Experiences with Early College at MC?

[Anonymous]

My son is a junior and about 4 of his friend group started this year for computer science. They are bright kids and took APs fresh and soph year. They are not rah rah school spirit types but still nice kids. Two want to go to MD two to other schools. All anxious to get started in the field they enjoy. A lot of kids don’t know what they want to major in so early including my son but if you do why not go for it? One issue is transportation. My kid is young for his class so if he had wanted to do this, he couldn’t drive himself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP - My niece and nephew went through the program. Both went onto UMCP and now are each respectively in graduate school in in-demand fields.

The snobby subtext the PP either espouses or alludes to is it’s widely looked down upon by wealthier schools as a program for poor kids. This isn't true - my brother and SIL are well off -but MoCo folks like to keep people who deviate from the academic norm in check if they aren’t at a W school. That stigma keeps kids out of the program.

+1
Know two kids at our W school who did this both UMC. We only know one of them well enough but the child did go to a very good 4-year private college afterwards. What the two of the kid had in common is that they were highly self-motivated, mature, bored in high school and not heavily involved in school extracurriculars and had moved beyond the high school "scene."
I think the program can be a fit for a lot of different types of kids and this is just one of them. I can also see how if you're already set on a specific career path that having access to more specialized classes earlier could be appealing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone’s kid done the early college at MC where they get an associate’s degree at the same time as an MCPS high school diploma? My 10th grader is thinking about applying and I’m looking for some stories to add to the details on the web pages.

Yes, DD is finishing this year. I highly recommend considering it. Great experience for a highly motivated and independent student. In talking with other parents a couple weeks ago, we noticed that the kids who made it through the past three years were not the typical DCUM crowd. In her friend group, those still in the program are mainly from working class and lower middle class backgrounds. Many immigrant and first generation American kids. (DD is something of a socioeconomic outlier among those left in her cohort.) Those who dropped out were mostly solidly middle class without a recent immigrant background. I know striver is an insult of sorts on DCUM, but I’m Gen X AA so I use it as a compliment to describe those who invested the time and effort to earn their associates before their HS diploma.

It is not without stress or sacrifices and junior year was brutal with workload. However, DD and her friends still in the program are thriving and overall much less anxious or ambivalent about the college application process.

[Anonymous]

I know the credits from this program transfer to UMD but what about private colleges? Looked to me that MC only has transfer agreements with some schools and not a long list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know the credits from this program transfer to UMD but what about private colleges? Looked to me that MC only has transfer agreements with some schools and not a long list.

The transfer agreements just mean that the 4yr has already looked at MCs program. For other colleges (both public and private) there will be a process to request review of credits for transfer. Private schools that take AP credits will likely take the equivalent MC course also. Some privates take a lot of APs, some very little (because they want you to follow their own degree program).

[Anonymous]

You can start as almost a junior at UMD off of AP credits too. So not seeing the advantage of MC credits over AP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can start as almost a junior at UMD off of AP credits too. So not seeing the advantage of MC credits over AP?

Free, get an actual college experience before high school, choose your own schedule(for some programs), college credit not determined on ONE test you take at the end of the year, get taught from experts in their field, take 3-4 college classes instead of the usual 7 or 8, I could go on.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Depends what your kid is seeking. If it is acceleration/peer group for a highly abled kid, I've been told that taking the most rigorous classes in H.S. is the better way to achieve this. If it is college credit, finishing college sooner, or being more independent than a typical H.S.er, then classes at MC is the better approach.

This sounds like a reasonable summation.

But specifically for Early College students, they are with a cohort of high achieving students, not just taking a handful of random classes with the general MC population.

AP Language is equivalent to English 101
AP Calculus is equivalent to Calculus 101 (or whatever the actual course code is)

I wouldn’t say the most rigorous AP courses are actually better than the equivalent college credit class. There’s a reason some schools will take college credit classes when they won’t give credit just because you took an AP class.

MC is definitely not providing the experience that highly able kids would get at a real college. What is your familiarity with AP courses?

I teach one. 🙄 Also have had kids in various HS magnets and can compare AP and IB level courses. Also work with MC professors on some projects. Your bias is showing if you don’t think MC is a “real” college.

Okay. I'll bite. I took a Biology course at MC as a career changer. My adjunct professor revealed that her day job was teaching the AP version of the same class at a well-respected MCPS high school. I asked her how the two courses compared and her response was that she could cover more material in her AP course.

That being said, one of my other classes had a Dual Enrollment (Early College?) student in it from Northwood. She was a standout and very mature. I think she would have done fine in a magnet or W school as well.

NP
Like I said previously early college and dual enrollment are not the same.
Early college students cover a subject in a semester like regular college instead of year long for AP.

AP Bio receives credit for two college courses.

If and only if your college accepts it. Many don't now, and many others only accept it as a prereq rather than for credit.

