Dual enrollment
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Anonymous
| Does dual enrollment impress top colleges, or is it better to just load up on APs? |
Anonymous
| Nothing impressed them. They have seen it all. |
Anonymous
| ^* impresses |
Anonymous
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It depends. Are you taking differential equations which is not available as an AP? Or are you taking a class at the cc that your home HS also offers because you hope it will be easier to do the DE version than the AP version?
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Anonymous
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Many, many threads in the archives.
Community College DE does not "impress" colleges. The reason for this is that colleges that need to be "impressed" target an academic rigor level higher than community college courses can provide. CC DE is a pathway to accelerate progress to a specific degree of choice that has associates degree coursework that is too narrow to be a high school class. Pre-professional majors for careers that don't require masters/doctors (sometimes not even bachelors), not classical liberal arts and sciences degrees. DE is an option for students who want to take courses but really don't fit the the overall rigid structure of local high school, and want a more flexible lifestyle. University DE is the option for post-AP courses, almost always in math because that's where kids accelerate furthest. DE is also good for some world language because that's poorly supported at schools for some languages. |
Anonymous
Ignore this person. 90% of what they say is inaccurate and clearly lacks any actual knowledge. I don’t know what bee they have in their bonnet but they consistently mis-represent information when it comes to DE in MCPS. |
Anonymous
| AP exams are often more rigorous than the equivalent community college classes. However, if a student picks advanced courses in dual enrollment that are not offered in their HS, that can look good. |
Anonymous
| To the first order, dual enrollment is equivalent to APs in the sense that they are more rigorous than honors courses. After that it really depends on what courses are taken and how it fits into the student’s overall profile and major goals. If a student is having a hard time filling their schedule with 7 meaningful classes that they are interested in, they are better off taking a couple of high interest courses at MC than random stuff at HS, AP or not. |
Anonymous
It seems to me there are two issues that really need to be considered separately. The first is whether admissions officers view DE as less rigorous than AP. I don’t doubt that there are some that do. One of the challenges of DE is that it is hard to compare apples to apples because the quality of a DE class will vary by school, class, and instructor. APs are standardized. The second issue is whether DE classes at MC for MCPS classes are easier than APs. This is where, in my personal experience, they are not. I have two HS kids, one on a DE pathway, on at a local HS taking APs. They have taken many overlapping classes. On balance, the equivalent DE classes are harder, in part because of depth, in part because the grading policy can be less student friendly at the college level (particularly true prior to the recent change in grading policy at MCPS). The thing that makes APs harder is you have one bite at a single comprehensive AP test with no way to recover if you just have an off day that day. From an admissions standpoint, if you consider that DE classes might in reality be harder to get an A, and you also believe AOs might view them as easier, there is no advantage to taking a DE class that is available as an AP class. Particularly if you want to target admissions to top (T20) schools. |
Anonymous
I agree with all of this, particularly the DE in math. What matters is which course your child is taking: is it high-level or not? |
Anonymous
Actually, the post is spot on. |
Anonymous
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I think the issue is that fact don’t really support this narrative that DE is by definition less rigorous, or only a pathway for pre-professional programs, or four year colleges only respect DE math taken at universities instead of community colleges.
For example, the early college program has kids accepted to MIT, Princeton, Carnegie Mellon, etc. it’s hard to believe that students would be admitted to those calibre of schools if it was uniformly assumed that they had taken the less rigorous route. I know several early college students who got full rides at state flagships. Again, that would not happen if four year colleges and universities uniformly viewed DE as not valuable as prep for four year degree programs in the liberal arts or sciences. |
Anonymous
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In Montgomery County no because MCCC is frankly really bad. NOVA is well respected. California has community colleges that are better than many regional universities.
The place where DE might help is if the target is UMD. If this is the case then starting to work on a transfer path into your major is a good strategy. |
Anonymous
Why do you say MCCC is bad? How is it bad? Examples? |
Anonymous
It is so frustrating when people who obviously know nothing about DE spout out this kind of stuff. Personally I don’t care if people do DE or not but they should at least have access to accurate information to make their decisions. Montgomery College is ranked one of the top community colleges in the country. Also, there is no DE transfer pathway to UMD. DE students must apply as freshman and get no transfer advantage. |