We’re in Texas and my son will be a freshman next year. High schoolers here have the option for taking dual enrollment classes at local community colleges. I’m trying to figure out the best course of action. Has anyone’s kids taken a dual enrollment college class and then self reviewed to take the AP exam for that class? Seems like that'd be the "best of both worlds." Are AP classes better if applying to highly selective schools? Son will be applying for some selective out-of-state schools' programs but also many in-state. Dual enrollment seems better if you’re attending in-state since it may not transfer out of state. Any insight would be great.

Help! The following is requested from a University for Dual Enrollment: a statement from a teacher, counselor, or principal in support of the student's enrollment at University Is this a one line statement OR a 1 paragraph or more???? I have no idea what to write. Anybody with experience with dual enrollment counselor letters?

I am working on FAFSA. I think the question is #29, where it asks you to say where you will be in college. It has a first-year-never-been-to-college and a first-year-been-to-college option. How would you handle this for a student who has done a dual enrollment class? Technically she HAS been to college, but perhaps dual enrollment does not count for the purpose of this question. Any thoughts?

Based on a recent string, I picked up that typically to get advanced credit or to show advanced course work students either do AP or DE. My DD18 graduated with an AA prior to going to a selective LAC. She took no APs. I recently learned that attaining the prescribed scores on a selection of AP exams will earn a student a credit. DE classes do not allow a student to earn a credit though it is possible to test out of certain requirements though credits are not awarded. Now I am trying to decide whether for DD16 who is in the same dual enrollment program it is beneficial to take one or more APs. She would be taking APs only to open up here schedule a bit and not for additional street cred for her application. Is it possible to self-study for APs or is an approved curriculum required? I understand that we would need to find a school that would allow her to take the AP exam at but as we are in an urban area I think that this is possible. One other problem with the AP that I see at this moment is that the AP test fall during Finals/Graduation weeks and I would anticipate her taking at least one test each year if we go that route. See there anything else that I am missing? Thanks! Sarah

We're navigating the numerous options for grade 11 this fall for our oldest (uncharted territory for us). This occurred to me: 1) AP classes are a year long. 2) Colleges TYPICALLY give 3 credit hours for successful AP test scores (there are exceptions, depending on college, class and AP score). 3) Dual-enrollment college semesters in an equivalent subject (let's say US History) TYPICALLY are 3-credit hours (4 for sci/math). 4) Colleges TYPICALLY have minimum admission requirements of numbers of years in different subjects, with 4 years English/lit, 3 years social sciences inc. 1 of US history, 3 years math, 3 years science inc. 1 year biology and 1 of physical science, being a common set. So...my question. Do colleges consider a 3-credit college DE semester course equivalent to a HS "year" of that subject, regarding satisfying their ADMISSION requirements? I'm guessing "no". The reason I ask is that this would free DS to load up on more STEM electives, if we could "knock out" US history, English, etc., in a semester of DE rather than a year of AP (we know these classes are harder; not inferring it's an easy "knock out"). It's not particularly important to us how many college credits he starts with at matriculation, or what classes he places out of; our main focuses are DS' candidacy at highly competitive STEM schools and/or academic scholarships at moderately competitive ones, and continuing to foster his joy of learning. Let's not branch off into discussions comparing AP and DE, cost, rigor, competitiveness of admissions, etc.; there are other threads for those. Let's assume DS can handle any option, cost is equal, and a substantial amount of high-level coursework is important to his ambitions. I'd love to hear from any parents who have walked this path all the way to college enrollment with their kids, and learn how DE semesters were considered by colleges - again, not for credits earned or class placement, but for fulfilling the ADMISSIONS requirements of colleges for years taken in a subject. I hope that makes sense. I'm willing to email a plethora of colleges to ask if needed, but thought I'd start with my wonderful WTMF community. :-) Thank you!

Instead of watching the first NFL TV game yesterday (my team is already eliminated) I read some pertinent chapters from this study as was pointed out by Arcadia: http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/574926-fyi-insights-and-recommendations-from-the-maa-national-study-of-college-calculus-2015/ If your future STEM student is using College Dual Enrollment to fulfill high school level material such as Precalculus you should read: Chapter 5 Placement and Student Performance in Calculus I page 60 " Precalculus as currently taught in most post-secondary institutions in the United States does very little to improve student chances of success in Calculus I and can actually be detrimental." I think the takeaway is make sure your student fully understands the Precalculus material covered by giving them a Calculus placement test or ALEKS and fill in any gaps before moving on to Calculus I. --------------------------------------------- on page 65 It also has a nice discussion of the ACT Compass and College Board Accuplacer tests along with ALEKS. I also learned about the topics that should be covered in a College Calculus I course.

Looking for classes that are offered as dual enrollment courses for highschoolers that are actually classically based. Looking particularly at the History, Lit., Bible and Rhetoric combo would be awesome! The only one I am aware of is Potters with Belhaven U. Anyone know of any others? Thanks for your help!

My dd just completed an online course from Coursera: Data Analysis and Statistical Inference taught by a professor at Duke. Would you call this dual enrollment on your homemade transcript?

Can we talk about dual enrollment? We have an excellent JC nearby, and dd can start taking classes there at 14. It has been my intention to use the JC heavily during high school for outsourcing, verification of achievement level, and potentially even to collect transfer credits to the UC system, if dd decides to go that route. It is a more appealing option to me for a variety of reasons than the heavy AP/SAT2 testing route, and it's less expensive than many online options. I had assumed that we would use this for core subjects I didn't feel like I could do justice to at home. However, it seems in thinking about it more, and talking to dd, that it might be better to use the JC for electives, passions, things we really *can't* do at home, like Theater Arts and Equine Science. Dd could easily fill up her time/quota of JC classes taking interesting electives in her areas of passion. I guess my question is this - if she takes classes mostly in her interest areas, and does well, will this provide the kind of mommy-grade verification that I'm looking for? Or do I still need to be looking for some form of outside verification in each subject area? I'm interested in hearing how people who have done DE have used JC/CCs, and what role it has played in your student's high school experience.

My kids are now dual enrolled in some classes at university and the 990 hours for secondary are not going to add up with these classes since they are only meeting 3-4 hours a week for 14 weeks. Is there a solution that doesn't mean piling on more work in their non-dual enrollment classes? Should I just count hours?