MC has a transfer partnership list with many colleges, including the UMD system. Why is it so hard for people to understand and accept that MC students completing an AA or AS degree can then transfer in as juniors into UMD-CP Business school or Engineering school?

Kids are not guaranteed transfer into UMD. I know a few kids who did not get into UMD LEP from MC. They did get into other MD state schools, but not necessarily UMD.

MC students are guaranteed transfer to UMCP if they maintain a 3.0. Does this not apply to EC grads?

NP here. I think that because EC is relatively new, especially for a couple new majors, that MC and UMD haven't sorted out the relationship yet. UMD admissions in particular seems to be inconsistent about recognizing that EC is more than just dual enrollment. Last year my kid (on MC's Dean's list) got deferred from to RD to "see fall transcript". Then got admitted to L&S but not the LEP they applied to, even though they met both the guaranteed transfer requirements and the internal UMD admission to an LEP requirements. Two emails to various admissions/LEP folks about what courses kid would take as a junior with AA but not in LEP went ignored. But when we finally emailed the person in charge of internal transfers into the LEP, 4 hours later we got a new admissions letter with "Congratulations for admission to LEP!" (Kid chose another school, all credits transferred no problem.)

Can you please identify what all the acronyms mean here? Can’t make any sense of this and I’d really like to.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Depends what your kid is seeking. If it is acceleration/peer group for a highly abled kid, I've been told that taking the most rigorous classes in H.S. is the better way to achieve this. If it is college credit, finishing college sooner, or being more independent than a typical H.S.er, then classes at MC is the better approach.

This sounds like a reasonable summation.

But specifically for Early College students, they are with a cohort of high achieving students, not just taking a handful of random classes with the general MC population.

AP Language is equivalent to English 101
AP Calculus is equivalent to Calculus 101 (or whatever the actual course code is)

I wouldn’t say the most rigorous AP courses are actually better than the equivalent college credit class. There’s a reason some schools will take college credit classes when they won’t give credit just because you took an AP class.

MC is definitely not providing the experience that highly able kids would get at a real college. What is your familiarity with AP courses?

I teach one. 🙄 Also have had kids in various HS magnets and can compare AP and IB level courses. Also work with MC professors on some projects. Your bias is showing if you don’t think MC is a “real” college.

Okay. I'll bite. I took a Biology course at MC as a career changer. My adjunct professor revealed that her day job was teaching the AP version of the same class at a well-respected MCPS high school. I asked her how the two courses compared and her response was that she could cover more material in her AP course.

That being said, one of my other classes had a Dual Enrollment (Early College?) student in it from Northwood. She was a standout and very mature. I think she would have done fine in a magnet or W school as well.

NP
Like I said previously early college and dual enrollment are not the same.
Early college students cover a subject in a semester like regular college instead of year long for AP.

AP Bio receives credit for two college courses.

If and only if your college accepts it. Many don't now, and many others only accept it as a prereq rather than for credit.

MC has a transfer partnership list with many colleges, including the UMD system. Why is it so hard for people to understand and accept that MC students completing an AA or AS degree can then transfer in as juniors into UMD-CP Business school or Engineering school?

Kids are not guaranteed transfer into UMD. I know a few kids who did not get into UMD LEP from MC. They did get into other MD state schools, but not necessarily UMD.

MC students are guaranteed transfer to UMCP if they maintain a 3.0. Does this not apply to EC grads?

NP here. I think that because EC is relatively new, especially for a couple new majors, that MC and UMD haven't sorted out the relationship yet. UMD admissions in particular seems to be inconsistent about recognizing that EC is more than just dual enrollment. Last year my kid (on MC's Dean's list) got deferred from to RD to "see fall transcript". Then got admitted to L&S but not the LEP they applied to, even though they met both the guaranteed transfer requirements and the internal UMD admission to an LEP requirements. Two emails to various admissions/LEP folks about what courses kid would take as a junior with AA but not in LEP went ignored. But when we finally emailed the person in charge of internal transfers into the LEP, 4 hours later we got a new admissions letter with "Congratulations for admission to LEP!" (Kid chose another school, all credits transferred no problem.)

Can you please identify what all the acronyms mean here? Can’t make any sense of this and I’d really like to.

Early College (high schooler dual-enrolled in a degree-track program at community college, not just a non-degree credit course)


Associate of Arts degree (2 year community college degree)

Montgomery College (local community college)

University of MarylanD (University that kids transfer to after completing Early College AA degree)

Regular Decision (applying to college in winter. At UMD, Regular Decision is actually *late* application, because UMD wants everyone to apply "Early" in the year. But in OP's case, the school wanted to wait even later because OP was applying as an upperclass transfer, so they wanted to verify college performance.)

Letters and Sciences (college majors/classes that anyone admitted to the university can enrolled in)

Limited Enrollment Program (major/class like Engineering that can reject you even if you are admitted to the university)

"junior with AA" means the student is finishing the 2 year AA program at MC and plans to transfer into UMD as a junior for the next school year.

Phew!

