However, it is not necessarily true that one can know whether the course is more rigorous than the previously taken course. The best one can do if one is unsure of whether to retake a previously taken course or AP credit is to try the new college’s old final exam for the course.
But in a pre-med context, it may not look good to repeat a college course (as opposed to AP credit) for any reason other than being required to by the new college.
@DiotimaDM regarding DE allowance at Pomona, it can be confusing when reading the requirements for applying for freshman status versus transferability of the credit for the college courses taken. Pomona does not have a limit on the number of college courses or credits students may take while still in high school, and qualify for freshman status.
Any of the college courses which are taken in the high school building or with only other high school students will not be allowable for transfer credit. Any college courses listed on the high school transcript to fulfill high school graduation requirements will not be able to transfer as well.
From Pomona: http://catalog.pomona.edu/content.php?catoid=3&navoid=72
College Courses Taken While in High School. Credits will be allowed for transferable courses on receipt of a college transcript. There is no limit to the amount of advanced standing credit that may be accrued through Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and pre-matriculation college courses, but credit for advanced standing does not supersede the College’s requirement of 30 postcollege-matriculation courses as part of the 32 courses needed for graduation.
Even if the student completed an associates degree while in high school, they may apply as a freshman at Pomona. As a freshman, they will still need to complete at least 30 college courses after beginning at Pomona, so the amount of transfer credit is negligible.
This is about the same policy as at many of the top LACs. Where students will be required to apply as a transfer student instead of a freshman is at some less selective LACs where there might be fewer advanced courses available. It is important to check the policy at each college as policies vary considerably.
Looks like credit toward the number of courses needed to graduate is minimal at Pomona. However, subject credit and placement into more advanced courses may also be of more interest to a student who comes in with lots of AP or college credit completed while in high school. Indeed, for a student who is not under financial pressure to graduate as quickly as possible, being able to fulfill lower level requirements and place into more advanced courses through such credit may allow the student to take a more interesting set of 30-32 courses while at Pomona, if that is allowed.
Note that having certain number of credits transferred and acceleration of college graduation are not necessarily related. You may have many credits transferred but have no impact at all on your graduation time depending on the school and major. There are minimal in house credit requirement and course sequences that one needs to fulfill no matter how many transferred credits you get.
OP,
Question for you. If you qualify for Blue Gold program (which means income of under 80K), why wouldn’t you be looking at schools that meet 100% demonstrated need in addition to schools that give merit aid? I see you mentioned Pomona, but why not expand the list?
I also wouldn’t recommend your student living at home unless you absolutely can’t afford otherwise.
Quick background on us: Caifornia homeschoolers, but oldest son did part time DE from 7th grade to 12th grade, amassing 55 credits (and 19 audited, non-credit units at local universities) We never went over 12 units a semester, and he took an occasional semester off. He took 6 AP exams, but only one AP class (homeschooled AP Lit). Doubling up on CC and AP made sense because, as you say, you don’t know who will give credit for what.
In the end, he went to MIT, and was somehow able to get all his CC math courses transferred in. You just never know.
We are of moderate income, as well. My son did not apply to any UCs or Cal States, as he didn’t want to go to a large school. His safeties were UTD (check out McDermott Scholars), U Pitt, and Baylor (though he withdrew his app there during the process; not the right fit). He got some fantastic f. aid packages from places like Vanderbilt, Caltech, Princeton, and MIT (less at MIT, but with outside merit aid, it’s worked out fabulously).
I do understand that med school means you need to look at college grades, but still, I would encourage you to have your son check out a few other “meets 100% need” schools.
Exactly. In such cases, a premed should take upper division science courses at the four year school, earns A’s, and demonstrate med school readiness.
Just an FYI - our working list of possible schools has 25 - 30 names on it. We pulled the names from a variety of other lists, such as meets-100%-of-need, good NMF packages, etc. I didn’t include the full list (my OP says the schools I mentioned are representative, but not complete) because the question isn’t about where to send S to college, but about DE vs rigor.
S just started 10th grade and hasn’t taken the PSAT yet. He’s interested in med school at present, but career aspirations are famous for changing, often several times. We’re keeping our list large and fluid until we have more info (e.g whether he makes NMF, whether his career interest changes, etc.).
I’ve gotten a lot of great advice out of this thread, so huge thanks to everyone!
DE can be very rigorous. Choose classes and professors well and it will be a great experience.
A few general updates…
S’s continued interest in med school has re-shaped our HS and college planning with an eye toward getting out of undergrad debt-free and for the lowest out-of-pocket cost reasonably possible.
In terms of college choice, we’ve all but ruled out LACs. I think he’d be a good fit, but most of the LACs want their students to do a full four years unless they’re admitted as transfer students. Financially speaking, we’re better off taking a 4-5 year NMF offer* where he can finish undergrad early and apply the left over award money to med school / grad school tuition.
(*He’s a likely candidate, but as always, nothing’s for sure. If he misses the cutoff, we should still get good auto-stats offers.)
Rigor-wise, he’s doing APs for his science courses and CC for a lot of everything else. We know the APs probably won’t count toward pre-med requirements, but he needs them to demonstrate rigor at the HS level. He really likes the CC courses. The pacing is much better for him than most of this HS offerings, and he likes being able to engage with the material at a higher level.
In the CC classes, he can ask whatever questions he likes and usually end up with a good discussion. At the HS level, he’s often told that it’s a good question, but beyond the scope of the class so the teacher moves on to a more relevant question from someone else.
Top schools at the moment are as follows:
UT Dallas (NMF, McDermott would be awesome, no med school but still a worthy choice)
OU (NMF school with a med school, professional writing program at Gaylord is an added draw)
UCSB (not an NMF school, but we’re local and his CC courses are guaranteed to transfer)
UCR (local-ish UC with a med school, we have family there)
Other possibilities:
Bama or UA Huntsville
Michigan State
UNM
We realize that lots of potential pre-meds change their minds, so we’re also trying to optimize flexibility to change course if he decides to ditch pre-med. If that happens, he’ll most likely end up in BME / engineering, or in a cognitive science / psychology crossover field related to the biological basis of cognition / human behavior.
He’s a theater geek, so drama plus pre-med made Muhlenberg look pretty good when we were still considering LACs. Ah, well. 
Remember that college courses taken while in high school and their grades will be included for medical school application GPA purposes. The potential pre-med taking college courses while in high school needs to remember the pre-med grading scale:
A = acceptable
B = bad
C = catastrophic
D = disastrous
F = forget about it
Also, many medical schools do not like seeing all of the pre-med courses at community colleges. If the student is a science major, s/he will take upper division science courses at a four year school anyway, but if the student is a non-science major, s/he may need to take some upper division science electives if his/her pre-med courses are otherwise all done at community colleges. AP credit often does not count for pre-med course requirements, so the student would have to substitute more advanced courses in the same subject areas or retake the pre-med courses.
Thanks, UCBAlumnus!
He’s not taking any sciences at the CC, and he’s got straight As at both the CC and the HS. I certainly appreciate the reminder though. There’s rather a lot at stake, and a lot to wrap one’s mind around in terms of planning, various contingencies, etc.