Dual enrollment

[Anonymous]

My daughter will graduate from MC’s early college program this May.

Yes - everything is free, right down to the goggles needed for chem.

Yes - early college students have an advisor at MC. The pp is not a troll. I am copied on the advisor’s emails regularly. Her MC advisor is the one who places my daughter, and the others in her cohort, into classes and serves as their sounding board. My daughter sees her MC advisor multiple times each semester.

I believe early college students are being confused with MCPS students who take one or more dual enrollment classes at MC but take most of their classes at the high school junior and senior year. These students are advised by a high school dual enrollment program coordinator. Early college students have an MC advisor bc they are never at the high school.

UMD does not automatically accept early college students into their freshman class. I heard they used to - but that is definitely not the case anymore. Early college students apply to UMD like everyone else. If an early college student is accepted and enrolls, UMD guarantees they will accept all of their MC credits.

So far as MC’s reputation in the academic world - and comparisons to Nova - I only know my daughter’s experience. My daughter has had mostly rigorous classes at MC. She has felt pushed in science and math classes especially. Yes, a few classes required for core credits, like music history, were a joke. But they were the exception in her experience, not the norm. My daughter was accepted ED to a respected private university for next fall. The admissions officers there must have viewed her MC early college classes positively, and believe she is ready for their coursework next year, or I cannot imagine they would have accepted her ED.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter will graduate from MC’s early college program this May.

Yes - everything is free, right down to the goggles needed for chem.

Yes - early college students have an advisor at MC. The pp is not a troll. I am copied on the advisor’s emails regularly. Her MC advisor is the one who places my daughter, and the others in her cohort, into classes and serves as their sounding board. My daughter sees her MC advisor multiple times each semester.

I believe early college students are being confused with MCPS students who take one or more dual enrollment classes at MC but take most of their classes at the high school junior and senior year. These students are advised by a high school dual enrollment program coordinator. Early college students have an MC advisor bc they are never at the high school.

UMD does not automatically accept early college students into their freshman class. I heard they used to - but that is definitely not the case anymore. Early college students apply to UMD like everyone else. If an early college student is accepted and enrolls, UMD guarantees they will accept all of their MC credits.

So far as MC’s reputation in the academic world - and comparisons to Nova - I only know my daughter’s experience. My daughter has had mostly rigorous classes at MC. She has felt pushed in science and math classes especially. Yes, a few classes required for core credits, like music history, were a joke. But they were the exception in her experience, not the norm. My daughter was accepted ED to a respected private university for next fall. The admissions officers there must have viewed her MC early college classes positively, and believe she is ready for their coursework next year, or I cannot imagine they would have accepted her ED.

Congrats!

Also I agree there is a coordinator for early college but the PP was describing a scenario where they both had a coordinator at MC AND they had to pay out of pocket. I don’t think there is any MCPS DE program where both of those can be true at the same time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Son is currently a dual enrollment student at MCCC. I am not impressed with the program. The program coordinator isn’t really all that helpful. She talks to the kids like they have taken college courses before and understand all of the terminology associated with it. She just expects the students to know what to do. We were told in the beginning several times that the DE students would have a direct pathway to UMD and automatic entry. That isn’t the case. We were told that all course materials were paid for. That’s also not the case. There are other procedures and policies that were not discussed. When I asked to see the program docs that address policy, the program coordinator ignored me twice. I don’t find the staff to be very professional at MCCC. They are often late to meetings or just don’t show up. It is true that DE students have to apply as freshman. We worked with a transition counselor to make sure we did this correctly on my son’s application to UMD.

This sounds like a troll post. There isn’t a “program coordinator” for dual enrollment at MC. The high schools have the program coordinators. How are you as a parent going to multiple meetings with MC staff? This is college, they don’t meet with parents.

I am not a troll. The meetings are all virtual and the counselors don't mind if a parent of a 16/17 yr old sit in on the meeting, so long as the parent isn't taking over the meeting. I just listen in (I work from home and DS sit in the same room to take his meetings) unless DS has a question for me or is unclear on something. While yes, this is college, these are kids attending college courses. There should be additional support. For instance, one of DS's professors used software that said that DS's discussion post was written by AI. Professor said that DS could take an F or drop the course. How many teenagers know how to navigate that situation? The program coordinator was no help. Fortunately, we were able to resolve the issue without her.

