I’m a junior and am taking 4 AP classes currently, which are: AP US History, AP Calc AB, AP English Lang, and AP Biology.
I am also eligible to dual enroll and get my AA degree while still in college. In order to get my AA, I would need to take on a near fully load schedule for the 4 upcoming semesters. The multiple ways I COULD organize this are:
Spring (max 4)
Summer (max 2)
Fall (max 4)
and then have spring of senior year off
Spring: take 3
Summer: take 2
Fall: take 3
Spring: take 2
Spring of my junior year off
Summer: take 2
Fall: take 4
Spring: take 4
Spring: take 2
Summer: take 2
Fall: Take 3
Spring: take 3
If you have any better schedules, please do suggest them.
I wanted to know if I should go ahead with this plan since I am taking quite a few APs. The more reasonable schedules considering the APs are 3 and 4. All of the other credits I would need to graduate would come from my AP classes I’ve taken in the past/am taking/will take.For my senior year, I would need to at least take AP Government due to my magnet. I can get rid of 2 classes in dual enroll if I add on AP Calc BC and AP Chem.
I think I’m quite studious and have passed all of my previous AP exams but one, which is why I’m fairly confident in my future successes. lease give me your honest opinions! Thank you so much!
College classes can be paced double to high school classes. Have you considered this? For instance, if you took calc in college, the material for AB and BC would be covered in a single year, not spread out over 2 years as your high school is doing (some don’t). That said, I think the quality of dual enrollment classes can vary a lot; ours mostly aren’t even on the level of AP. So it’s hard to know how feasible this idea is.
What are you planning to do with this AA degree? Is it important to your educational plan or is it something you want to do just because it’s there?
I’ve heard that the dual enrollment classes here are really easy and, like you said, not close to the level of AP.
I plan to transfer to a bigger college, most likely out of state, with the AA. I want to do it because that would save me a lot of money, getting the general classes out of the way. The school I really want to get into right now is UCLA, so I would “transfer” there.
I suggest you run this plan by the people on the financial aid or parents forum. Depending on the college it may be harder to get admitted as a transfer and you probably won’t be eligible for scholarships. It might not be as simple or as cost-effective as you think.
Would a high school student with an AA be considered a transfer applicant?
I don’t think having the associate’s degree will inherently reduce your time spent unless the individual classes transfer. Without any additional information, it seems unlikely that a selective out-of-state school would give you a significant amount of transfer credit. If your high school offers a lot AP classes and they’re more rigorous than the college classes, it might be better to stick with those.
Having an AA doesn’t really do much for you, other than you have many credits from all the classes.
Or would you have an AA degree that you could do something with? and if you could, would you?
You will get the most out of those credits at your State U.
You may not get as many at out of state or private universities.
So think about where you might want to go to college…think about your finances.
Also if all of those classes transfer…what classes do you take junior and senior year? Only the difficult ones in your major? Usually you spread those out with electives.
Would you try to graduate early? How old will you be when you graduate?
So in general I would not recommend overloading yourself with so many classes during HS unless you are not rich enough or poor enough or smart enough to get scholarships and are planning to go to your State U and want to graduate early and can take all your major classes at the same time.
If you are planning to not definitely go to your state U, and can afford at least 3 years in school, then just take enough credits that would transfer for general Freshman courses.