Should I take Dual-Enrollment, If I want to go to a top school? (Like MIT or Ivy Leagues)Answered
I am questioning if taking dual-enrollment would give me a higher chance of getting accepted to the top colleges or universities. My teachers and family told me that taking the dual-enrollment program would give me college credits and would help me get into college.
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3 answers
At Top Elites or Ivy, the presence of Dual-Enrollment coursework on your transcript only works as evidence of course rigor. In some cases, it doesn't mean anything at all. For example, if your HS had Spanish 1, 2, and 3 but had a dual enrollment contract with your local community college that would allow you to earn college credits for taking SP101, SP102, and SP103 which is the same class and gave you the option of taking those classes at your High School, then essentially all you are doing is earning 9 or 18 college credits by taking courses already offered at your HS that are neither Honors level nor AP level. So the only benefit of Dual enrollment in this example would be if you graduated and wanted to matriculate into that community college. Then you would have 9 to 18 college credits on your CC transcript.
In a different example, say you wanted to take Physics C or Multivariable Calculus at the same community college and had to do that online or in person. Well, that shows serious course rigor and if you got As in the those courses, those As would be impressive. If you earned 6 college credits for those 2 classes, the chances are high that you could apply to have them count as transfer credit. But keep in mind that at an MIT or CalTech, hardly any STEM AP courses are given credit even if you get a 5 on the AP exam. I think the only exception right now is Physics C (calculus-based). So it's a coin toss on whether MIT would give you college credit for the 2 classes I mentioned.
But that's not the main benefit of Dual Enrollment in the admissions process. Depending on the courses you sign up for, it can serve as a evidence that you have intellectual curiosity and a love of learning, all good positive factors in determining your success factor if you applied to Top colleges.
I took 2 college courses and 6 dual enrollment classes and my least concern was whether or not I would receive college credit for these efforts. I did them so I would have a better chance of getting accepted which should be the main goal.
Hope that helps.
Taking dual credit might be convenient especially at top schools since their tuition is usually higher than most. As for helping you get accepted it doesn't really apply in the sense an AP class would on it's own. At my school all classes that are offered for dual credit are honors or AP which require more time and have more, harder work so in that sense dual credit would show that you not only are taking rigorous classes but made use of the opportunity presented to you.
The last thing I want to mention is that not all schools accept transfer credit from dual enrollment. If they do they usually have a limit of how many they accept. I would check the guidelines for the schools you like to see what they are. That way you know if it would be wiser to take a dual credit class over another one you would like to take.
Not at elite schools. Schools like Harvard, for example, have the infamous math 55, which is a year long freshman course that when completed is considered equivalent to a math degree. You need to be even more advanced than what you can do dual credit to do that course. Naturally they have other math courses for those not as advanced - but overall you are expected to be advanced well above your usual HS student. MIT openly says your typical calculus course at other schools is not up to their standard. Botton line is elite schools are elite because they expect their students to all be at the level of having a lot of Dual-Credit and/or AP. Basically they want you to be at least at IB Diploma standard which is pretty close to having a AA degree. Dual Credit/AP is more or leas expected for freshman admission at about the Associate Degree level or even higher.
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Thank you, that was all I needed!