Hello everyone, I’ve heard a lot of people say that AP is much more difficult than Dual Enrolment, and that colleges prefer it. I’ve also heard however that colleges will not hold it against you if your school doesn’t offer these super advanced classes, their more interested that you took the most rigorous available to you. I’m wondering if that would be considered the case for me. I’m homeschooled, and I take as many dual enrollment classes as my local community college allows, and I supplement the rest with regular homeschool classes. While it would be “possible” for me to took AP classes it would be significantly more difficult for me to take. Just the cost alone of registering for the exams would be very difficult for my family, and that’s without even considering the cost of a study guide or an online course. I get really good grades at the community college and good scores on both the SAT and ACT, so I’m not worried about that. But what I’m wondering is will I be at a disadvantage because I’m taking these dual enrolment instead of AP? From my research it seems pretty unanimous that AP is really good. Everyone thinks it’s better than regular or honors classes. Some people say that it is quite as good as AICE or IB, and I know some schools have post-AP classes, but those are fairly unusual. For dual enrolment on the other it’s all over the place. Some people say it’s on the same level as AP or Aice or whatever. Others say it’s not quite as good as them but still better than honors or regular. I’ve even seen some people who say it’s better to take a regular high school honours class then a dual enrolment unless it’s at a major university, (of which the closest to me is about 4 hours away.) So I’m very confused, do you think it will be held against me that I didn’t take any AP?
No. You can’t take what is not offered. And no college will hold that against you.
It’s all over the place because it’s dependent upon the quality of instruction at the college, and the tier of the college overall. Some community colleges are better regarded than others. Why people say that AP or IB is “better” is because the syllabus is standardized to the college knows what should be taught in the course.
Now aside from the admissions perspective, the value of DE courses for college credit will depend upon the college you attend. Elite privates and OOS publics will probably not give any credit for DE courses.
Also I’ve seen in some other threads that self-studying for APs doesn’t really help you get into college, they want you to take the full class, is that true?
^^ yes
That is a question for your GC in the context of your school.
Correct.