<p>I am considering an Early College High School for my youngest D. These are high schools that partner with a local college and students take both high school and college courses concurrently so they graduate from High School with college credit. These schools are all fairly new, the model has only been around since about 2004. </p>
<p>If anyone does have any experience with these schools and can share, I would be appreciative. I'm especially interested in:
*how students felt taking classes with current college students (when they did)
*how the schools managed EC's, clubs and sports
* what the college application process was like with these credits; were you treated as a transfer or traditional student </p>
<p>I know that Bard at Simon’s Rock has that type of a program. It is an early-entrance college that lets a kid finish up HS while taking college classes. One of the girls in my kid’s school chose to go that route in 2013. As far as I know she really likes it.</p>
<p>One of my friend’s kids went to Bard at Simon’s Rock because he had exhausted the limited supply of AP/advanced courses at his HS. He enjoyed it and his brother is going there too.</p>
<p>As an incoming college freshman, I just want to offer you a word of advice. A lot of colleges that I considered or applied to wouldnt give credit to students that also got high school credit for the class or didn’t take it on a college campus with college students. You’ll have to do your own research on what kinds of schools your daughter may like in the future and whether they’ll transfer the credits. Regardless of whether the credits transfer however, she’ll be in a very competitive and challenging environment. I went to a very competitive nationally known stem HS that has dual enrollment classes and other post-APs (that didn’t actually have credit attached). These classes are not for everyone. Many students leave my school because they can’t handle it. I am unaware of whether this situation would be the same at an early college high school.</p>
<p>However, since I don’t have experiences with these schools directly, I can’t comment on the schools. Just wanted to give some background given what I experienced.</p>
<p>We don’t have an “early college” program (not sure how that differs from dual enrollment. But my daughter did take 5 college courses in a variety of arrangements while in high school. One of her classes was on a college campus during the regular term. There’s a lot to consider for that and it is not trivial–tuition, transportation time expense and logistics, scheduling. She missed out on some ECs important to her because of the scheduling. The college and high school vacation schedules didn’t match up and this was inconvenient for a senior wanting to visit colleges. Her high school GPA took a hit because she took study halls instead of AP classes to accommodate the on campus college class in her schedule. With 6 high school classes and college applications to do, she really didn’t have quite enough time to study for her college class, and in particular she didn’t have enough time to study for her college final because unlike the college students who had days off to study, her big crunch of high school exams and projects due came right beforehand. She also was not able to attend the prof’s office hours because of course she was in class all day long at her hs. The classes she took under other arrangements (eg dual enrollment, summer school) were a lot easier to manage.</p>
<p>In some cases she is getting placement for her classes. I think most schools would have given her credit. In others, the content just doesn’t match up well enough and she will end up repeating the material which is costly considering the tuition paid.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for your thoughts. The school I’m looking at is a High School that is specifically designed to have the students take college classes. The school will actually be housed on a college campus and the schedules will be designed to mesh. </p>
<p>The funding for these schools came originally from a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation but they oldest school is only 10 years old and some have closed while others seem to be flourishing. I was just hoping their may be someone out there who had first hand experience with one of these schools to get some feedback. </p>
@DEfour This is a late addition to this post. I do not know if you have already made a decision on this matter or if you are still looking into it. However, I attend an Early College High School and can answer any of your questions on this matter if you message me.
I personally do not mind taking classes with current college students nor do a majority of my friends. For my school this doesn’t happen until sometime sophomore year and mainly junior and senior year.
There is a lack of EC’s (mainly arts and sports–although we have a running club and Frisbee team) at my school but this is due to the choices of my principal and the size of the school. I’m currently in Student Government, NHS, and SADD. We also have several engineering/robotics groups, a Science Olympiad team, and HOSA. College Classes do not interfere with these because our school purposely schedules EC’s around classes and works with students who have schedule conflicts.
Our credits transfer to the school we are affiliated with. The majority of these classes also transfer to other state schools. I was told by my Dean of Students that keeping the syllabus to each class because this makes classes easier to transfer (especially to public out-of-state schools). Usually, unless the college states that credit earned in high school does not count for transfer, we are treated as transfer students.
@sunsetaire: you will transfer credit but you will NOT be treated as transfer students - which is good, since the “good” scholarships go to freshmen, not transfers, as well as the best financial aid! Plus you’ll be in freshmen dorms (rather than being foisted off to off campus residences or apartments), you’ll be part of freshman orientation…
Make SURE to be involved in an activity in-depth. NHS, SADD, and Student Gov’t are fine if you’re applying to your state flagship, but if you’re aiming for a top 25 university/LAC, then more involvement than that will be expected. Because you are on a college campus, there’s an expectation you’ll try and get involved in a research project, but few high school students have the maturity to do this (16 vs. 20-21 is a huge difference.) Science Olympiads or any EC that you can pursue to a high level (club sports…) is really important. If that’s not possible, holding a job is also a good sign.
@MYOS1634 thank you so much for your wonderful input! I am not planning on transferring any of my credits nor am I actually on a college campus at this point in time. I was apart of science olympiad but had to quit because I was uncomfortable with events happening (a member ended up with assault charges amongst other things) I am planning on interning and getting a job once I get a car and I will stay on the lookout for research opportunities. Thank you so much again!
Thanks for your response @sunsetaire. I have picked a different HS for my D, we just found one that was a better fit. I appreciate your insight though.
and good luck to you!