Anonymous
Post 04/18/2026 16:07     Subject: Advice Needed: NOVA Credits vs Reaching for MIT / Ivies / Georgia Tech / Purdue / Vanderbilt / Top Schools
How are DE classes easier to cheat in? They are regular classes at the high school with a teacher in the room.
Anonymous
Post 04/18/2026 16:03     Subject: Advice Needed: NOVA Credits vs Reaching for MIT / Ivies / Georgia Tech / Purdue / Vanderbilt / Top Schools
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:What’s the point of even offering DE if colleges don’t look at it the same? Especially if those same colleges accept community college transfer students? How is that any different?


Probably for the kids from schools with very limited AP course offerings?


yes. DE is only ok when there is no AP equivalent.
Top colleges that accept CC transfers do it to get help expand diversity on campus because CC transfers are higher likely to be: very rural or very urban, URM without specifically looking at URM, FGLI, veterans.
For anyone applying from above average to top publics or privates that offer AP, DE is a big mistake. Our kid's public magnet pointedly steers the middle of the pack students to DE calc instead of AP. The DE track never gets in to UVA and most do not get into VT. In state.
Anonymous
Post 04/18/2026 15:57     Subject: Advice Needed: NOVA Credits vs Reaching for MIT / Ivies / Georgia Tech / Purdue / Vanderbilt / Top Schools
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Just so you have reasonable expectations. All the following below on your list you should consider reaches especially for these Publics if you are OOS especially for CS or Engineering. The SAT score is common among many applications at these schools and the GPA is honestly a bit low for these schools. Just go into this with your eyes wide open and make sure you have some targets and safeties. None of the below are either. Trust me most of the below schools were on are list as well. Tough admits.

MIT
Princeton / Cornell
Carnegie Mellon
Georgia Tech
Vanderbilt
Michigan
Texas Austin
UVA


UVA is in-state


UVA won’t take a kid that is avoiding AP classes. I would bet money this kid gets rejected from UVA.

100%
Anonymous
Post 04/18/2026 14:13     Subject: Advice Needed: NOVA Credits vs Reaching for MIT / Ivies / Georgia Tech / Purdue / Vanderbilt / Top Schools
Anonymous wrote:What’s the point of even offering DE if colleges don’t look at it the same? Especially if those same colleges accept community college transfer students? How is that any different?


Probably for the kids from schools with very limited AP course offerings?
Anonymous
Post 04/18/2026 13:48     Subject: Advice Needed: NOVA Credits vs Reaching for MIT / Ivies / Georgia Tech / Purdue / Vanderbilt / Top Schools
What’s the point of even offering DE if colleges don’t look at it the same? Especially if those same colleges accept community college transfer students? How is that any different?
Anonymous
Post 04/17/2026 20:29     Subject: Advice Needed: NOVA Credits vs Reaching for MIT / Ivies / Georgia Tech / Purdue / Vanderbilt / Top Schools
The best route and the one the Ivies like the most for: take ap calc bc, ap chem, ap bio, ap phys E&M and c, ap stats, ap world, ap euro, apush, ap gov, ap lang and comp, ap lit and ap foreign language at your home school and then other classes that you enjoy and amplify these core courses at your local college.
Anonymous
Post 04/17/2026 20:25     Subject: Re:Advice Needed: NOVA Credits vs Reaching for MIT / Ivies / Georgia Tech / Purdue / Vanderbilt / Top Schools
Anonymous wrote:Yale says de and ap courses are treated the same.


They are ignored.
Anonymous
Post 04/17/2026 20:23     Subject: Advice Needed: NOVA Credits vs Reaching for MIT / Ivies / Georgia Tech / Purdue / Vanderbilt / Top Schools
So much speculation in most of the replies here. OP, please check the websites for the colleges your child is interested in to see what their policy is for DE courses. Or talk directly with the NVCC counselors and the respective colleges. You can also check Transferology for some schools, to see what courses have transferred for credit in the past. (BTW, as you may know, there are a number of students graduating from VA high schools this year AND receiving AA degrees from NVCC, with credits transferring to a number of colleges both in state and out of state, including colleges on your list. Can't speak to all of them.)

Also, if you're thinking of Virginia Tech as a safety, please know that there are surprises every year. (Just one example, last year a student at our HS was admitted to Harvard and not accepted to VT.) VT heavily weighs community service and their supplemental essays in their admissions decisions.

