Dual Enrollment at CC- Would You Have Child Take AP Exam in Addition?

[Crimson Wife]

My almost 14 y.o. is starting dual enrollment at our local community college next week. Chances are she will finish up the associate's and then transfer as a junior to a U.C. (or possibly a Cal State if she decides on a major that is not offered at UC). We're caught in the trap of making too much money on paper to qualify for financial aid but not remotely enough to actually afford the EFC that FAFSA is claiming (we just did it for me and it's totally laughable). However, she is a very strong standardized test-taker (especially verbally) so it's possible that she might qualify for merit scholarships.

 

The classes she will be taking are U.C. transferable but I'm wondering if it would make sense to have her take the corresponding AP exams to "validate" the grades for private or OOS schools? For example, she will be taking Freshman Composition this semester and then Critical Thinking About Literature in the spring. So I could have her prep for the AP English Lit exam. She'll also be taking the STATWAY sequence, which is Intermediate Algebra plus college statistics spread out over 2 semesters. I could have her prep for the AP Stats exam.

 

Obviously she wouldn't get both transfer credit and AP credit for the same course, but I wonder if AP scores would be seen as more legit by certain 4 year schools.

[G5052]

You could certainly do that.

 

The local public schools have dual enrollment classes that do exactly that. They get credit through the state community college system and take an AP exam. That said, watch that there are no gaps in the CC class in terms of doing well on the AP. My oldest did no timed essays in English 101-102 at the community college, but my younger one who did AP English had lots of timed essays. What they wrote about in college was also very different than what was covered in AP English. Your school may have more correlation, but I know that it isn't here if you take the class at the CC. Ironically it is correlated if you take the dual enrollment at the high school, which is an option for homeschooled kids if there's room in the class.

[Ellie]

My almost 14 y.o. is starting dual enrollment at our local community college next week. Chances are she will finish up the associate's and then transfer as a junior to a U.C. (or possibly a Cal State if she decides on a major that is not offered at UC). We're caught in the trap of making too much money on paper to qualify for financial aid but not remotely enough to actually afford the EFC that FAFSA is claiming (we just did it for me and it's totally laughable). However, she is a very strong standardized test-taker (especially verbally) so it's possible that she might qualify for merit scholarships.

 

The classes she will be taking are U.C. transferable but I'm wondering if it would make sense to have her take the corresponding AP exams to "validate" the grades for private or OOS schools? For example, she will be taking Freshman Composition this semester and then Critical Thinking About Literature in the spring. So I could have her prep for the AP English Lit exam. She'll also be taking the STATWAY sequence, which is Intermediate Algebra plus college statistics spread out over 2 semesters. I could have her prep for the AP Stats exam.

 

Obviously she wouldn't get both transfer credit and AP credit for the same course, but I wonder if AP scores would be seen as more legit by certain 4 year schools.

 

You don't need to validate the CC scores. AP scores would not be seen as "more legit." although that may be true in other states, it is not true in California (and I've never heard of anyone having problem with out of state schools, either).

[wapiti]

Thinking out loud:  how do adcoms at OOS/private schools view CC courses - would they view the CC courses differently than DE at a 4 year U, which seem to have a rough equivalence with APs?  Might there a difference in that adcom view between selective schools and schools that are somewhat less-selective but where she might be scholarship-hunting, i.e. might hair-splitting over CC vs AP matter less in a less-selective situation?  For OOS, is the east coast a possibility, places that might have less familiarity with California CCs?

 

If she might later decide to apply to selective private/OOS schools, then if it were me, at some point I'd probably be inclined to have some AP exams in the mix along with the CC courses, but I'd look closely at the AP test to be sure it would correspond well (and obviously do specific prep) to make sure that a 5 (or at least a 4) would be likely.  FWIW, in my neck of the woods, I think AP English Lit is typically taken by seniors.

 

ETA, I automatically assumed the question is for admission purposes as opposed to credit purposes

 

A few of the older threads, but not the ones I was thinking of:

 

(edited) community college question

AP class vs. the actual class at a college...

Which is better...AP or CC classes??

Selective state college admission & homeschoolers: AP vs. dual enrollment

Dual enrollment vs AP?

AP at Homeschool Group or Dual Enrollment

Some thoughts on AP vs Community College Courses...

Are AP Classes equal to a Community college class?

How do college admissions committees perceive community college coursework?

A/P courses & test during community college?

Dual credit and then take the AP Exam?

Edited August 11, 2016 by wapiti

[theelfqueen]

I would say the community college scores are already validated by the community college instructor and APPLE exams would be redundant.

 

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[Roadrunner]

Not all community colleges are created equal. AP exams are the same for everybody, so if you are looking for selective New England private colleges, maybe AP scores would be a more standard way of showing quality. I don't know. I would probably have my kids take it if I knew they can score really well.

[MariaT]

As a PP pointed out, watch out for whether the content in the CC course lines up with the AP requirements. Around here, many of the CC courses are "AP-Lite," that is, the CC courses are at a lower level, with less content and fewer skills than what is demanded of the AP courses. My two guys took several composition classes at the CC, and found them to be very basic. These classes are designed to get high school students' writing skills ramped up for college writing. Meanwhile, the AP English Lang. course is very specific in the kinds of writing that is taught and practiced.

 

It's doable, of course. The only question is how much extra content, time and skills-learning will your student need to do to do well on the test, while at the same time finishing up cc courses.

 

Maria

[JanetC]

If you know for sure you are staying in the state system, there is no need for AP exams.

 

 

Even for applying for merit scholarships from private schools, GPA, ACT or SAT, and ECs will be bigger factors than AP scores.

[Guest]

I did not. AP content does not always align with DE plus the essays seem to need a particular format, and both AP and DE have finals the same week here. Did not need another exam that week. For math, I would just assume a test out was possible if the U didnt take the DE credit, and prepare accordingly.

[8filltheheart]

If you are thinking in terms of schools with lower admission rates and large merit awards, I would guess that taking the AP exams would be unnecessary. Most of those schools will probably accept the DE credit unless there is no equivalent course.

 

Higher ranked schools, however, may not. This is one of those decisions that can impact where they want to apply.

The only thing I am not 100% sure about is actually earning an AA. The AA might influence freshman scholarships whereas usually DE hrs don't. Ds entered with close to 60 hrs wo issue, but I think I read something about an AA causing a problem.

[MarkT]

The classes might not match up well with the AP  exam - so I vote "no"

[Sebastian (a lady)]

If you know what schools she might apply to outside the UC/CSU systems, you may find info in a transfer database that will show if the CC course has been accepted for transfer in the past. I was able to find these on both university and CC sites by searching for the school name and transfer course.

The databases let you select the original school and course and check the transfer status. If a course isn't in the database it may just indicate that no one has requested credit before.