Many college students know the displeasure of having to take a boring general education class. Most of the time, they are courses that are not relevant to our major or are just classes that you are not interested in taking.
Many high schools offer Advanced Placement (AP) courses, classes that high school students can take to receive college credit and avoid taking gen-eds in college. However, there is a catch; students can only receive college credit if they receive a certain score on the AP exam. Regardless of how well a student has done in the course, they won’t receive college credit if they did not receive a certain score on the exam. Additionally, not all schools offer AP classes, or only very few.
Fortunately, there is a better option for students that ensures that they will receive college credit: dual enrollment. Dual enrollment means that a person is both a student at high school and at a local college. This means that high school students can take community college courses and are able to transfer their credits to a college of their choosing.
NC State offers non-degree studies courses to high schoolers through its Academic Enrichment Opportunities program, but these are limited to students with a high GPA and good test scores who have run out of a type of class at their high school.
Besides guaranteeing college credits, there are many reasons why high school students should partake in dual enrollment and not solely focus on AP courses. For one, community colleges offer a lot more courses than AP. As of 2018, College Board offers 38 AP courses, vastly fewer than the number of courses community colleges provide.
By having access to a large selection of courses, students will have a much easier time fulfilling their gen-ed requirements before officially coming to college. Furthermore, taking community college courses will look great when applying to colleges.
Colleges prize students who take challenging and rigorous courses. Since some colleges like NC State and UNC-Chapel Hill are very competitive to get in, taking courses at community colleges will increase your chances of getting accepted.
Finally, taking community college courses during high school can allow students to save money overall. Should a student take a lot of community college courses, it is possible they could be at least a semester, and possibly a year ahead. This means that a student could potentially earn enough credits to graduate early, saving money in the process, especially as community college costs are much lower than those of a four-year university.
However, there are some downsides to dual enrollment. Most notably, not all colleges will allow students to transfer their community college credit. While NC State allows students to transfer credits from community college, other colleges are not so gracious. For example, some departments at Wake Forest University will not accept credits from a community college.
Furthermore, should a student want to go to a college that is not in their home state, their community college credits may not transfer. In addition, some community college courses may only count as an elective, rather than toward a student’s course requirements.
NC State could do a lot to promote dual enrollment by offering some of their courses online to high schools that may not offer such programs without requiring a base GPA. Not only would this give many more students the benefits of dual enrollment, but it also gives them an idea of how college classes are structured. Also, if a student goes to a different college, their credits will more likely transfer since it comes from a 4-year accredited university.
Overall, there are many benefits for high school students on taking community college courses. Not only does it help students receive college credit, but community colleges generally offer more courses, will look good when applying to colleges and can potentially save students money.
