<p>Do students in your HS have the opportunity to earn dual college/HS credit? How well accepted is it by colleges? Most colleges restrict the AP credit they will issue, according to subject area and scores, but this information is clearly posted by most colleges. OTOH, I am having trouble getting an answer about dual credit? I called our state flagship, and got a vague answer that students would get a determination upon accepatance. So there is no way to know ahead of time whether the dual credit (earned with a different U) will be worth anything to this state U. If anyone can tell me their experience, it would be helpfull. Are these credits brought in as transfer credits for an incoming freshman? Do some colleges refuse them? Is it always case-by-case, or are there places with clearly established policies?</p>
<p>Our son had a year of dual-enrollment credits and all but three or four credits were accepted. His school has an online matrix on courses that they have accepted in the past from particular universities. When someone takes a course from a university that they haven’t examined, they examine it and add it to the list. The matrix has the institution and course number and what it translates to in terms of course number, description and credits (they might convert a four credit course from another institution to a three credit course in theirs. Sometimes they don’t accept a course from another institution.</p>
<p>Some universities don’t accept dual-enrollment credits and some do. At any rate, they may be useful for admissions purposes.</p>
<p>What school are you interested in?</p>
<p>In our experience, the credits were accepted with no problem. The key is whether the college class matches up to a class offered by the school where you’ve been accepted. There’s no guarantee that they’d be accepted, but the process went very smoothly for my kids.</p>
<p>As a warning, the GPA earned as a high school student needs to be kept into account too (unlike AP credits – where if you earn a lower score on the AP exam, you can forget about it). While your college may not include those grades in its own GPA calculation, if you apply to grad school you will be asked for your transcript from every institution of higher learning that you attended. The grades earned in high school will be factored into your overall GPA for purposes of grad or professional schools. </p>
<p>In some majors, a school may also apply the dual enrollment grade to a GPA calculation for purposes of admission into a major (for ex., I know of one instance where the grade earned by a high school student in a college statistics class was factored into a GPA calculation when the student was applying for a selective major, instead of just using the college’s own GPA). This risk should be weighed and you may need to check with schools further. </p>
<p>Another consideration is how the credits are to be earned. Will you attend a college class, or will the credits be earned through participation during your day at high school? How will you meet the time requirements? Some high schools offer classes in conjunction with colleges, so that you replace a high school class with the “dual enrollment” class. Sometimes you attend the college in the afternoons or evenings, or via the internet. If you are taking time away from ECs that might make your overall application stronger, the choice may not be a good one. If you already have a strong academic application, adding college credits might be interpreted as just supporting the fact that you’re a good student as opposed to a well-rounded student. A program for college credits earned in the high school could be questioned a little more than credits earned at a college, when assessing equivalency. It’s definitely worth inquiring at the schools you’re considering if your high school doesn’t keep a record of the schools that have accepted the credits in the past. </p>
<p>I also recommend one additional question. I was present at one college visit (small public school in the South) five years’ ago, where a girl proudly inquired whether she would get full credit for all of the 24 college and AP credits she had earned, so she could start taking upper level classes. Both she and the rest of us were totally shocked when the school responded that she would be treated as a transfer applicant, not a freshman. While she would save some time in college and be able to graduate early (not necessarily a good thing, except financially) or double major, she would not be eligible for scholarships offered to incoming freshmen due to the fact that she had earned 24 credits already.</p>
<p>A final consideration is that some majors require that you take certain classes at the school you’re attending. If you take organic chem in high school, therefore, you might NOT get credit for it even if you took it at a very competitive university. You’d still have to take organic chem at the school you’re attending. This is something to keep in mind when selecting classes.</p>
<p>So, IMO, it depends. My kids have done ok so far with the college credits they earned in high school (some during high school classes that offered dual programs with local universities, and a few from Community College). The AP credits were a little cheaper, but they did find a few schools that wouldn’t give them credit for 3s or that used them to meet prerequisite classes but didn’t count them as credits earned.</p>
<p>It varies by college. No student at my son’s college receives credit for college work done while in high school. And there is no credit for AP courses.</p>
<p>One other factor is the motivation of the student to take the course. If they want to take the course for the knowledge or learning opportunities, then the answer can be easy. Of course it is nicer if they can get credit for it too but the credit can be a secondary consideration. The student also gets exposure to college students, professors and the reduced level of hand-holding usually found in high-school classes.</p>
<p>Depends on the college. selective private colleges may give credit for AP but not dual enrollment, if offered on a HS campus. For example, Cornell, Boston College, Emory and even Tulane will not provide credit for a college course taught on the HS campus. OTOH, transfer credit is available if the dual enrollment course is taken on the college campus with other college students and regular college faculty.</p>
<p>In California, the UCs will easily accept every transferable course.</p>
<p>AP policies are very straight forward, and can be easily found on colleges’ web sites.
