot of them would go to waste if I didn’t need them for the honors general ed. There is an honors dual enrollement but I really don’t know how tough it is to get accepted. I’m assuming it’s pretty tough, since they only accept 15-25 kids a year for that. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>Looks like it highly recommends taking the honors version of a course if available, although it does not look like a requirement. So it does not look like you will have to retake any courses for the honors program (you can ask to make sure).</p>
<p>Of course, if you really want to take honors courses, you can try to take them in dual enrollment.</p>
<p>If the courses cost less taking them as dual enrollment courses than as a college student at the same college, it does make sense to get the most out of dual enrollment before becoming a college student.</p>
<p>The only way I would be able to take the honors classes in dual enrollment would be if I got accepted into the honors version, which I’m not sure if I can do. I will definitely ask about being required to take the honors version of the classes, since it doesn’t look like a requirement.</p>
<p>It would be much cheaper to do dual enrollment because the state would pay 100% for it. That was one of my big reasons for doing that rather than graduating early. Do you think it would look better when looking for jobs to do 1 year dual enrollment for a year, graduate early from high school (and 1 year early from college) or to do dual enrollment, no graduating early from high school but graduating 1.5-2 years early from college?</p>
<p>Realistically, employers are not going to care about which of your paths you take. What they really care about is your major and how well you did (they’ll look at a 4-year 3.5 student over a 3-year 2.5 student), as well as any relevant internships and work experience you had while in school or during summers or co-op periods (semesters off). They are likely to give technical questions during interviews to check how well you know what you learned in school.</p>
<p>The reason to graduate earlier is to save money, or because you exhausted the offerings at your school, or you really do not like school and want to hit the workforce as soon as you can. In terms of the money, it looks like staying in high school and doing dual enrollment subsidized by the state will make it cheaper for you to complete your bachelor’s degree, even if it may take a semester longer (though starting work a semester early will earn some more money then).</p>
<p>If I have discourage anyone, that was never my intention. My point is, older and struggling are not advantages in your job search, being younger and graduate would be an advantage. You know that you dont need to reveal your age before your background check right?</p>
<p>^^ Nothing wrong with your assessment. You advice was in a Relative term - younger vs. older students. @Dreburden should not get discouraged or give up because CS is still better than about everything else to find a decent job, especially for someone who goes back to school for another degree, unless one wants to be a registered nurse.</p>
<p>Folks have to understand that many employers put their “initial screening” into the hand of 3rd-party recruiters. These recruiters know very little or even care about:</p>
<ul>
<li>Finishing school early</li>
<li>Double majors/ Double minors</li>
<li>AP credits</li>
<li>High-school or even college freshman/sophomore acolades</li>
<li>School name (except for Wall Street Finance and maybe Silicon Valley jobs).</li>
</ul>
<p>^^ That’s helpful to know just to give an idea of job offers you’d get. </p>
<p>Also, I agree that dual enrollment will save more money, especially if I go to the university I would be doing dual enrollment at. Then I would have no problem transfering credits! That seems to be the path I’m considering now.</p>