Senior Year: AP vs Dual Enrollment

Hello,

I am a rising junior who is trying to weigh the benefits of taking Dual Enrollment classes at a local university my senior year vs taking AP courses offered at my high school.

I am very interested in applied math, the natural sciences and computer science. The following potential schedules are the frontrunners that I have determined from the two options:

Dual Enrollment (I can take 4 classes per quarter):

  1. Vector Calculus w/ Complex Analysis, Dynamical Systems and Chaos, Partial Diff Eqs
  2. Data Structures and Algorithms, Phys II (E&M), Phys III (Waves & Optics)
  3. Honors Organic Chem I, II, and III
  4. English Comp II, American Lit, American Gov’t

AP (I have 7 periods):

  1. Jazz Band
  2. Wind Ensemble
  3. AP English Lit
  4. AP US Gov’t
  5. AP Environmental Science (Already taken every other AP science)
  6. Honors Biotechnology
  7. Projects in CS
    *I would likely take an online math course (already taken statistics)

I would love your input on these schedules, specifically in determining which would look more impressive to top colleges.

Thanks in advance!

Do you have four years of all your core courses? Clearly you do in math and science, but how about for history, english, and foreign language?

IMO I don’t think either option looks particularly balanced.

Things to consider…

For some universities that accept AP/DE credits, you can use them to get out of gen ed requirements so you can add a minor, a concentration, or something else you are truly interested in.

DE grades will follow you for grad school admission so you need to make sure you are giving it your all. Quarter long classes move very, very quickly. How confident are you that you can do well in these tough courses?

What course offerings will be available to you at the college level for your intended major if you don’t get into reach schools?

Looks like your DE college courses are more advanced than AP level (except for English and government / political science), while your proposed AP schedule appears to be just marking time in high school because you have already finished the highest available level of courses in many subjects.

But some questions:

  1. Have you already taken a visual or performing art course? Some colleges would like to see that, so if you have not and choose your DE option, you may want to include one.
  2. What level of foreign language have you completed? If you are aiming for the most selective colleges, completing high school year 4 or the college equivalent (usually semester 3-4 or quarter 4-5, but can depend on the high school and college) is a good idea.
  3. What other history and social studies have you completed?

@momofsenior1 and @ucbalumnus,

Thank you both very much for your responses! The reason the DE schedule looks so lopsided is because each quarter of a DE class counts as an entire year for high school. That’s why I am only taking a few (the bare minimum) english/social science courses. I have been taking quarter-long dual enrollment math courses during my sophomore year (Calculus 3, Differential Equations, Statistics, Linear Algebra) and have done well, despite being enrolled in 7 high school classes.

To answer your questions @ucbalumnus,

  1. I (will) have taken Wind Ensemble for 3 years and Jazz Band for 2 years. Unfortunately, I may have to drop band all together if I do DE :disappointed:
  2. I came from a Spanish immersion program in middle school, so I will have taken the highest level of Spanish we offer our junior year, AP Spanish Literature.
  3. History/SS is my one weak point. Because our school is very new, my class was small and we weren't able to have AP World History. I have taken Honors World History 1, 2 and 3 (all semester long) in my freshman and sophomore years, and will take AP US History as a junior.

Based on what you have already taken, it looks like the DE option of continuing to take more advanced courses in math and science (while also taking English and government / political science) is better than the non-DE option that is just marking time in high school because you already took the highest courses available in math, science, and Spanish.

Some other things to consider in the DE option:

A. Unless you have a strong interest in chemistry, biology, or chemical engineering (to the extent of wanting to major in one of these in college), you may not find organic chemistry to be all that useful.
B. Instead of 3/4 math/science and 1/4 H/SS, you may want to consider exploring additional H/SS subjects like economics, philosophy, sociology, etc. in a ~1/2 math/science and ~1/2 H/SS schedule at the college. Or, if you want to continue Spanish, see what more advanced Spanish courses the college offers that you can take after AP Spanish literature. There may also be music courses or extracurricular opportunities at the college.

@ucbalumnus,

I plan on majoring in biomedical engineering, and then potentially continuing on to med school after that, which I will need organic chem.

On that note, would it look bad to med schools to have taken organic chem at a local college and (likely) not the college I obtain my undergraduate degree at?

If the local college is a community college, then some medical schools may look down on courses taken there, unless you also take more advanced courses in the same subject area at your four year college.

Remember that all college courses, including those taken while in high school, and their grades will have to be reported on your medical school application. For pre-meds, A is an acceptable grade, but B is bad, C is catastrophic, and D is disastrous.

Noted! I will be taking organic chem at a local research university, but do plan on further study in related fields (physical chem and biochem sound really interesting to me and I’d love to take those classes)

I agree with some of the notes above. Getting some of your general education requirements - history, philosophy, politics, economics, etc. - might be a good idea.

These will likely more easily translate to credits at college that technology courses. My D received an A in a Physics course at Pitt during HS, but her college still wanted her to take Freshman Physics.

Med schools and others aren’t going to care as much where you took Microeconomics, Intro to Psychology, etc., as they will OChem, Physics, etc.

Note that psychology and sociology are sometimes specified in the pre-med course list by medical schools, so you may want to take those among your college courses.

Statistics is also often specified; it should be a statistics course suitable for science majors (as opposed to introductory statistics for students who need to fulfill a math or quantitative reasoning general education requirement). A calculus-based statistics course may be more worthwhile for a student with a strong math background.

“My D received an A in a Physics course at Pitt during HS, but her college still wanted her to take Freshman Physics.”

@RichInPitt

That’s really interesting since Pitt is a four-year college and getting an A in their physics I thought would be fine for credit. I know it’s college confidential but are you willing to share where your D attends.

There are some common reasons for non-acceptance of college physics courses for credit:

  1. Some colleges refuse credit for college courses taken while in high school.
  2. Student takes non-calculus-based college physics while in high school, but needs calculus-based physics for the intended major.
  3. The organization of topics in the college physics courses taken while in high school differs from that of those in the matriculated college, so (particularly if the student has not completed the entire sequence) some topics may be missing and require taking courses that repeat some content in order to cover other content.
  4. A student who matriculates to a college where the standard physics courses are much more rigorous than typical (e.g. Caltech or Harvey Mudd) should not automatically expect transfer credit for physics courses from other colleges.

On the other hand, AP physics can be marginal in acceptance for subject credit as well.