<p>My daughter is currently a sophomore taking mostly 11th grade class work. While planning her high school 4 year schedule, we knew she was going to run out of high school course work and need to start taking community college classes before graduating. She will be taking 1 dual enrollment English course next year and 2 AP classes. Senior year, she only has a single required class left but intends to take more AP and dual enrollment classes to fill her schedule. </p>
<p>I started looking into the VCCS articulation agreement and compared that to the courses she was planning to take in high school along with all the time she has open in her senior year and next summer and it seems completely feasible that she could complete the requirements for her AA and also the WM requirements for guaranteed acceptance by the time she graduates. I've been looking at this from the point of view of her going to WM, although we live in Charlottesville, because I think WM would be a better fit for her than UVA. </p>
<p>If she were to get the AA before or at the same time as high school graduation, would her application be handled differently than other students who do the GAA after graduation? I know that she'd still start as a junior, but I also know she'd get the same access to FA and housing as Freshmen, which leads me to think that there are differences in how Dual Enrollment AA transfers are treated. I just want to make sure that if she went this route, she wouldn't be losing out on anything.</p>
<p>Another question I have is in regard to transfering her course work. I noticed that PVCC requires only a 3 on most AP tests to count towards credit on the basic classes, while WM seems to require a 4. If my daughter got her AA with some AP classes that were accepted at PVCC, would that break the articulation agreement for guaranteed admission, or just mean that she'd need to re-take those classes?</p>
<p>And I'll ask this even though I suspect the answer is no, but if she were to submit a letter of intent in her senior year, could she also apply ED as an incoming Freshman for the following year. I ask because while I like the AA for keeping the door open, I think that it would be great for her to have the experience of the full four years if she can get accepted. I'm not entirely sure how important that is to her at this point.</p>
<p>We're also keeping the option on the table for her to finish high school and THEN have her complete the AA, but in that case, everything makes perfect sense to me, so I'm not asking about that route. There are many options to consider.</p>
<p>@Laclos, the guaranteed admission agreements with the Virginia community colleges do not apply to high school students. They apply only to traditional transfer students who graduate from high school and then complete their AA over the course of the next few years (you’ll note one of the requirements for falling under the guaranteed admission agreement is that you complete 45 of the credits towards your AA after graduating from high school). So your daughter is not eligible to submit a letter nor is she eligible to apply to W&M under the guaranteed admission agreement.</p>
<p>Certainly her dual enrollment and AP coursework throughout high school will show evidence of her rigorous academic curriculum which is good but even if she does receive her AA by the time she graduates, she will still apply to W&M as a freshman applicant.</p>
<p>As for the question regarding AP exams, when a student enrolls at W&M, whether as a freshman or a transfer, they must submit any AP exam scores to us. The fact that they were taken for credit at another institution does not mean they will be accepted at W&M so she cannot get credit for AP exams by way of PVCC.</p>
<p>Thank you for your quick response. I somehow missed the provision about the 45 credit hours after graduation. That certainly does change things and explains why I couldn’t find any threads on this topic. At least with taking the Dual Enrollment classes, she should be able to gether 45 hours the year following graduation and start the next Fall.</p>
<p>@Laclos, that certainly may be entirely possible but at that point she applies as a transfer student, isn’t guaranteed on-campus housing, etc. It sounds like she’s a very bright, high-achieving student so why not just apply through the normal channels as a freshman applicant and see what happens?</p>
<p>Thank you again for your response. I was under the impression that a student using the GAA agreement was also afforded access to on-campus housing, etc as per the vawizard: <a href=“VA Wizard”>VA Wizard;
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<p>My daughter does plan to apply through normal channels. I was just trying to find a back up plan in case she falls short on the first try. I just know so many kids who are applying to UVa or WM and not getting accepted even with good statistics, and then I see all the lengthy resumes of kids on this site and it makes me fairly nervous. </p>
<p>My daughter is very academic and does exceedingly well in her classes. I’m not concerned about her GPA or course difficulty. And we’ve already had recommendations from her teacher for summer bridge program applications, and they were wonderful. So what I fret over are all the extra-curriculars that seem so important. I don’t want to encourage her to do things she isn’t interested in just to pad her resume, but unfortunately, where she goes to school is limiting. There are very few clubs and until she drives, she can’t stay after school because I work quite far away from the school.</p>
<p>She does have one very solid extra-curricular activity, which is karate. She’s in a leadership position with the karate school and assists with teaching classes. I’m hoping that plus the smaller things she is involved with will be sufficient. And we continue to look for opportunities for her to be involved in other things, but I will probably continue to worry until she has a letter of acceptance. </p>
<p>I don’t think I worried about any of these things when I was applying to college. :/</p>
<p>I’m not counting anything out. I know I sound hell bent on a single shot, but really my only goal is to help her make sure she has every available option by the time she graduates. Since she is only 16, I don’t think she could possibly know what she will want in 2 years, but I’m trying to have her tour campuses, understand costs and what kinds of scores she needs to work for if she wants to keep those doors open. For instance, I went to school at UF but if she wants to go there, she’d need to be NMF in order to get OOS tuition waived, otherwise, we can’t afford it. She was looking at Cornell for a long time because she thought she wanted to be a vet, but has since decided she wants to be a bio-chemist, so Cornell completely fell off her radar. I think WM would be a great fit for her, so we’re going to go visit there in June, but I agree, Virginia has a lot of great schools. I don’t really care where she decides to go, but I feel like it’s my job to help her figure out how to get there.</p>
<p>@Laclos, to answer your question about on-campus housing, our transfer students to have access to housing but aren’t guaranteed it when they enter. Similarly, our “native students” are guaranteed housing 3 out of 4 years but not all 4 years. </p>
<p>It’s good that you’re exploring many possibilities for your daughter. And you are correct that selective schools like W&M and UVA have to turn down some excellent students. We do encourage students to showcase both their academic and personal qualities in their application. Extracurricular activities are part of that. So are essays, recommendations, the optional interview, etc. There are lots of ways students can demonstrate what they bring to campus in and out of the classroom. And when we review an extracurricular resume we look for demonstrated commitment, passion, leadership. Sometimes lengthy resumes demonstrate this, other times they don’t. Sometimes there’s a lot of substance found in just a few actvities.</p>