Good luck to your highly motivated student!
Anonymous
Post 04/17/2026 20:23     Subject: Advice Needed: NOVA Credits vs Reaching for MIT / Ivies / Georgia Tech / Purdue / Vanderbilt / Top Schools
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:To the OP 1595 is not a possible score.
3.8uw is below top20-30% for almost public high school in Virginia.
If the high school offered AP in the courses you listed and yours took DE instead that is a big red flag. There is no chance for T20/ivy and almost no chance for UVA/VT in state.


Typo, should be 1590.

Also, I think some of this is overstated.

A 3.8 UW by itself can be ordinary, but context matters. If that includes advanced Northern Virginia Community College math like Calc III, Linear Algebra, Differential Equations, plus strong CS rigor, that is not the same as a generic 3.8.

I ran it through a simulator and it came back more like:

T20 / Ivies are reaches, but not “no chance”
Georgia Institute of Technology possible depending essays / rigor / profile
University of Virginia competitive, not impossible
Virginia Tech strong chance with this profile

Saying “almost no chance for UVA/VT in state” with a 1590, advanced college math, and strong technical background seems off.

On the DE point, I am genuinely trying to understand it beyond Virginia publics. When I checked official transfer sites for UVA, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, and Purdue University, they all showed NOVA courses mapping for credit in many cases. So the idea that DE is automatically a red flag does not seem accurate either.

It sounds more like some elite privates may prefer AP or evaluate DE differently, which is a narrower claim than saying DE hurts everywhere.


You are really over valuing the dual enrollment here, and your child’s readiness will suffer if he bases his career on community college foundations.

Is he in a hurry to just get a “credential” degree and jump to Wall Street and pump out money? Thats the only reason I can see the obsession with using the DE credit.
Anonymous
Post 04/17/2026 20:09     Subject: Advice Needed: NOVA Credits vs Reaching for MIT / Ivies / Georgia Tech / Purdue / Vanderbilt / Top Schools
Anonymous wrote:Op can your kid drop some of these de classes and replace ap classes.


+1000 This is the best advice for OP. Good that DC had some DE under their belt. But moving forward focus 100% on AP, DE is only useful if used on top of a full load AP exams (as opposed as AP substitute or 50-50 DE-AP)
Anonymous
Post 04/17/2026 20:00     Subject: Advice Needed: NOVA Credits vs Reaching for MIT / Ivies / Georgia Tech / Purdue / Vanderbilt / Top Schools
WTF. There is no 1595 possible score on the SAT. You are being trolled.
Anonymous
Post 04/17/2026 19:57     Subject: Advice Needed: NOVA Credits vs Reaching for MIT / Ivies / Georgia Tech / Purdue / Vanderbilt / Top Schools
Anonymous wrote:Elite schools barely take APs, much less DE.


+1. DC is in a private T-20. Throw away 2 years worth of DE (even advanced classes consistent with current college major). AP given credit up to 15 units and useful for placement, e.g. BC Calc (score 5) can skip calc 1 and calc 2, start with calc 3. Harvard and a few other tippy top schools no longer give AP credit, just placement advantage.
Anonymous
Post 04/17/2026 19:54     Subject: Advice Needed: NOVA Credits vs Reaching for MIT / Ivies / Georgia Tech / Purdue / Vanderbilt / Top Schools
Kid has an impressive SAT score and has clearly taken a rigorous course load. What do his extra curricular activities look like? For top schools, that is an important factor
Anonymous
Post 04/17/2026 19:53     Subject: Advice Needed: NOVA Credits vs Reaching for MIT / Ivies / Georgia Tech / Purdue / Vanderbilt / Top Schools
Anonymous wrote:Do you really think Linear Algebra at community college could be close to equivalent to linear algebra at a place like MIT?


Not even close. Kid should retake some of these DE classes when he gets to college
Anonymous
Post 04/17/2026 19:50     Subject: Advice Needed: NOVA Credits vs Reaching for MIT / Ivies / Georgia Tech / Purdue / Vanderbilt / Top Schools
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Further, for placement purposes, colleges will only take AP tests. They generally have a strong preference for AP classes over DE as DE is seen as less rigorous due to peer group differences between the two.


+2 Plus, they know kids take DE because they are easier As and kids can cheat more easily (at least in FCPS). Also, kids try to game the system by trying to get college credit without having to take an AP test. DE is a bad idea if your school offers AP and you are applying to highly selective colleges.



This. I’m a HS teacher and a student was just telling me today how his DE classes are much easier than his AP classes.