Hello! Looking for some advice and/or maybe similar experience that you can share with me.
My daughter is a student with the eonline school. She is a Sophomore. She currently has an unweighted 4.0 GPA, weighted 4.53 GPA and a total 110.00 credits for her 9th grade. This year she is taking 3 AP classes and 2 College courses, in addition to her other Honors classes. She just informed me that she would like to do dual enrollment next year and graduate from both HS and our local CC in 2018, then transfer to one of the UC’s (we are in CA)
As a parent, I am happy to hear that and I don’t doubt her ability to do so, but I wonder if anybody can provide some thoughts and ideas? I am not sure what is the best way to do it - I graduated in another country…My daughter has already sent emails to our local CC, but maybe you can also provide some wisdom? Thank you!
Does she want to go to college as a frosh with lots of transfer credit, or as a junior level transfer?
Going to college as a frosh is usually more advantageous for scholarships, and does not require commitment to a specific major at this stage. In contrast, someone going in as a junior transfer should be ready to declare a major, and have taken courses at the community college that fulfill prerequisites to that major and the target university’s general education requirements. Most high school dual enrollment students do not carefully follow the latter lists of pre-transfer requirements (in California, use http://www.assist.org to figure out what community college courses are needed to transfer to a given major and UC or CSU).
A student who goes to college as a frosh with lots of transfer credit can still graduate in fewer than 8 semesters or 12 quarters if the transfer credit is useful against subject requirements needed to graduate in his/her desired major.
She wants to graduate from CC and transfer which will save her 2 years. She already knows that she wants to go to med school. She will not be getting any scholarships - we are going to have to pay her full tuition either way…
She can apply and be admitted as a frosh, but still use her college credit earned while in high school to graduate in 2 years if she desires and has chosen the college courses while in high school carefully enough to prepare for that. Also, if her GPA in college courses taken while in high school is medical-school-worthy, then it is certainly possible for her to earn scholarships, which are more plentiful for entering frosh than transfers.
Note that all college courses, including those taken while in high school, will affect GPA for applying to medical school (yes, this means that she needs to try for A or A+ grades). Also, some medical schools look down on community college courses, so it may be better to take some courses in the pre-med subjects at the university (perhaps advanced ones if the usual introductory-level pre-med courses were taken at community college).
You may want to speak to your high school councilor about this. We are with a California homeschool charter - independent study - but not online. When I brought up the idea of my soon to be high school son doing duel enrollment with the charter and CC and graduating with an AA I was told that our school had limitations to how many duel credits they would allow for high school graduation credits. While he can do duel enrollment, he wouldn’t be able to actually graduate from the CC at the same time as the high school. I imagine each charter school (including online schools) have their own rules. Your school should have an adviser.
Also, if she goes to the UC as a transfer student you don’t have to worry about a-g requirements but if she is not an actual transfer student - meaning that she goes directly after she graduates high school, even if she has duel enrollment, you need to make sure the online school has their classes approved for a-g. Not all the online schools do. I think Connections has a better list than CAVA for example. Something to double check. Be extra careful of lab science courses. Many online schools are not approved for science.
@LKnomad: thank you so much for your reply. My daughter is Laurel Springs Gifted Academy. All her classes are carefully calculated (A-G) and are UC approved. This year she is taking her Art and her Chemistry in our local CC , because UC’s do not approve science without wet labs and art classes taken online, doesn’t matter which school. LS has counselors and advisors, but right now I don’t want to go ahead and ask, just want to get all the info available.From what I was able to read last night - to be able to enroll into CC in CA you just need to pass proficiency exam and do not even need a HS diploma…
@ucbalumnus: thank you for your reply!
the idea right now is to bypass the high school (it shouldn’t be a problem, because she is online), get admitted into CC with the proficiency exam, graduate in 2 years with excellent grades then get transferred into one of the UC’s, graduate from there and then try for med school.Or, let her graduate at the end of this year with the minimum requirements and get admitted into CC with her HS diploma…How does it sound?
My son is a home educated student (since 3rd grade) and is a senior in high school this year. He started dual enrollment last year and is doing it again this year. He will not have enough credits for an AA, but he will have about a year’s worth of college credits under his belt by May of 2016 when he graduates h.s.
As I understand it, here in Florida you are still considered an “FTIC” (first time in college) student even if you graduate high school with an AA simultaneously. But this is going to be VERY school specific (and even state specific) so any college that your daughter is interested in - I would scrutinize their admissions pages and even contact admissions people for specific information. FTIC status is important when it comes to scholarships, merit aid, etc. Please check and double-check this issue.
Another poster mentioned dual enrollment grades - yes, it is very important to be aware that dual enrollment courses go on the student’s college transcript, permanently in most cases, so the student should be ready for college level course work (your daughter sounds like a good student).
Another DE issue that we have encountered is that college professors will not speak with parents (generally). They expect the student to advocate for themselves, and function as college students even though many DE kids are teens (some very young teens). This is not a problem for us but it is something to be aware of. It is very different from h.s. instructors.
Good luck and I hope it all goes well.
