<p>My DS is going to be taking two college classes in June at the University of Alabama as part of the High School Honors College. </p>
<p>If he passes both courses with a decent grade will this help improve his chances at some of the more selective schools such as Vanderbilt or Rice? Will it really matter or will they still look mostly at SAT/ACT scores, GPA etc. He did great on the ACT with a 32 but did not do as well on the SAT I think he got around a 1870. His gpa is around 3.6 and he is ranked 20th in a class of 367. This may have improved slightly since he just finished his last semester with all A's. He is planning on getting a job when he returns in July so he will have that to list as well on his applications.</p>
<p>Just for clarification, the University has told all students enrolled in this summer program that they will receive college credits for these classes and that their grades will follow them to whatever college they apply to in the fall. They stressed choosing classes carefully for this reason. I forgot to mention that he had to pay to take these courses and for the room and board. It was a reasonable cost and he was willing to work to pay for it.</p>
<p>Have others been to similar programs and given the impression that they would get college credit and then not receive it?</p>
<p>That does not guarantee that the credits will transfer to every institution. Some colleges, especially highly selective private universities, disallow the issuance of institutional transfer credit for college credits earned while still in HS or the summer immediately following the completion thereof. This is something into which you may wish to look.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, I do believe this is quite impressive and will look good for your child. Congratulations!</p>
<p>There are two different issues: whether taking college courses will improve his chances of getting into more selective colleges and whether he will receive credit for them.</p>
<p>On the first, the jury is out, although on the whole, I think it will improve his chances.
On the second, it depends on the college. Some will give credit for courses taken at some colleges but not others; some colleges will not give credit, even for their own courses (Harvard does not, for example; but I believe Stanford does)</p>
Awarding credit is entirely up to the college where the student ends up matriculating. Private colleges can award or refuse to award credit as they please. My daughter took 2 classes at top 10 university during high school, did not get HS credit for them (did not need it), but still could not get any credit at the LAC she chose to attend. </p>
<p>Some schools will grant credit for classes taken elsewhere, others will not. Some will give placement, but not credit. Most schools will not calculate “foreign” grades into their GPA.</p>
<p>My D took three college courses during summers in high school. A conversational language course at the local community college. A studio art course at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts school. And, a fun course on media and imagery from a well-known Harvard professor at the Harvard summer school. These were all non-credit courses for high-school and I can’t imagine she could have gotten credit at her college, which is so tight on this that they barely give credit for their own courses!</p>
<p>I doubt these were make or break on her application. She didn’t emphasize them at all in her essays (which is what you really should do to highlight something). But, they did show an interest in learning for learning’s sake, which probably didn’t hurt at her school.</p>
<p>I think that where something like this really could help would be if you were building the application around a particular academic interest (like say, astronomy) and took some interesting college courses to reinforce that interest. Then, you might use a story about the summer school professor (just to pick a random example) as the “show me” foundation for an essay on that topic.</p>
<p>What everyone else said. Showing willingness to learn something that is arguably “college level” (really, colleges aren’t all at the same level) is a good thing. Transferability of credit is decided by the RECEIVING institution, and it’s actually quite rare to receive credit at a highly selective college for something you studied while still enrolled in high school.</p>
<p>Vandy had an extremely selective admissions season for incoming freshman. I believe the low end of the middle 50% for Regular Decision rounds on the SAT was 1380-. Check out the Vandy admissions blog posts around the end of March for RD Stats and Feb. 1 for ED stats. </p>
<p>I think college courses are definitely a plus, but after this year’s tough admission profile at many colleges, I see the SAT/ACT scores as a gateway from which everything else flows.</p>
<p>Of course it will be a help to get into some colleges. Those who look at everything carefully will regard this summer well spent. If your student goes to a school that is not well known among colleges, it will give them a new viewpoint of his grades and intellectual curiousity. However, it is not a free pass into the elites. Schools like Vanderbilt, Duke, Harvard have these programs too, and I have seen kids who have excelled in those summer programs even getting professors at those institutions writing a rec for them still not get into the very schools!</p>
<p>As for credit, it depends on the school, as others have said. I have found my S’s college have been very generous about other college credit for general courses, but that is not always the case.</p>