<p>I am planning on doing Running Start next year. It is a program in WA state that allows a student to enroll full time at a community college. You earn comm col. credits, as well as high school graduation requirements. </p>
<p>I have to decide soon if I will be pursuing the Associate's degree. I want to be a good applicant to top schools out of state, and I want to apply as a FRESHMAN (I hope to be a recruited athlete). I'd be happy to learn all these college classes; it'll take me out of my boring high school, and I'd appreciate the engaging course rigor. </p>
<p>My question is, will I get to apply as a freshman to ivies and other top schools if I do this program? I don't think I'll be getting the degree on purpose, I just want to take these classes. Oh, and I don't really care if my credits transfer or not.</p>
<p>Talk to the people who coordinate your Running Start program. They will be able to answer your questions about this.</p>
<p>My S13 will be taking advantage of Running Start next year. I would recommend that you contact the admission department at the schools you are interested in to determine how they handle admissions and credit transfer. That’s the only way to really know.</p>
<p>At University of Washington Running Start students apply the same as freshmen even though completing the AA transfer degree acually gives them junior status. UW has an extensive list of community college equivilancy corses. My S is interested in engineering so we downloaded the sample four year plans from the UW web site, cross refenced the cc equivalencys as well as his HS requirements. We came up with a plan to cover HS, AA transfer and UW pre-engineering requirements. Whew…it’s complicated and a lot of work but planning ahead will likely save him a year of university costs while Running Start is free!</p>
<p>Of course if you don’t care if your credits transfer (although i don’t know why you wouldn’t maximize that) it won’t matter.</p>
<p>OK…that’s probably more than you wanted or needed, but there has been little on these boards about Running Start so I thought I’d add what I’ve learned. Good Luck!</p>