[Pros and cons of future science major doing lower-level science and core classes as dual enrollment?]

This is a great idea.  Take DE courses as a high schooler that will not have a follow-on course at A&M.  Maybe she could get languages out of the way.  Or a social studies requirement.  Or English.

 

There have been many threads that referred to med schools NOT accepting students who had taken the prerequisite science courses as AP or DE, even if their undergraduate institution accepted those courses.

 

Yes, we are definitely planning to do the gen eds by dual enrollment and credit-by-exam. It was the science courses that I was questioning doing that way. At this point she is not planning to go to medical school, but I suppose we would probably want to do what we can to leave that option available if she should decide to go that route. At one point she was considering vet school (which is what led us to A&M to begin with), but now doesn't think she wants to do that. You never know, though.

[Pros and cons of future science major doing lower-level science and core classes as dual enrollment?]

What does she want to do afterwards? That will matter hugely. It will probably be better for her to enter with advanced standing and use the entire four years to take more advanced classes and take advantage of research opportunities than to hurry through in an attempt to save money.

 

I have wondered about this. I was hoping she could still advantage of research opportunities even if only doing two years. But we probably need to talk to the university department to see if that is even possible. 

 

As for what she wants to do afterwards, currently she is thinking of biomedical research, probably more focused on animal medicine than human. So it would be important for her to be able to do research as an undergrad.

 

I would only start as a sophomore if her standardized test scores put her in at least the 75th percentile for college-bound seniors. Basically, you don't want her to hurry up and then end up with a mediocre grade/knowledge, when she would have aced it if she'd waited a few years. 

 

I would try very hard to keep your options open as much as possible over the next couple of years. You don't need to pick a plan and commit to it for anything but 8th grade. 

 

This year she took the ACT through Duke TIP and was in the 90th percentile for college-bound seniors. Her math score lowered her composite considerably because she has not had Algebra II nor has she completed Geometry.

 

Yes, I certainly want to keep our options open. As you said, I don't want to shortchange her in the future just because she is advanced now. I appreciate the "reality check" that you and Regentrude have provided. I am not one to set a plan in stone because I actually enjoy revising plans, so will definitely see how she does and adjust as we go.

[Pros and cons of future science major doing lower-level science and core classes as dual enrollment?]

Is your college for DE considered equivalent to A&M? All four year schools aren't considered equal, and A&M is a strong STEM school. I would be nervous about planning to do DE for prerequisite courses in a major and transferring them unless I was sure they truly were equivalent.

 

No, quite frankly, it is not, and that is definitely a consideration. I just really want to avoid the repetition of doing the same courses in the first two years of college that she will have done in high school, and also want to save some money by not having to do all four years. If we saved all of the science prerequisites to do at A&M, there would be no way to avoid having to do a full four years, even if we did all the core curriculum as DE. I know some would say it would be worth it to do all four years there; I am not yet convinced of that, but am open to input.

[Pros and cons of future science major doing lower-level science and core classes as dual enrollment?]

correct me if I'm wrong, but you're intending to do chemistry/physics/organic chemistry? 

 

Organic is a killer course for many students and I think prior exposure would be great, but I'm not sure that trying to do it in 10th grade at home would be a great idea.

 

As far as an informal exposure to orgo, I really liked this book: http://www.amazon.com/Atkins-Molecules-Peter/dp/0521535360 (it's NOT a textbook, but it's a great book). 

 

Yes, that is the sequence I was thinking. I have heard about how hard organic is and have had serious doubts as to whether doing it as a high schooler would be feasible. Thanks for the book recommendation!

 

 

I think conceptual physics would be a great next course for her, and Hewitt's has good reviews. 

 

 

So you think it would be better to do conceptual physics next, and then do chemistry, and then the ochem book you recommend?

 

 

 

As far as the enrollment, I would recommend a maximum of one science course per semester as a junior. If that goes brilliantly, she could consider taking two as a senior and she could also consider enrolling in a sequence in summer school if they are offered. Many schools offer chem I + II in summer school. But I wouldn't do it unless it goes brilliantly. 

 

 

 I appreciate your suggesting this modification of my plan. I had thought about that but was concerned that it would actually be more difficult to do a two-course science sequence as condensed summer courses than to do over a whole school year, even if it were simultaneous with another science course. But if you think that would be a better way to go, I may do that. Or I may take in her standardized test scores and see if the university would give permission for her to start as a sophomore with one science sequence only. 

