If you outsource why do you choose

[BlsdMama]

to go with an online "academy" for high school courses rather than college courses?

 

I'm curious.

 

I assumed it was the cost. However, as I began to look around, DD can enroll at a semi-local private Christian college as a high school student for $50 per credit. That would make each online course $150-$200 per class. Most of the courses I've seen so far at $400-$600 apiece designed for online learning for high schoolers.

 

It leaves me confused. I should think college courses would look more rigorous on a transcript as well as saving an awful lot of tuition on the first year of college.

 

Inform me! I think I might be overlooking something.

[regentrude]

Some students simply are not ready for college level courses in high school.

 

As to whether college courses taken during high school actually save any tuition depends on the college they want to attend, whether this school accepts any of the dual enrollment credits, and whether they fit the student's major.

[Jane in NC]

Some students simply are not ready for college level courses in high school.

 

As to whether college courses taken during high school actually save any tuition depends on the college they want to attend, whether this school accepts any of the dual enrollment credits, and whether they fit the student's major.

 

Agreeing with Regentrude. Let me give you some concrete examples.

 

My son's college does not accept dual enrollment credits but they do give credit for certain scores on AP exams. (AP alone does not equate college credit. Most colleges want to see 4s or 5s in order to give credit--some give credit for 3s).

 

$50 per credit hour is dirt cheap. Many homeschooling parents pay much more than this for dual enrollment although some have access to free community college classes or virtual high school classes. State policies vary.

 

I also think you need to look at the needs of your student. Does this college offer courses that fit his plan? Offerings at our local CC are limited. I was glad that my son was able to take Chem I & II there but foreign language classes are limited to Spanish.

 

Sometimes an SAT subject score or AP test score is more meaningful to colleges admissions staff than grades from a college they don't know. If the purpose is justification of mommy grades then grades from an unknown college might work. But you can't expect those credits to transfer to other institutions. You might want to investigate this if you hope this is the case.

[Miss Marple]

As my younger boys are moving into the arena of dual enrollment, one of the things I'm seeing is that the quality of the teacher/class is important as well as the cost. Not all classes are equal. My older boys had good CC/university teachers for most of their dual enrolled courses and they earned college credit. However, with the economy in the tank and the record increases in enrollment, our schools appear to have hired just about anyone who will teach as well as heavily packing the current instructors' courses with too many students. My sons have had some classes that have made me re-think the dual enrollment option. It's nice to have options :)

 

A quality education is more important to me than college credit gained in high school. It is nice when I can get both :).

[Teachin'Mine]

Kelly would you mind sharing the name of this college? That's a great price for online courses! Would the cost be the same if a dual-enrolled student took the course on site?

[Nscribe]

A few other considerations that come into the mix:

 

1. A particular teen may be entirely academically ready for college content, but not ready for the college environment in terms of social/emotional issues. Thus, online or intensive self study may be a great compromise to continue to challenge appropriately.

 

2. Scheduling can play a huge part in many ways. A class may be cheaper and more rigorous, but not fit the overall schedule comfortably, and decisions have to be made.

 

3. The world is increasingly digitally interactive and the experience of taking an online class may have value in the doing and process sense.

[rieshy]

Here's another reason to not seek cc or dual credit- my 17 yo plans to double major with one of the majors being German. She hopes to test out of several years of German and get college credit for what she tests out of. In the fine print at the Uni. which she plans to attend we found out that if she takes any college level German classes while still in h.s. they will allow her to skip the lower level courses but she won't get college credit for what she tests out of.

[Sunshine State Sue]

I prefer our CC, partially because it's free, partially because ds enjoys the interaction of a live class to an online class (teachers being comparable), and partially because of the potential college credit.

 

That said, he is not at college level in all of his skills (writing, foreign language), so high school level classes (in our case at PS and online) has been a better route.

 

HTH!

[AK_Mom4]

Schedule is also something to consider. When DD18 was looking at taking a calculus course at the local college, the classes that were left open were late in the evening because regular students get first choice. With her sports and part-time job schedule, we just couldn't figure out how to fit in a night class.

[BlsdMama]

Kelly would you mind sharing the name of this college? That's a great price for online courses! Would the cost be the same if a dual-enrolled student took the course on site?

 

 

http://www.georgefox.edu/catalog/undergrad/admission/early.html

 

Caveats:

 

One course per semester

12 credits max

 

Aaaaaaaaaah. I see the catch 22.

 

"Credit earned during early admission may be transferred to other colleges or universities upon payment of regular tuition and fees in effect at the time the course was taken." Still, this might work for us.

