Dual Enrollment High School with College

[trippypea]

My kids' high school offers dual enrollment with a local community college for some classes. Has anyone done this? I wasn't planning on signing her up for it because she isn't going to be attending that particular school, she'll go straight to a 4-year college, and I thought it meant you had to go to that particular school. I mean, how could you know so far in advance whether you'd be going to that school or not?

However, the teacher explained that the credits transfer to any college. So I am now assuming you are earning community college credits now, and as long as the college you are 'transferring' to normally accepts credits for that class, you are good? It's like you attended the community college without having to attend the community college?

[lynnerself]

My children took some high school classes that counted as CC credits. I don't remember "enrolling". I don't remember how it worked.
When they went to the 4 year schools, they may not have got transfer credits, but they did get to start farther along in the course sequences.
Example, start out in BIO 2 instead of taking BIO 1.

[Deleted]

Both the high schools here offer dual enrollment and yes, the credits are just straight up college credits that can transfer anywhere that will take them.  You aren't expected to attend that school.  If she can get in, it's a great deal.  Here there is a lot of competition for the spots and only the students with a real high GPA and teacher recommendations get in, but some kids graduate high school with enough credits for an AA degree which is awesome, especially since the State pays all the tuition. 

[Deleted]

Sept 20, 2015 11:07:45 GMT -5 @southernsusana said:

I am currently teaching a dual enrollment course. There are some pros and cons as always.

You are right that you earn community college credits that transfer. If your student is ready for college, that can be a plus. But remember that the student is starting a college transcript that will have to be sent as part of the application process to the four-year institution. Would that affect merit-based aid? There are very few A's in my dual enrollment English class at present.  Most high school juniors could use the extra year or two to develop their writing skills.  I will say, though, that there weren't a lot of A's when I taught English 101 at a four-year institution. 

There is also tuition plus books. Is your district paying for it? Ours doesn't.  I think the tuition is about $400 for a single 3-hour course and then $150 for the textbook (which will cover the second semester 102 course, too).  So the parents are paying about $1000 for six hours of credit.

I imagine each state and even each district runs their dual enrollment program differently, but this should give you a start at understanding it a little more.

I wonder if what the kids do here is different?  They don't take the classes at the high school, they actually go to the college and sit in the classes with the other college students. 

[chiver78]

what state are you in? IIRC, some if the rules were different from state to state. I am in MA, and went to a state college rather than a community college for the classes when I was a HS senior. the only headache I ran into when trying to use my transferred credits with the school where I ultimately matriculated was that Northeastern's academic schedule was on a 4h credit plan, instead of a 3 that State U followed. had any of the classes I was trying to transfer in been part of my major, they wouldn't have been accepted as sufficient.

sent from my electronic distraction

[Deleted]

Or take them online. Most full enroll I know of also offer greatly reduced tuition for dual enrollment credits.

[Deleted]

Yes, we don't have cc around here except limited satalite. The dual enroll most people to are at 4 year...

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Between AP and another program, my niece started college with 30 credits under her belt.  This has been a great advantage to her, as her scholarship to the private college she is at was for $84k.  It can be divided between 3 years or 4, so it is now covering 100% of her tuition.

She wants to get a dual major in marketing and Spanish, and I think she will need to take a few summer courses for the second major.

[wvugurl26]

At my high school it was taught at the high school and only made up of kids from the high school. The only classes offered were psychology and sociology 101 and history 152 and 153. There was only one class. I guess considering I graduated with 400+ there could have been enrollment issues if more kids took advantage of it. My counselor forgot to tell me at end of junior year when I signed up that you had to pay $300 per course. When fall senior year rolled around and money was due, I didn't have $600 and of course my parents didn't have it so I had to drop them.

[chiver78]

I'm a little surprised to be hearing comments about tuition. is MA the only one where the tuition is covered by your HS (town/city?) ? I think I had to buy my own books, but the tuition was free for me.

[Lizard Queen]

I'm not sure, since I'm old and that option wasn't around in my day (there was only one AP class even offered at the time), but I think my school district covers tuition for their students.

[NastyWoman]

Sept 20, 2015 11:35:14 GMT -5 chiver78 said:

I'm a little surprised to be hearing comments about tuition. is MA the only one where the tuition is covered by your HS (town/city?) ? I think I had to buy my own books, but the tuition was free for me.

I don't know how it works now, but for DS2 tuition was paid by the HS he attended. It was open to the students who wanted to take AP classes the school didn't offer and he took a number of science classes. They would most certainly have transferred if he had gone to an in-state school (CA) but I can' remember whether they transferred to the school he ultimately went to. 

[WholeLottaNothin]

I did this while in high school and ended up with a semester worth of credits. Tuition was paid for by the school and they provided books.

