On this topic in general:
AP/IB vs Dual Enrollment (DE)
AP/IB
- AP tests are well known nationally and are uniform across the nation
- You can look on any college’s website and see what credit you will get for what scores on the AP/IB tests
- AP/IB Courses are given at your High School
DE
- There are more of a variety of DE courses available at a CC
- DE courses will count for your college GPA…make sure to do well.
- Private and Out of State Colleges may or may not give you credit. They may not give credit for courses taken to fulfill HS requirements. You do not know what credit you can get ahead of time.
- Public In-state schools will give you credit for DE courses. You may be able to get up to 2 years of credits.
- DE classes may be taken at the local Community College…how will transportation work?
- For DE classes, the “grade” doesn’t rely on one test on one day but over a whole semester.
- DE spring breaks may not line up with HS breaks
My thoughts are:
If you are taking the “typical” courses, stick with AP/IB.
If you need to take Calc 3, then think about DE.
If you are going to a public University, consider DE.
If you do DE, make sure you are taking the right courses to prepare yourself for the major of choice.
I was interviewing a student who was applying to my alma mater for nursing, and she was very proud that she was taking Sociology and Psychology in Community College. College courses! But she should have been taking AP Bio (or even DE Bio) to prepare herself. She was not admitted.
So better to take AP Calc than Statistics 101 in CC for an engineering major.