Now that my daughter is NSC complete, Impact bound in August, and collecting dorm stuff, I’m switching gears to my rising high school Junior and increasing his chances for an Engineering Admit (possibly) at TAMU . He is starting homeschool for the first time in August as a Junior in high school (formerly, very small Christian schools). We are looking at online dual credit classes (yes, checking with TAMU’s course credit transfers page) and One Day Academy locally. I’m not sure how many Dual Credit classes to sign him up for. I’m thinking US History (year long) and Intro to Speech (year long) and possibly Psychology (year long) or Economics (spring only) for the Dual Credit courses. I’m thinking PreCal, Stem Physics, Engineering I, and American Literature for the One Day Academy classes. I think he should probably plan to take any math and sciences at TAMU and not try to get college credits for any of those.
So, I guess my question is, should he take 2 or 3 dual credit classes in Junior year? He has always been a straight A kid and very motivated. I just don’t know what the “learning curve” is for taking Dual Credits since he has not taken any yet or done any One Day Academy homeschooling. I don’t to overload him but I don’t want to underload him, especially with applying to TAMU next summer.
Also, if there is anyone with experience with homeschooling and applying to TAMU Engineering, I would love to be in touch by message or chat!
@TXRunningMom depending on the kid, the transition to college classes (at a community college) could be challenging (especially if he’s doing a good load of HS courses as well) so it’s up to you guys to determine if 2-3 classes is doable. We eased in our son with one class his Junior fall semester. He took ENGL 1301 as his English for the year and then did one class in HIST 1301 in the Spring. He was able to handle that well so for his Senior year, he did two classes per semester (ENGL 1302, HIST 1302 and then GOVT 2305/6). We felt this covered a good bit of the “core” classes that weren’t engineering. I’m sure you’ve checked that year-long Psychology and Speech will cover “core” classes but it may be better to take the history/government at community college where the class sizes will be smaller than at A&M. Also, three classes a semester for two years is 24 hours (+any AP tests) should clear out electives so he won’t have any non-engineering “easy” classes to help with GPA.
Our son applied as a homeschooler to A&M engineering and the process was helped by their academic admit option. With that going away in 2021, SAT/ACT scores will be very important when it comes to placement as far as quartile. A lot of the work on our end was getting a transcript put together that was solid enough. The rest was up to him (scores/essays/grades/etc.).
@bemart14 , thanks so much for taking the time to comment! I had not given much thought to using up his “easy” electives. That is something to ponder! What do you think qualifies for a good “rigor” of classes that TAMU is looking for in a homeschooler? Do you think as long as he is taking the standard high school load of an English, math, science, history, various needed electives like economics, speech, etc., then that is good enough? I know they want to see calculus readiness. Is Calculus through a One Day Academy suitable, do you think? Also, did you do your own transcript or join that HSLDA organization to use their transcript?
TAMU lists the recommended coursework (http://admissions.tamu.edu/freshman/coursework/). We followed a college prep plan where our son took Physics and Calculus at home (not through a co-op) and even took the AP Calculus test. I think having dual credit courses shows rigor as any grades they get are not “Mommy grades”. That in conjunction with test scores would speak to the strength of the education he got.
We did our our transcript and didn’t have any problems. The time consuming part is detailing the course descriptions (grading method/textbook used). It was near 10 pages. I doubt they reviewed it in detail but we wanted to make sure all was accounted for.
By the way, congrats on your daughter’s achievements. I recall your postings about the scholarships she applied for and got. Hopefully there isn’t too much sibling pressure 
@bemart14 , thanks again for your reply and link! Do you think “American Literature” is considered an English class? It seems like it would be to me. Honestly, the One Day Academy course descriptions look so interesting to me that I want to take them! haha Did your son’s taking of the AP Calculus test help him with math placement and the MPE? Thanks on my daughter btw-it is very tough for him growing up in her shadow. We try very hard to tell him that his gifts are very different from hers but I would hate to be in his shoes. We tell him all the time that she is “abnormal”. haha! They do have a great relationship though and I am very grateful for that. We will miss her tremendously when she moves to College Station but we know it is a good thing.
@TXRunningMom we struggled to figure out what “English” meant for homeschooling. Looking at public school curriculum, it seemed like there was a literature and grammar component to the English I/II/III/IV classes. So we settled on the dual credit class counting for both since they required writing papers on various literary works. We did do a lit homeschool class in conjunction with the dual credit class one year but decided that was overkill. What was most useful from English was learning the skill of writing cogent essays. It really helped his college admissions.
The math placement test seemed to have more Algebra II/pre-Cal concepts, so I think AP Calc actually took him out of that mindset. He had to study the “old stuff” to get ready for the test.