Is there a limit on high school credits? I live in California.
Like can a student legally attempt 60 credits a semester? A semester course at a cc is 10 credits, and because of that my classes are going to exceed 40 credits.
A single semester course at a cc is TEN credits? Not three, not even four, but 10?
I may not be clear on what your asking. I don’t live in California. If your talking about a high school accepting dual enrollment credits where I live it is district dependent and my city is its own district which is typical where I live.
In general the way it works here is that a student needs the high school approval ahead of time in order to take a college class and receive dual enrollment credit for it to count as a high school credit. The school has a specific college it works with. The high school does have the right to limit the number of dual enrollment classes it will accept as high school credit.
At our high school dual enrollment is not open for freshman or sophomores. If doing regular high school classes you can only take 1 dual enrollment class a semester on top of that (3 to 4 credits out of 120 needed for a Bachelor’s degree depending on if it has a lab etc) which either way equals 1 high school credit. If doing only dual enrollment the first semester you can do 4 classes and the rest 5 classes. Summer classes are seldom allowed. The classes and books are free.
Even if you want to pay to take additional classes you still need approval from the college since your still considered a high school student not a matriculated college student. The classes would not give you high school credit though since the high school did not approve them. In terms of getting them approved then using them for college credit beyond high school the individual college you go to would decide that.
@bjkmom yup, basically.
@momtogirls2 I guess it’s different in every state?
In California, they limit a high school student to 11 credits per quarter. And yes, the community colleges require the high school counselor to approve courses. I got my courses approved, but I don’t think anyone realized that I’d exceed the 40 credit limit.
I just want to make sure I get the credit when I take the course.
I don’t know which community college you are talking about, but the typical regular class, regardless of quarter or semester, is 3, 4 or 5 credits. Before this year, the maximum of credits you could take in CC per semester was 8 during the school year and 7 in summer, but for this year they changed it to 11 and 5. My kid wound up with around 40 semester units total from his CC in 4 years, but we know some industrious kids who will end up with 60+. I don’t think there are any total limits. There are limits as to how many UCs will take in. I believe that number is pretty big, something like 80, plus the classes need to be UC-transferable. Or CSU-transferable if you plan on going to a CSU.
@ProfessorPlum168 are you in California as well?
Yes we are.
I now know what you are talking about when you say 10 credits…you’re referring to a full year HS class at a California public HS, I think. I don’t know what you are referring to re: 40 credit limit though.
I think what you’re basically asking is if there is a limit on total number of classes that a student can take, and the answer is more or less limited by what’s offered at the HS during which periods, plus the 11 credit limitation per semester for CC. For example, a typical HS might have 6 periods, with one or 2 classes available for Period 0 and maybe one class for Period 7. So theoretically you could take up to 8 classes but most end up with 6 HS classes. As far as CC goes, one could take 3 classes to fit into 11 units, but unless all the classes are online classes, you’d be hard pressed to find 3 classes that can fit into your schedule. It would have to be late afternoon or evening or perhaps weekend classes.
@ProfessorPlum168 Yes, I am.
The 40 credit limit per semester would be 8 high school classes a year, since it’s 5 credits per semester. I’ll be taking my cc classes online, and I currently have 6 classes at my high school. As long as attempting more than 40 credits per semester is legal, then I’m good.
Thank you for your help (-:
I see.
During my kid’s junior year, he had 7 HS classes (had a zero period PE class) of which one was dual enrollment which meant 35 units per semester. Plus he took an additional CC class. The CC class is pretty much separate from the HS classes as far as credit calculations I would think.
The dual enrollment class was a 5-Unit college class and the CC class was 4 units. That actually went over the 8 Unit CC limit but the principal signed off on it. As mentioned earlier, the limit seems to be upped to 11 this year, not sure if this is statewide or CC policy or school district wide policy.