<p>Are there any parents who would be willing to discuss their child's journey in dual enrollment? In our community there is a dual enrollment high school whereby students spend 1/2 day in AP classes and 1/2 the day at local community college. Has anyone did something similar and have subsequent success getting into a higher ranked university?</p>
<p>We didn’t do THAT, exactly, but my son did a TON of dual enrollment while homeschooling, and got into Caltech, Harvey Mudd, Rice, Colorado College, Colorado School of Mines, Rose Hulman, and Case Western. He didn’t apply to any Ivies because he wanted a small school. The only school he was rejected from at all was Wash U, and that was after getting onto the waitlist, so they liked him well enough.</p>
<p>I think a dual enrollment high school could be a great thing, and I can’t think of any drawbacks if you can handle any costs and transportation issues!</p>
<p>A friend of mine’s D did much like GeekMom’s son-homeschooled, got her AA degree before her high school diploma. Getting accepted by good colleges was NOT an issue. She will be graduating from a select college this spring with her BA (at 20 years old) and is waiting on grad school acceptances.</p>
<p>I don’t know what state you’re in, but in some states the cost of CC classes is FREE for high school students. My younger D plans to take some, and her high school will help her work out the schedules. The school also placed several seniors in highly selective colleges last year, so I wouldn’t worry about it.</p>
<p>A lot of kids here take DE classes on varying levels, some just a class or two, some do it full time so they have enough credits that they could be a “junior” for class registration freshman year. None of the elite colleges, however, accept these credits so don’t count on using them to get done with school early. They do, however, help your “rigor” for applications if they are the hardest classes your kids can take. Our DE program is through our flagship, not the community colleges so it just depends.</p>
<p>My kids have all taken DE classes, and would not have been able to manage their class scheduling without it. Because of limited schedule slots for AP classes, without DE they would have been forced to quit their ECs or take only “advanced” or even “regular” classes.</p>
<p>All of D1 & D2’s DE credits transferred to their regional state school. In fact, D2 started with 35 transferrable hours between AP and DE, which has allowed her to focus strictly on her specific area of study.</p>
<p>Some of D3’s Dual Enrollment will transfer as well to Texas A&M.</p>
<p>I did dual enrollment full time for two years at the University of Minnesota and am now at MIT. Contrary to the claims of some earlier posters, MIT accepts dual enrollment classes for transfer credit. I wouldn’t expect a lot of transfer credit though. I found dual enrollment to prepare me extremely well for success in upper division classes at MIT.</p>
<p>Wow these success stories really make me feel better about the possibility of choosing the dual enrollment path with my child.</p>
<p>Just chiming in with SteveMA - I’m glad for UMTYMP student’s ability to transfer credits to MIT, but you can’t depend on it. My son had 102 DE credits and an AS earned BEFORE** HS graduation, and got zero transfer credits. I think he would have been able to claim 2 credits (not 2 classes, just 2 semester credits) except he wanted to take that particular class at his 4-year school. Those 2 credits were the only ones that were even available to him. But that wasn’t our point - learning was the point, and the DE classes were awesome for that.</p>
<p>**The “before” is important, as is DUAL enrollment. For OP’s situation it isn’t an issue, but it is important for applying to many schools that you have no or EXTREMELY few college credits after high school graduation, or you can be seen as a transfer student, and admission is much more difficult.</p>
<p>Rice will not accept dual credit from a 2 year school. So it’s just important to know and understand what you’re getting. In our state, most public colleges will take some pretty standard classes in transfer. The main thing is that you’re getting a good solid, “most rigorous” class with the high school credit and hopefully some university preparation.</p>
<p>Our high school had a lot of AP classes that were actually much harder than the local 4 year college classes they could have taken, The most academic kids took the AP classes, the ones that wanted counted college credit to state schools took the college courses. The person that taught calculus at the college was married to the person who taught the AP of AB/BC calc and said the AP was the harder of the two. So, it seems that it depends what college you are talking about. Both D’s got into excellent schools. think the key is the most rigorous courses. Interestingly, D2 took during high school years -summer credit with college students at Harvard with A’s and her college did not give her credit. It was however excellent preparation for college courses when she did go.</p>
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<p>However, students intending to apply to professional school (e.g. medical, law) after going to a university should know that all college courses, including those taken while in high school, are included in GPA calculated for professional school admissions. This can be advantageous if the student pre-loads his/her college GPA (for professional school application purposes) with A or A+ grades, but disadvantageous if s/he gets any grades lower than A.</p>