[Anonymous]

I’m very concerned about the expansion of the MC^2 program into more MCPS schools. While dual enrollment can be a great opportunity for individual students, my bigger concern is what happens to the schools this program spreads to. MC^2 consistently pulls out many of the highest achieving and most involved students, the same students who would normally lead SGA, participate in clubs and athletics, and help create a strong school culture. When those students are removed, the remaining school is left with fewer leaders and less academic/social momentum. As this program is set to expand to each proposed region, I worry it will slowly weaken the schools it is meant to coexist with rather than support them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m very concerned about the expansion of the MC^2 program into more MCPS schools. While dual enrollment can be a great opportunity for individual students, my bigger concern is what happens to the schools this program spreads to. MC^2 consistently pulls out many of the highest achieving and most involved students, the same students who would normally lead SGA, participate in clubs and athletics, and help create a strong school culture. When those students are removed, the remaining school is left with fewer leaders and less academic/social momentum. As this program is set to expand to each proposed region, I worry it will slowly weaken the schools it is meant to coexist with rather than support them.

Schools and programs should be in service to the students NOT vice versa!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m very concerned about the expansion of the MC^2 program into more MCPS schools. While dual enrollment can be a great opportunity for individual students, my bigger concern is what happens to the schools this program spreads to. MC^2 consistently pulls out many of the highest achieving and most involved students, the same students who would normally lead SGA, participate in clubs and athletics, and help create a strong school culture. When those students are removed, the remaining school is left with fewer leaders and less academic/social momentum. As this program is set to expand to each proposed region, I worry it will slowly weaken the schools it is meant to coexist with rather than support them.

Schools and programs should be in service to the students NOT vice versa!

+1 but also -- the kid who are invested in a traditional HS experience with SGA and athletics and theater productions or whatever are exactly the kids who do NOT choose dual enrollment.

It's the kids like my youngest, who are bright and motivated but utterly uninterested in HS social life, that are a good fit for those programs.

[Anonymous]

I know several early college kids that play on a HS sports team, some on more than one. I wouldn’t over-assume that every kid cuts ties with all their local HS activities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know several early college kids that play on a HS sports team, some on more than one. I wouldn’t over-assume that every kid cuts ties with all their local HS activities.

When their senior year is spent entirely off campus, it happens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m very concerned about the expansion of the MC^2 program into more MCPS schools. While dual enrollment can be a great opportunity for individual students, my bigger concern is what happens to the schools this program spreads to. MC^2 consistently pulls out many of the highest achieving and most involved students, the same students who would normally lead SGA, participate in clubs and athletics, and help create a strong school culture. When those students are removed, the remaining school is left with fewer leaders and less academic/social momentum. As this program is set to expand to each proposed region, I worry it will slowly weaken the schools it is meant to coexist with rather than support them.

IME, MC2 students are some of the most involved in clubs and school orgs. My child in MC2 was in leadership in four orgs, still graduated from both MCPS and MC with straight As and an award for SSL hours.

The kids come back to the school to do their club including participating at the county wide level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m very concerned about the expansion of the MC^2 program into more MCPS schools. While dual enrollment can be a great opportunity for individual students, my bigger concern is what happens to the schools this program spreads to. MC^2 consistently pulls out many of the highest achieving and most involved students, the same students who would normally lead SGA, participate in clubs and athletics, and help create a strong school culture. When those students are removed, the remaining school is left with fewer leaders and less academic/social momentum. As this program is set to expand to each proposed region, I worry it will slowly weaken the schools it is meant to coexist with rather than support them.

Schools and programs should be in service to the students NOT vice versa!

+1 but also -- the kid who are invested in a traditional HS experience with SGA and athletics and theater productions or whatever are exactly the kids who do NOT choose dual enrollment.

It's the kids like my youngest, who are bright and motivated but utterly uninterested in HS social life, that are a good fit for those programs.

The MC2 class of ‘24 at Northwood proves you wrong.