Dual Enrollment vs. AP ?
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Anonymous
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Our counselor said they were basically the same (in which case, why offer both)?
Any thoughts? Does one look better than the other on a transcript? (We don't care about getting college credit or passing the AP exam). They both have the same 1.0 GPA bump. Is one easier than the other? |
Anonymous
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AP over DE; AP has a common standard exam that AOs can use to compare.
But if you have a DE vs Honors go with DE. |
Anonymous
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I would ask at your specific high school. My child doesn't do well with timed writing and speed work and so she took DE thinking it would be easier but so far out of the 4 summative essays ALL but 1 have been timed writing. The most recent timed writing was a 4 page hand written/paper essay in class. She wished she had taken AP since it seems like as much work with out the AP benefit. She had an A- in Honors last year and is working hard to get a B+ in this class.
NOVA grade may end up higher because it is a 60/40 split but we also don't care about the college credit. |
Anonymous
| Both are good options. At my kids' school, AP enrollment is the option most of the higher-achieving kids take. My super high-achieving kid did AP. My less high-achieving kid pitched DE to us as a still challenging, but slightly less intense option and it's been a good fit for him. DE community college credits in theory could be easier to transfer to colleges (esp if the college is a Va. state school) and your kid won't be on the hook for performing well on one test in order to get college credit. The teachers for both AP and DE have all been very good. |
Anonymous
I think this is the major benefit for kids staying instate. For AP, schools have leeway. For a credit from NOVA, a VA public university has almost no leeway |
Anonymous
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Question: my kid's school lists English dual enrolment classes under "courses" but lists govt/history dual enrollment classes under "online campus".
Does that mean the only dual enrollment courses where you attend a physical class at the school would be English class? |
Anonymous
This. Or, if your kid is staying onstate Virhinoa using one of the NoVA auto admit pathways to one of the state universities, dual might be a good option. |
Anonymous
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They are not the same thing. One is an actual college course that you are taking as a student of both the high school and the college (hence the term dual enrollment). Passing the class means you passed in both high school and college. The other is a “college level” class as specified by an organization (CollegeBoard) where you take a test at the end to figure out if you may be able to get college credit from whatever college you may go to in the future.
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Anonymous
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My kid isn't great at test taking so he didn't want it all to pivot on 1 exam to earn the college credit so he took DE.
AP scores are accepted bation wide. DE classes are accepted only in public VA colleges. So it depends if you're considering going in state public or out of state. You get 2 grades for DE - 1 is an FCPS grade and 1 is the Nova cc grade. You can pass the class in the eyes of fcps (bc of the re-take options, extensions, etc),but know that it will be marked an F in the eyes of nova cc if you fail a test, fir example (they don't recognize the retake option fcps offers). There's a Q&A zoom orientation for DE classes for parents. |
Anonymous
NOVA is regionally accredited so DE courses are accepted nation wide, not just Virginia schools. |
Anonymous
And almost everyone acknowledges that dual enrollment attracts kids who are either too scared or too weak to risk the AP exam. The courses are definitely not higher level than AP. |
Anonymous
But AP is more difficult and taken by the most advanced kids, where DE is a bit easier and a step between AP and honors. |
Anonymous
| Talk to rhe colleges your child is considering applying to. Some colleges view DE as more rigorous and others view AP. If your child wants to get into more competitive schools, go with AP. |
Anonymous
AP courses, and specifically the AP exam, are recognized to varying degrees nationwide. This is because the curriculum and exams are created by a national body, the so-called College Board. This means, specifically, that for each university your child considers, they can go to that university's website and see what a specific AP exam grade (typically 3, 4, or 5) gets them at this university. I give you 3 examples of schools your child may consider: - Virginia Tech - MIT - University of Virginia. As you can see, it varies. MIT gives no credit for instance, for AP-CS or Chemistry whereas it allows you to opt out of CS1 at Tech. Similarly, you need a 5 on the BC exam to get Math credit at MIT whereas at Tech you only need a 4 or 5, and even get some credit with a 3. DE courses, on the other hand, are useful only if they can be transferred. Here again things vary by university. Every university has a transfer catalog that lists which courses can transfer and for what course at that university they can substitute. Here, again, an example. Let's say your child wants to attend UNC (University of North Carolina) but they have DE credit from NVCC. This web page allows you to search for an institution and look at what can be transferred. As an example, in CS, the only course that can transfer is their CSC 221 and it counts only as COMP 101. By contrast, due to political pressure, public universities in Virginia have agreements with community colleges to more generously accept their transfer credit. Look at the so-called Virginia Transfer Portal. That same CSC 221 course (and others, like CSC 222 and CSC 223) may give you credit for introductory CS classes at some VA schools. (Which IMO is not a good thing since the CC classes are far below their university version.) PS:
I'm curious why you'd care about a GPA bump if you're not interested in college. Are there other uses for high GPAs? |
Anonymous
My DD out-of-state school accepted DE as transfer credits. Went into her Freshman year with 15 credits. |