<p>Regarding the acceptability of transfer credit units from community colleges, many private universities give little or none, especially for college courses taken while in high school. But the student should check on policies regarding placement and subject credit at such private universities, so that s/he will not be required to wastefully repeat college courses taken while in high school (though reviewing the university’s old final exams should be done before skipping the courses that may be skipped if one will take more advanced courses).</p>
<p>For us, we are not as concerned with credit transferability as much as rigor. So a more in-depth question would be is it possible to take enough “rigorous” classes at the local community college to gain acceptance to a Rice or UChicago?</p>
<p>Talk to your GC at your high school and admissions at the schools you will be applying to to be sure. I would think if your high school can check the most rigorous box, you should be okay. We have a really good CC here, and they are a good prep for university. My kids have found the CC classes more challenging, mainly because the material moves along faster. I’m sure it varies.</p>
<p>UMTYMP student–you have to realize that your DE credits were through the U of MN, most states have DE through community colleges. Some elite schools will consider some of the U of MN DE’s, however none will take them from a community college.</p>
<p>Students in our district can take courses for FREE at the local colleges. Southern CT State University, University of New Haven, Gateway Comm College & Yale U. On their own time and NOT during the school day. We are responsible for the books. The students have to have a certain PSAT or SAT score, depending on the college. This ensures that the student can keep up with the rigor of the DE course.</p>
<p>DD14 took a class in the fall at Southern CT & did very well.</p>
<p>NewHavenCTmom–do those classes replace a required class at their high school though? DE classes (and books) are free in our state as well (at 4 year colleges) and those classes can be taken any time during the school day if you can make it work with your high school classes. The kids that take the DE classes either take them in the morning and go back to the high school in the afternoon or vice versa. It depends on how close you live to campus if it works to do this part time though.</p>
<p>If the classes they take do NOT replace a required class at your high school that can change their admission status in college–transfer vs freshman. It can cause a lot of issues and cost you some merit dollars as well.</p>
<p>S2 was not a “star” student. He was an average middle of the road guy. He took honors classes and two AP’s but did not do well enough on the AP exams to get credit.</p>
<p>Our school system offered something called The College Experience. The kids could take classes at the CC…tuition,books,parking sticker all free. The classes counted as honors classes on their h.s. transcript as well as being transferable to our state u’s.<br>
The kids either reported to h.s. later in the morning or left early in the afternoon to attend the CC classes. S2 got out of school at 12:30 every day even though his class was on Monday night from 6-9 the first semester. He loved it. </p>
<p>He did well in the two CC classes and was able to transfer the credit to his instate public university. It was nice to knock out two requirements ahead of time. And you couldn’t beat the price…free!</p>
<p>I noticed on his college transcript that he was listed as being accepted as a “dual enrollment” student rather than “freshman”. As I said he wasn’t a top student so I wondered if the dual enrollment status helped him to get admitted.</p>
<p>We went the AP route. The DE classes are expensive and not accepted for credit at most of the schools our kids showed interest in. There are enough AP credits to get some nice flexibility in the college schedule and neither has shown interest in graduating early.</p>
<p>Our experience was that of glido- DE classes at the CC were expensive and none of the schools my kids wanted to go to would accept them. AP classes gave them plenty of credits which helped in placing them into higher level classes in some cases, and another benefit was those credits counted toward the totals used in the housing lotteries.</p>
<p>D entered college one credit shy of sophomore standing thanks to DE. She got credit for all her classes, but only 9 hours (3 classes) were useful for her program. It gave her a little breathing room in a very full program so she could take for-credit voice lessons and sing in the choir. Like most high school students, she took what she could with an eye to what she thought she wanted to major in. When she changed majors, she lost a lot of the benefit as she needed different courses.</p>
<p>In my state, DE is free as long as the student earns a C or better. My city has DE offerings at both the cc and two LACs. DE and AP cannot both be offered by a high school. So there is no AP calc of phys because those courses are DE. There is no DE chemistry because it’s offered AP. DE is preferred because most students attend state schools, and articulation agreements between them and the ccs guarantee transfer.</p>
<p>I would tell any kid to take the classes he or she is interested in without an eye to what will transfer. A bunch of elective credits won’t get a student out of college faster and save money. In fact, enough credits can put students in a tricky situation with regard to SAP.</p>