For dual credits - you will have no problem if you end up attending the school that issued the credit.
A lot of schools will give no credit for any class taken that was counted for HS credit. Many schools will not give any credit for classes taken elsewhere at all.</p>
<p>Yes, it depends on the college.
Public universities are more likely to accept APs and dual enrollment college classes. Private schools vary.
Many LACs will only give credit for 2 APs, which is not sufficient to reduce course load but allows students to place out of introductory courses (S1’s experience). They do not give credit for courses taken at a college, especially if these are taken to fulfill high school requirements (so no dual enrollment credit).
Some give credit for APs with a certain score and for some college courses, again if not used to fulfill high school requirements. These can be used to receive Advanced Standing, reducing time to degree.
Some give credit for APs with a certain score and not at all for college courses, no matter where taken (S2’s experience). If students have a sufficient number of AP credits, they can obtain Advanced Standing.
The score necessary to obtain credit varies from college to college.</p>
<p>ETA:
Not true for Harvard and perhaps some other schools.</p>
<p>Would there be any benefit for a HS student taking a dual credit course, to also take the AP exam in that subject if it is available? If a college won’t issue credit for the dual credit course, but would for an AP score, then maybe the AP exam is worth taking? </p>
<p>Also, can anyone say approximately how many dual credit or dual enrollment courses would bump a HS senior into transfer as opposed to freshman applicant status?</p>
<p>As always, the CC comunity is a wealth of information! Thanks to all who post here.</p>
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<p>My son’s day school CS program will not accept their own evening school CS credits for transfer and the department website explicitly states this. The evening school courses are often not at the same level of rigor as the day classes.</p>
<p>Proxy:</p>
<p>Yes. S took Intro Bio at the Harvard Extension School and took the AP Exam at the end of the year. While Harvard College would not grant credit for Intro Bio, it gave him credit for AP-Bio. He was eligible for Advanced Standing based on the several APs he had. However, he got no credit whatsoever for the larger number of courses he took at Harvard. Getting credit was not the reason for his taking the APs and college courses, and he did not accept Advanced Standing. I believe that Stanford would have given him credit for those Harvard courses he took but he would have declined AS there, too, anyway.</p>
<p>DD’s college accepted her dual credit course for college credit but they only gave her half of the credits. It was a full year course, three college credits each term. The university accepted the full year as three credits. It didn’t really matter anyway as the course did NOT apply towards any of the required courses DD had to take for graduation.</p>
<p>Of the colleges my kids have applied to none take dual credit, all take AP. They were all selective privates.</p>
<p>It depends on the college. My state has a CC to public university credit transfer agreement with most of the schools, so it’s no problem if you’re attending one of them. </p>
<p>Privates are a lot stricter about accepting DE credit, I’ve heard.</p>
<p>Mathmom -</p>
<p>What college are your kids applying to that are not accepting dual credit? Private schools?</p>
<p>Texas law mandates that core credits earned at all Texas public universities and community colleges are mutually transferable among them.</p>
<p>Relevant legislation [THECB</a> - Undergraduate Transfer of Credit and Texas Core Curriculum - Frequently Asked Questions](<a href=“http://www.thecb.state.tx.us/index.cfm?objectid=63621394-0902-9B75-78693B79EA98A0F6#Q1]THECB”>http://www.thecb.state.tx.us/index.cfm?objectid=63621394-0902-9B75-78693B79EA98A0F6#Q1).</p>
<p>None of the selective private schools my daughter applied to would have accepted dual enrollment courses she took in the high school. Neither did William and Mary. This made our decision not to pay for those courses an easy one. Course credit was offered at most of the SUNYs, however, and that saved some money for kids who knew they wanted to attend a SUNY.</p>
<p>Fiction, that only applies to publics within the state of Texas, for courses taken in Texas schools. Per Mathmom’s post they were private schools.</p>
<p>
It is definitely worth taking the AP exam, as long as the college you are aiming for gives credit for it. Some schools are more generous than others. Some will only give credit for a score of 5. Some will not give any credit for certain subjects. Many will require taking a course in the department in order to get the AP credit. But all that is usually clearly spelled out on the website, so at least you know exactly what to expect.</p>
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I don’t think that taking dual credit courses can turn a HS student into a transfer applicant. I believe that they always apply as freshmen, but some schools will award them enough credits to get sophomore (or in some cases even junior) standing. (Not necessarily a good thing…)</p>
<p>I did a great deal of research on this and have never found a college (except the school connected with the dual-enrollment) that accepted any dual-enrollment courses. Many looked favorably on the challenge, but generally, their websites all said something along the lines of “the course must be taken on the college campus, be taught by a faculty member, and not appear on the high school transcript.”</p>