<p>Can anyone advise me as to the pros/cons of a high school student earning a high number of credits in high school? The situation could potentially be 6 AP classes and 17 credits from classes taken at the local college. I don’t think she’ll actually do all that, but it is possible. I’m not asking if the colleges will accept the credits because I don’t think she even wants them to, but rather how this would possibly impact admissions or merit scholarships. She would be taking the AP classes because they’re required and the for-credit college classes specifically because she wants to. I’m just looking for what we don’t know we don’t know, if there are any potential pitfalls. Thank you!</p>
<p>You really need to call the individual schools but, generally speaking, if the community college credits are taken while the student is enrolled in hs, the student is seen as a freshman and would still qualify for aid and programs (honors programs for ex) geared to freshman. </p>
<p>One thing you may want to find out is whether or not your student will have the option of having the credits transfer. Most of the time, a student can choose not to have AP credits count but I don’t know that that’s always true for cc credits. </p>
<p>Negatives: </p>
<p>The <em>one</em> thing I have heard of is that if there are too many actual transfer credits and the student is a financial aid recipient, a student will be able to take fewer courses in college because there is a limit on courses you can attempt for financial aid. So you don’t want all those community college credits to be electives or the student will have few electives later on. Check on this with the individual school, though. </p>
<p>I’ve also heard of people who said that they opted out of an intro course at the 4-year school based on AP and found that, despite excellent AP scores, they were not adequately prepared for the higher-level courses in those departments. I’ve heard this is especially true for science and math majors.</p>
<p>"The <em>one</em> thing I have heard of is that if there are too many actual transfer credits and the student is a financial aid recipient, a student will be able to take fewer courses in college because there is a limit on courses you can attempt for financial aid. " </p>
<p>would you please explain this part to me? The classes that she would be taking are free to her, so financial aid wouldn’t come into play. Does that matter?</p>
<p>A full time student is allowed twelve semesters of federal financial aid, if qualified. Classes she is taking which are not paid for through FA would have no bearing on her later eligibility.</p>
<p>State aid varies. I believe it’s 9 or 10 semesters in NJ, don’t know about NY.
Regardless, though, if she’s not using the eligibility now, it won’t impact the future.</p>
<p>There’s a limit on the total number of credits attempted for financial aid. The limit is generous so it really only comes into play when a student takes substantially more credits (I think 3 or 4 semesters) but students can eat it up with lots of electives (semester abroad, etc) especially if they later go into a more regimented major (like engineering or nursing, a combined bachelor’s/ mater’s). For federal aid, the # of credits attempted is set and does not include AP. For institutional aid, you have to check with the individual school. </p>
<p>From what I’m reading, it doesn’t matter if the student is using financial aid now. It just talks about credits attempted, not credits attempted while receiving aid. </p>
<p>Zoosermom, this is only an issue with future financial aid-- not current.</p>
<p>2college–my reading of this, and what I’ve been advised at professional financial aid conferences, is that the student can’t get aid for attempted credits up to 150% of the length of the program. Those attempted credits not covered by aid wouldn’t count. This is how it is applied to the college students in the program I advise for.</p>
<p>They won’t transfer at all at some schools, Harvard for instance. They will allow you to take a higher level course in some cases.</p>
<p>Son went to a dual enrollment HS, entered college last year as a freshman with 40+ credits. He now is considered class of 2010 but with junior academic standing. He does not plan to graduate early, but to take additional classes. He has a merit scholarship, it is for 4 years regardless of the academic standing.
The big problem is with course registration. He is an engineering major so needs to take courses in sequence and came in with math and engineering credits. DS has to register with graduation year not academic status year and so by the time he gets to register classes and labs are often already filled by students graduating earlier. For the most part, he has been able to get into the classes he needs, but has not been easy and has meant having the least desirable times.</p>
<p>I was classified a junior on my 18th birthday about a hundred years ago. I slowed down considerably right after that. Of course. Texas lowered the drinking age to 18 that year for about 2 years.</p>