Your Daily Random Comment

[Fyren]

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[jaggie34]

I just want everyone's input on this, but do you think dual credit is better than taking AP classes?

If I had the choice between an AP and dual enrollment, I generally lean towards AP just because it's more consistent and I knew that I wouldn't be attending my local college anyways

[pepperonipi]

I just want everyone's input on this, but do you think dual credit is better than taking AP classes?

If I had the choice between an AP and dual enrollment, I generally lean towards AP just because it's more consistent and I knew that I wouldn't be attending my local college anyways

Yeah, you're more likely to be able to earn credit for a nation-wide program than a course at a college near you. But, don't let that limit you to just AP classes - getting experience with a college course or being able to study something not covered by an AP course is great as well.

[jaggie34]

I just want everyone's input on this, but do you think dual credit is better than taking AP classes?

If I had the choice between an AP and dual enrollment, I generally lean towards AP just because it's more consistent and I knew that I wouldn't be attending my local college anyways

Yeah, you're more likely to be able to earn credit for a nation-wide program than a course at a college near you. But, don't let that limit you to just AP classes - getting experience with a college course or being able to study something not covered by an AP course is great as well.

Agreed, last semester THE Mr. Pi and I actually took a dual enrollment class together because there was no similar AP class

[sneepity]

I just want everyone's input on this, but do you think dual credit is better than taking AP classes?

In my experience, depending on where you end up for Uni, your AP credit may or may not be credited to specific course requirements. For example, for a particular score, universities might offer hours for a subject that counts towards your graduation, but not necessarily fulfilling a GenEd requirement. Typically, state universities will provide hours for a 3 and then course credit for a 4 or above. Others might not even offer credit for a 3! For example, my AP Lang score was enough to get hours credited towards my graduation, but it didn't fulfill the GenEd writing course.

Dual credit usually is through your local community college, which can then be transferred over to your university. Typically, most Unis will accept this form of credit. (There still might be some that don't, usually non-state schools, since they are the ones that determine if a class "meets their requirements." Be sure wherever you plan on going will accept your credit!) So, by doing dual credit, I was able to get college credit for that GenEd course.

Do note there are pros and cons to both sides of the coin. For example, for dual credit, you actually get a college grade rather than a proficiency pass. AP scores are widely recognized on college apps and are almost (yes, there are a small handful of Unis that don't give credit at all) all universally accepted as a form of credit well since a dual-credit course has to be "good enough" by their standards. On the other hand, dual credit is more reliant on your ability to perform in the class compositely rather than on one single test. Also, dual credit is usually free for most people since it is taught through your high school, while for APs, you need to pay $95 to take the exam. In the end, however, it really just boils down to the situation you are in, where you want to be after high school, and what fits best for you.

[Fyren]

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[Booknerd]

Thank you for the wonderful insights, Nyda. I'm probably going to UIUC unless I get accepted into a college that's better for me, so dual credit from my local community college is going to be accepted there. My district also allows us to get an associate's degree in science when we do dual credit full time (aka you go to community college for all of your classes during junior and senior year; not sure if other districts do this too, though), and I've been debating on whether I should do that or not later on. The above posts definitely gave me a little more perspective, though.

Whoa. Fyren, you seem really confident that you could make it into UIUC. Good for you!

I wish I could say the same for myself... But I really don't know where I can or can't go. I mean, the high school I'm looking at right now is kinda competitive. With the competitive selective enrollment high schools in CPS, I think the problem is not achieving a high enough test score/writing a really good letter, but having to compete with your classmates. A college can only accept so many students from one high school... For all I know, 100 people at high school A could probably get into College A with ease. But the college isn't going to accept all 100 (because diversity). So they're probably going to take a few students from high school A, high school B, high school C, and so on. (Please correct me if I'm wrong about this). So if I want a really good chance at UIUC, I would have to stand out in my class.

I can't imagine how lucky it would be to know you're going to get into a good college, like you Fyren. You must be in a nice, uncompetitive, but really good school environment if you have that assurance that you can make it in, already from middle school (well, I guess you're a freshman now. But still)

Oh well, I guess I'll just wait and see. I still have a couple of years before that time comes, so I guess there's no point in stressing myself out now, right?

[sneepity]

Start thinking about it a little at a time, because I didn't and am flipping out about college choices right now.

[Fyren]

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[Booknerd]

Whoa. Fyren, you seem really confident that you could make it into UIUC. Good for you!

I wish I could say the same for myself... But I really don't know where I can or can't go. I mean, the high school I'm looking at right now is kinda competitive. With the competitive selective enrollment high schools in CPS, I think the problem is not achieving a high enough test score/writing a really good letter, but having to compete with your classmates. A college can only accept so many students from one high school... For all I know, 100 people at high school A could probably get into College A with ease. But the college isn't going to accept all 100 (because diversity). So they're probably going to take a few students from high school A, high school B, high school C, and so on. (Please correct me if I'm wrong about this). So if I want a really good chance at UIUC, I would have to stand out in my class.

I can't imagine how lucky it would be to know you're going to get into a good college, like you Fyren. You must be in a nice, uncompetitive, but really good school environment if you have that assurance that you can make it in, already from middle school (well, I guess you're a freshman now. But still)

Oh well, I guess I'll just wait and see. I still have a couple of years before that time comes, so I guess there's no point in stressing myself out now, right?

Oof, Booknerd. I can't really help with your situation. It seems that CPS needs quite a bit of improvement, judging from past posts you've made. o.O
Just a word of advice, though, it never is too early to look into colleges, or even high school. Personally, I started looking into colleges at the start of 7th grade, and while it was really early, it definitely made me a lot more familiar with how colleges work than most people in my area (Seriously, so many people are clueless at the start of freshman year around here). I asked my relatives a lot of questions about it and my brother gave me a bunch of resources to look at for high school as well, so that helped.

CPS isn't terrible. There are some areas that definitely have problems, but CPS has made some improvement over the past few years (ignoring the big Teacher's Strike that happened last fall).

But yeah, I'm probably going to start looking into colleges sometime next year or my freshman year. I would start earlier, but I want to make sure I get into the high school I want to go to (high school applications here are kinda stressful if you couldn't tell). Thanks, Fyren for the advice!