Thank you, SouthFloridsMom9! In CA dual enrollment is limited to just 2 or 3 classes. They make it difficult or impossible to take more.
So you are actually not taking about duel enrollment. You are taking about early entrance. Is that correct. Without the diploma you may have an age issue.
http://home.cccapply.org/colleges/requirements
Early graduation may make me sense.
It really depends on the kid in question. My eldest did duel enrollment and graduated high school with about 40 units and her IGETC from community college. Basically, she could have gone to any UC and had her general ed’s totally done. However, none of us were particularly thrilled with that idea of her graduating at 19. In her case, she found a private school that offered her enough money that going 2 years to a UC wouldn’t have been much less than 4 years at the LAC.
We know other kids who have embraced the idea of graduating in 2 years instead of 4 though we don’t actually know anyone who really was done in 2 years at UC. It was more like 2.5 or 3.5 years.
The only thing I’d say in your situation is to not plan too strictly on the 2 year graduation plan. She may very well do her two years and still be thrilled to go on to med school. She may be inspired into a different direction and need more time. I’d stay flexible unless 2 years is really all that is in the budget.
Hi Turtletime!
It was graduating from our local community college in 2 years then transferring to the UC. I don’t think it matters if she will do over 2 years in the UC…
@Lanaana Double check your information. What kind of duel enrollment program are you looking at. Would she be graduating high school and community college at the SAME time or is she graduating high school early and then becoming a community college student. That’s a BIG difference in the eyes of the UC system.
My D was in a program on the community college campus. She had two high school classes in their own classroom and then everything else came through the college (up to 12 units a semester for free.) She chose not to go for an associate’s degree but went for the IGETC instead. Even with 40 community college credits, and a certificate of GE completion, she was still a freshman applicant. NOT a transfer. There was a boy in her class that earned two associates while in the program. He DID “graduate” from high school and community college at the same time. He was STILL considered a freshman applicant to all the public and private schools he applied to. My sophomore takes a course in the evening at the community college. He’ll still be a freshman applicant upon high school graduation. In UC eyes, you are a transfer if you took college classes AFTER graduating high school. If you took them through duel enrollment, you are a freshman.
There are benefits to staying a freshman applicant. There are more spaces available for one. A student can still qualify for merit scholarships (most of which are given to freshman.) It wouldn’t mean she couldn’t graduate in two years because she enters as a freshman.
@turtletime you’ve said:"He DID “graduate” from high school and community college at the same time. He was STILL considered a freshman applicant to all the public and private schools he applied to. "
I don’t think it is possible to have an Ass degree from CC and to be a Freshmen, am I wrong?
I think once you graduate from CC you are a transfer student, which places a student 2 years ahead in college.My thinking - it saves a LOT of money…As far as being a dual enrollment - not possible. High school students can only take enrichment courses, which is 2 or 3 courses, or they can pass their GED or equivalency test enter without graduating HS.
@Lanaana my D took the CHSPE at 16, started CCC and is now a senior at UCLA.
She didn’t get her AA, didn’t need it to transfer. The application cycle starts in November with the plan of completing at least 60 UC transferable units by the end of the following spring. The units need to cover major prereqs and usually IGETC plan for GEs. Use assist.org and the UC Transfers forum at http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/uc-transfers/
Main disadvantage is not much scholarship $ available for transfers. Good luck!
A student can graduate with an AA from community college if there if a specific high school program that includes the AA s part of the program. We have a high school in our district that has both. The key is that it is built into the high school program. In that case the student is still a freshman when applying to college. If a student goes into college with a huge number of college credits, even enough for an AA that student is still a freshmen but they have far fewer classes they need to graduate. A student can go in with a huge number of AP credits as well and jump ahead but that student if still a freshman. As long as the credits are earned before a high school diploma, the student is a freshman by application standards, but once the registrar receives the community college transcripts, the college will give the student upper classmen standing. They have the ability to get the benefits of applying as a freshman (merit, better admission rates) but they also will jump ahead once they are enrolled.
If the student takes any classes after they earn a high school diploma they become a transfer student. (Some schools allow summer classes .) They lose the benefits of freshman status which includes the ease of admission and merit aid.
Thank you so much all who answered! I feel a bit easier now. I also received an answer from the UC admissions. I am posting it here, in case someone else is in doubt:
"If your daughter graduates from high school (via high school diploma or passing the California Proficiency Examination) then continues to take college courses in a regular academic term (fall/spring), she can apply as a junior-level transfer student.
However, if she graduates from high school but does not continue to complete college courses, with the exception of courses completed during the summer term immediately following high school, she must apply to UC as a freshman applicant.
Other than those definitions of applicant level, there are no specific requirements for such young students.
If she applies as a junior-level transfer applicant, UC will only consider her college transcript. The high school transcript may or may not be required by a UC campus if she is offered admission for the primary purpose of documenting the date of high school graduation/or the CHSPE results can be submitted.
If she applies as a freshman, UC will consider both academic records."
@Lanaana Well, it’s possible because he DID in fact start as a freshman despite having two associates. He just completed them before graduating high school.