[NastyWoman]

Forgot about the books. HS paid for those as well. Our (my) contribution consisted of being home on time so DS could use my car to go to his classes (I had gone back to college for a different degree after being out of the workforce forever)

[Deleted]

I just looked up the info from the high school's website.  In MN there is concurrent (dual) enrollment and PSEO.  With dual enrollment the classes are taught at the high school, with PSEO they go to the college.  Both are paid for by the state.  The limitation for PSEO is on the college side, not the high school.  They only accept so many PSEO students at a time, so you have to apply with them and get accepted.  Nearly everyone here that is getting college credit is doing AP or PSEO.  I had never heard of them teaching the college classes in the high school, but we're a small town with three colleges within a couple miles of the high schools, so it's probably just easier for the kids to go to campus. 

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

When I graduated from high school, I had seven college credits through the local high school. I believe my parents were responsible for the tuition. 

DD#1 has just started her senior year. She currently has 10 credits through the local CC, all paid for by the school district. We have paid for some of the books. We hope she completes another 10 this year. 


Whether or not the classes is held at the high school with the high school teacher or DD attends the actual college is based on whether or not the high school teacher has the credentials for teaching CC. 

Those credits will transfer to all of the state colleges. Private colleges will be accepted on a per college basis. 

[Artemis Windsong]

My GrD3 did dual enrollment.  It helped reduce her class load in college the first year or two.

I'd say - go for it!

[wvugurl26]

Sept 20, 2015 11:35:14 GMT -5 chiver78 said:

I'm a little surprised to be hearing comments about tuition. is MA the only one where the tuition is covered by your HS (town/city?) ? I think I had to buy my own books, but the tuition was free for me.

I guess it depends on state and district. We had to pay our tuition and books. If I had known I would have scrimped and saved over the summer. Since I didn't my money went to other stuff and I missed out on 12 credits.

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Sept 20, 2015 15:01:49 GMT -5 @southernsusana said:

Sept 20, 2015 14:21:06 GMT -5 Knee Deep in Water Chloe said:

Whether or not the classes is held at the high school with the high school teacher or DD attends the actual college is based on whether or not the high school teacher has the credentials for teaching CC.

  This is the first time we have offered DE although the other high school in our district has offered it for a few  years now.  Two of the English teachers are high school teachers.  We had to have 18 hours beyond the master in English, which meant a lot of people in our department aren't eligible to teach the course because they have masters in Education Administration, Curriculum Design, Technology, etc.  It is popular in Alabama these days to get a subject degree (say, English major) and do the teaching certificate through the fifth year program.  These people cannot teach DE.

The third teacher is an adjunct for the community college itself.  He or she still comes here to teach, I believe, or else it is online. 

I'm curious as to whether other states' DE programs operate like ours does.  The students take English 101 and get the semester's college credit and a full-year of English 11 or English 12 for that single semester.  If they take English 102, they then get the semester's college credit and a full-year of English 12 credit if they still need it.

I think that's awfully generous!  Since we have a "Senior Release" program and a zero period, some of these kids will be home by 10 a.m. next year if they choose. 

For our state, the public school teacher who wants to teach a dual enrollment class must have a Master's in the subject area he/she wants to teach. If a teacher wants to teach what we call Writing 121, 122, and 123, the teacher must have a Master's of Arts/Science in Writing. If the teacher doesn't have that type of Master's, then for the teacher to be eligible, the teacher must pass 27 graduate credits in that subject. The graduate credits are very content specific. For writing, writing specific practices, writing study, and rhetoric study will generally be approved. However graduate credits in math pedagogy do not count towards a teacher teaching Math 111, 112, 113, for example.
Another example would be that I personally have a Master's of Arts in Teaching. I have a Bachelor's of Science in English and Writing. I also have 24 post-graduate credits (500 or 600 level) in Reading  because I almost have a reading endorsement. So, I could teach classes dual enrollment classes that gave students Reading credits, but no one needs those. 

[Deleted]

Around here the colleges allow students to come in to regular classes taught by regular professors under dual enrollment.

[tcu2003]

I would do it if you can afford it and your child plans to go to college. My high school offered several dual credit courses (English, history, calculus, and maybe a couple of others) taught at the high school where you got concurrent credit for high school and college, and we had the option to go out to the CC and take classes there. I took advantage of both options and entered my freshman year with 32 hours. I also ended up going to a private school, and everything transferred as I took basics - English, history, math, science, Econ, and a music theory class.

In my school district/state, we had to pay the tuition for each credit hour, and buy books for the classes taken at the CC. For classes at the high school that were dual credit, the school provided the books as you could take the class without taking the dual credit option (basically, we usually ended up with the previous version of the book the CC was currently using).

Going in freshman year as a sophomore by credit hours basically meant I had first choice of class times/teachers for classes in my major and some extracurriculars as most freshmen go in with no or only a few hours, which was an awesome perk I didn't realize until later.

[Bonny]

Sept 20, 2015 11:17:03 GMT -5 The Walk of the Penguin Mich said:

Between AP and another program, my niece started college with 30 credits under her belt.  This has been a great advantage to her, as her scholarship to the private college she is at was for $84k.  It can be divided between 3 years or 4, so it is now covering 100% of her tuition.