[Teachin'Mine]

http://www.georgefox.edu/catalog/undergrad/admission/early.html

 

Caveats:

 

One course per semester

12 credits max

 

Aaaaaaaaaah. I see the catch 22.

 

"Credit earned during early admission may be transferred to other colleges or universities upon payment of regular tuition and fees in effect at the time the course was taken." Still, this might work for us.

 

Thank you. That's some caveat - $855 per credit hour additional in cost to have it transferred. :tongue_smilie: Could work well if someone was planning on attending that university though.

[BlsdMama]

Thank you. That's some caveat - $855 per credit hour additional in cost to have it transferred. :tongue_smilie: Could work well if someone was planning on attending that university though.

 

Where did you look? I saw credit hour costs at $390something. That was a little prohibitive enough, lol.

 

So now my question becomes:

 

If the grades don't transfer to another college, can I still use their grades and class information for high school credit in place of mommy grades? Hmmm. I'm thinking I need to talk to an admissions officer.

 

*I* am not ready for DD to go into a college environment yet... Possibly not ever. :glare: :D I'm thinking of purely online work. She's extremely self driven so I have no worries about deadlines or accountability.;)

[mooooom]

our state has online high school courses that are free, we've definitely made use of some of those (for ECs that I had no knowledge of, like programming, and also for some classes that had to be taken (Bio) but that nobody had any interest in taking - these classes aren't the most challenging).

 

Each of my kids has also taken 2 online dual credit college classes (state subsidized, so not really expensive), they probably would have taken more, but their are only about 10 courses offered and there was no interest in many of them).

 

I have also paid for several online high school courses ($450-500) for special interest subjects that were not available elsewhere (Animal Behavior, Comparative Govt)

 

I really tried to go with the individual kid's interest when selecting - as well as outsourcing what I knew I wouldn't be able to do. Also, because we live in an area w/o public transportation, I work part time, and we have no extra cars, cc courses at the college were not really a do able option.

 

As far as using cc classes for high school transcripts - definitely. I put them on our transcripts as 1 credit (for a semester course) and also gave them 5pts (on a 4pt GPA scale) I think two of my kids, who will end up in state schools, will get credit transferred, the other will not.

Edited March 25, 2012 by mooooom

[Laura in CA]

I don't want to hijack the thread, but I had been looking for a Christian college in Oregon or Washington that has a good engineering department. And feeling a bit overwhelmed ... A lot of the LACs in Oregon and Washington seem to only have 3-2 programs in engineering. George Fox seems to fit the bill. I'm off to investigate more. Thanks to the OP for posting the info!!!

[Teachin'Mine]

Where did you look? I saw credit hour costs at $390something. That was a little prohibitive enough, lol.

 

So now my question becomes:

 

If the grades don't transfer to another college, can I still use their grades and class information for high school credit in place of mommy grades? Hmmm. I'm thinking I need to talk to an admissions officer.

 

*I* am not ready for DD to go into a college environment yet... Possibly not ever. :glare: :D I'm thinking of purely online work. She's extremely self driven so I have no worries about deadlines or accountability.;)

 

Here's the link: http://www.georgefox.edu/offices/sfs/current-undergrad/tuition/index.html

 

Scroll down to Details of Undergraduate Tuition and Fees

and it list for 1.5 to18 credits the cost is $905 per credit. For May and Summer Term the cost is $453 per credit hour.

Either way, that's a lot compared to cc courses. :tongue_smilie:

[Elinor Everywhere]

We are choosing online right now due to a couple of things. We travel a lot, and will usually be in Europe for a month in the fall or spring. This past September we were in France, but dd was able to attend almost all of her online latin & literature classes (I think she missed one of each) by bringing her laptop and logging on over there.

 

Also, she wants to major in Classics, so she wants to take the AP test in Latin. She is taking Latin through Lukeion, and will do so up to (and including) the test. For literature, I wanted her to have group socratic discussion experience (other than just me and my ds), and our literature is tied to our history because we use TOG. So I enrolled her in TOG's online literature class to accomplish that goal.

 

I do plan on having her take couple of CC classes, probably biology or chemistry, since they have labs, and an English class (maybe). She also wants to take an elective there, such as photography. My biggest problem with her taking AP classes is that the whole thing hinges on one test. If she attends a State U, the CC classes will count and she can save money her freshman year by not having to retake some basic classes.

[angela in ohio]

For us, it's because I am fully convinced that an online AP course is more rigorous than a similar course at our community college. I came to that conclusion by talking to many, many homeschoolers and college students, as well as comparing texts and syllabi.

 

The community college courses would actually cost less. I'm not worried about the environment, as dd is on campus for robotics several days a week and hasn't had any problems she couldn't handle so far. It's really just about the quality for me.