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Depends what your kid is seeking. If it is acceleration/peer group for a highly abled kid, I've been told that taking the most rigorous classes in H.S. is the better way to achieve this. If it is college credit, finishing college sooner, or being more independent than a typical H.S.er, then classes at MC is the better approach.

This sounds like a reasonable summation.

But specifically for Early College students, they are with a cohort of high achieving students, not just taking a handful of random classes with the general MC population.

AP Language is equivalent to English 101
AP Calculus is equivalent to Calculus 101 (or whatever the actual course code is)

I wouldn’t say the most rigorous AP courses are actually better than the equivalent college credit class. There’s a reason some schools will take college credit classes when they won’t give credit just because you took an AP class.

MC is definitely not providing the experience that highly able kids would get at a real college. What is your familiarity with AP courses?

I teach one. 🙄 Also have had kids in various HS magnets and can compare AP and IB level courses. Also work with MC professors on some projects. Your bias is showing if you don’t think MC is a “real” college.

Okay. I'll bite. I took a Biology course at MC as a career changer. My adjunct professor revealed that her day job was teaching the AP version of the same class at a well-respected MCPS high school. I asked her how the two courses compared and her response was that she could cover more material in her AP course.

That being said, one of my other classes had a Dual Enrollment (Early College?) student in it from Northwood. She was a standout and very mature. I think she would have done fine in a magnet or W school as well.

NP
Like I said previously early college and dual enrollment are not the same.
Early college students cover a subject in a semester like regular college instead of year long for AP.

AP Bio receives credit for two college courses.

If and only if your college accepts it. Many don't now, and many others only accept it as a prereq rather than for credit.

MC has a transfer partnership list with many colleges, including the UMD system. Why is it so hard for people to understand and accept that MC students completing an AA or AS degree can then transfer in as juniors into UMD-CP Business school or Engineering school?

Kids are not guaranteed transfer into UMD. I know a few kids who did not get into UMD LEP from MC. They did get into other MD state schools, but not necessarily UMD.

MC students are guaranteed transfer to UMCP if they maintain a 3.0. Does this not apply to EC grads?

NP here. I think that because EC is relatively new, especially for a couple new majors, that MC and UMD haven't sorted out the relationship yet. UMD admissions in particular seems to be inconsistent about recognizing that EC is more than just dual enrollment. Last year my kid (on MC's Dean's list) got deferred from to RD to "see fall transcript". Then got admitted to L&S but not the LEP they applied to, even though they met both the guaranteed transfer requirements and the internal UMD admission to an LEP requirements. Two emails to various admissions/LEP folks about what courses kid would take as a junior with AA but not in LEP went ignored. But when we finally emailed the person in charge of internal transfers into the LEP, 4 hours later we got a new admissions letter with "Congratulations for admission to LEP!" (Kid chose another school, all credits transferred no problem.)

Can you please identify what all the acronyms mean here? Can’t make any sense of this and I’d really like to.

Early College (high schooler dual-enrolled in a degree-track program at community college, not just a non-degree credit course)


Associate of Arts degree (2 year community college degree)

Montgomery College (local community college)

University of MarylanD (University that kids transfer to after completing Early College AA degree)

Regular Decision (applying to college in winter. At UMD, Regular Decision is actually *late* application, because UMD wants everyone to apply "Early" in the year. But in OP's case, the school wanted to wait even later because OP was applying as an upperclass transfer, so they wanted to verify college performance.)

Letters and Sciences (college majors/classes that anyone admitted to the university can enrolled in)

Limited Enrollment Program (major/class like Engineering that can reject you even if you are admitted to the university)

"junior with AA" means the student is finishing the 2 year AA program at MC and plans to transfer into UMD as a junior for the next school year.

Phew!

Helpful! Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can start as almost a junior at UMD off of AP credits too. So not seeing the advantage of MC credits over AP?

Free, get an actual college experience before high school, choose your own schedule(for some programs), college credit not determined on ONE test you take at the end of the year, get taught from experts in their field, take 3-4 college classes instead of the usual 7 or 8, I could go on.

+1

My child has been able to take a much broader range of topics than AP covers.

[Anonymous]

Cross-post: how does this EC differ from Northwood’s MC2 program?
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1159456.page

[Anonymous]

Are anyone's kids thinking of enrolling in early college for next year? DS expressed interest but not sure if it's the right choice and just wondering what others are thinking.

DS is in Apex at WJ and has straight A's as of now. He has a STEM career path in mind but I would imagine that will evolve over time.,

[Anonymous]

My son has been interested in the program since last year. He talked with current students from our high school who choose this route and seems happy to have sent in the application. He is wavering on whether he will continue in the sports he plays currently.

BTW… We took a few minutes and looked at the courses offered in the AA he is interested in and compare the courses to what is required at few of his choice Universities to make sure that they would fit. It does help give perspective on what you will be doing for two years.

[Anonymous]

Anyone have more recent experience with Early College at MC? Recommend or not?