She wants to get a dual major in marketing and Spanish, and I think she will need to take a few summer courses for the second major.

Something similar for me ummm 35 years ago

Had a year of Political Science which was taught by a professor from the local community college who came to our HS. Got a full year's credit through the University of California system + got the credit for the Honors English/AP test. Think I started with 15 units (about a full quarter). Of my friends I was the only one who graduated in less than 4 years partly due to a good start. It's especially note worthy in that I was working full time while going to school full-time (oh and partially supporting a boyfriend but we don't need to go into THAT! ).

I don't think it cost me anything or was really cheap (since I paid for all my college costs I would remember if it was expensive).

Wonderful opportunity. Glad I did it.

Good luck OP!

[TheOtherMe]

No opportunity for me 45 years ago.

All 3 nephews started college with college credits to their name.  Middle one took the most advantage and had a full year of credits.  He was able to finish in 3 years and then drove back and forth for one semester to take 6 hours so he had enough credits to sit for the CPA exam.  Turns out he didn't need to do that as he ended up getting his MBA. 

He has the business mind anyway.  The PhD has no life skills, but is ridiculously intelligent.  The youngest nephew should have taken a gap year or two as he partied away his first two years of college.  So he is 6 years in to college.  He will graduate in December as he is doing his student teaching now.

[flamingo]

I did this when I was in high school. Earned enough credits to start at state U as a sophomore. If I had known what I know now, I would have taken even more classes. I think my state actually called it PSEO when I was there; I had to drive to the local college for classes, and sat in class with college kids. I loved it. By junior year of high school, I was ready for college, so this was perfect for me.

I paid for nothing. Tuition, books, everything was taken care of by....someone other than my family. I assume it was the school district. Could have been the state. I just know that I got 30 credits absolutely free. I had no trouble transferring my credits-they didn't all count as a required credit, but I didn't lose the credits and it meant all I had to do once I got to college was take classes for my major. It was so worth it!

[zibazinski]

DD did this. All her English was done by college and a Psychology class. Everything was paid for. Some sciences were done as well.

[skubikky]

Sept 20, 2015 11:17:03 GMT -5 The Walk of the Penguin Mich said:

Between AP and another program, my niece started college with 30 credits under her belt.  This has been a great advantage to her, as her scholarship to the private college she is at was for $84k.  It can be divided between 3 years or 4, so it is now covering 100% of her tuition.

She wants to get a dual major in marketing and Spanish, and I think she will need to take a few summer courses for the second major.

My DD took college classes in high school through a 3-1-3 program.
She was able to get 27 credits between her junior and senior years of high school.
All  of the credits transferred to the college she attended and she managed to finish in 3 years.

It was very cost and time effective.
This was a kid who was an average student but really leveraged the opportunity.
She knew what she wanted to do in college and managed to get into the school that had the Hospitality program that she
was most interested in.

I don't know that for AP courses and math and science courses that I would recommend skipping Calc I, Physics I,  Chem I in college.
It is a big leap from an AP course to a 2nd semester science/math course.
For my DD it was all humanities, nothing in her major.

[Shooby]

We pondered the pros and cons of that. But, for us, I would rather my son just focus on his senior year and do well with the classes he has and also want him to have some time to have some fun. College is just right around the corner.

[busymom]

Our high school offers both the AP courses (taught at the high school) and PSEO courses (which can be taken either at the local community college, or a 4-year private college that is a 1/2 hour drive from the high school). When DD was still in high school, she chose to take AP classes so she could still see her friends. We only paid for the AP tests & the textbooks. DD earned about a year's worth of college credits, but the college she chose to attend only accepted 1/2 of her AP classes. Still, we'll be saving 1/2 year of college tuition, which is better than nothing.

[teen persuasion]

DS4 just gave me the college credit forms for two of his classes.  They are taught by the HS teachers, but for at least one of them the CC instructor is giving all the coursework to the HS teacher directly.  DS4 will receive HS credit, and if we want the college credit we must pay the tuition ($66/ credit hr).  I'm not sure we will bother for the science one - DS4 doesn't have the best track record with his HS science Regents to date.


DD3 did this to get credit for Spanish 4 and 5, and Calc I.  She also took a course at a different CC (the district bused her) in public speaking.  She had to quickly pick up a mid year course when she dropped Calc II, and her course load dropped below 5.5 courses, despite the fact that she had more than enough credits to graduate.  I know some students get early dismissal Senior year, but not sure how they manage with that minimum course rule.  A CC course was her only option mid year - the HS had no .5 courses that began mid year!

That same CC sends out mailings to all HS seniors that they are eligible to take a free course over the summer, but the eligible courses are all remedial type courses, no use at all for advanced students.

[sarcasticgirl]

I did this in HS. I was already taking the classes for HS credit- might as well save $$ and get the college credit too. The tuition was a lot less than if I had paid for the class at my university.