[Pros and cons of future science major doing lower-level science and core classes as dual enrollment?]

I would understand an "informal" study to be one without textbooks, relying on non-fiction books and documentaries. You may mean something different - like covering the subjects on a conceptual level. 

 

I guess I do mean "conceptual" rather than "informal", by that definition. Thank you for the textbook recommendations--I will check into those.

 

I am not sure I would advise a high school student to take on two simultaneous university science courses as their first experience with dual enrollment. 

 

 

I do realize the science courses will be two semesters each, so we were planning on bio/chem junior year and phys/ochem senior year. We are "frontloading" the other subjects so as to have less to do at home by that point. She does not like to take a long summer break so she always starts the next level of classes early (although for her official grade level we keep her according to her age), so that also should reduce the amount of other subjects she has to complete at that point. The science classes would not be the first dual enrollment she would do, since she will have done some core courses (composition, state govt, etc.) either the summer before or during her sophomore year at a college that allows students to start earlier.

 

I really appreciate your input, though, because I too have been wondering if this is too ambitious. I appreciate your specifics on how much time the science courses may take up. I have corresponded with the university by email, but we also plan to visit and talk to them about our plan. I figured we should wait until she was in 9th grade to do that, though, since I'm not sure they would take a middle-schooler seriously.

[Using same textbook that will be used in dual enrollment science]

Thank you so much--I will check out those textbooks.

[Pros and cons of future science major doing lower-level science and core classes as dual enrollment?]

My dd just finished 7th grade. She is, at present, thinking of majoring in Biomedical Science at Texas A&M. (I know she is only 13 and could change her mind, but this is what we have to go on so far.) I am planning for her to cover the credits for the university core curriculum and the lower-level sciences while she is still in high school--some of the core courses using CLEP, and the sciences and other core classes through dual enrollment. The sciences would be done at a local four-year university, not a community college. The science courses she would take would be Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Organic Chemistry. Unless we were able to get special permission, this university wouldn't allow her to start until she was a junior.

 

I am planning to cover the same science subjects informally before she reaches her junior year, so that she will be familiar with the concepts. We did biology this year in grade 7, so that would leave me grades 8, 9, and 10 to cover the other three, one year for each. She is currently doing Algebra I and Geometry, and will continue with the math sequence through calculus and probably throw in some statistics. 

 

Regentrude and anyone else--do you have any specific textbook recommendations for giving her a good foundation in these science subjects before she takes the dual enrollment courses?

 

Regentrude, you said that math matters more, so I will take that seriously. She has a good intuition for math, though if you asked her, she would say it was not her favorite subject.

 

I have corresponded with the A&M Biomedical Science department about doing the lower-level sciences ahead of time. I know that some people would recommend doing them at the end-point college so that she would have that particular college's lower-level science courses. At this point, I am still planning to do them as dual enrollment, along with the university core. Having the core completed would leave her room to pursue honors courses of interest to her, rather than having to do required courses that would be a repetition of what she did in high school.  This plan would have her going straight into upper-level science her first year in college, which I realize could be a challenge. 

 

If any of you have input on this plan, and reasons why you think this would or would not be a good idea, I would welcome that.

 

 

[Using same textbook that will be used in dual enrollment science]

Thank you, Regentrude, for that input. I don't know enough about high school and college science textbooks to have realized that, so I appreciate your clueing me in. 

 

I think I am going to start a new thread with more detail about what I am thinking of doing, since I have a larger question about that than just the textbooks. 

[Using same textbook that will be used in dual enrollment science]

I am planning for my dd to do all of her high school science through dual enrollment at a local four-year university. However, I am also wanting to do the same subjects informally ahead of time so that she will be familiar with the concepts. I have heard that some people use for high school science the textbooks that their student will be using when he/she is in college. I could easily use the same textbooks that this university uses for our informal study. However, my dh is concerned that dd will then be bored in the dual enrollment classes if she has already gone through those exact textbooks. Does anyone have experience/recommendations to share with me?

 

Also, if I do this, how big an issue would it be if I were to purchase used textbooks that were one edition older than the current ones (for the sake of cost)? Do you think they would be sufficientpreparation?

[Homeschool High School Biology]

Can this be pinned like the Chemistry one is?