<p>I recently read an article about dual enrollment credits. The claims surprised me. It says if a student has more than 20 dual enrollment credits, it could definitely affect your chances to get into Ivy League or tier 1 colleges. The reason is simple because you are not considered as freshman but a transfer student, and most of these colleges do not accept transfer students. Is this true? Anyone knows this kind of stories?</p>
<p>After I posted this I contacted Washington University in St Louis, the admission officer said it is not true at their university. I do not know if it is true at other tier 1 colleges.</p>
<p>The issue of dual enrollment credits creating a problem is more likely to occur with public universities, as they are the schools most likely to accept the dual enrollment credits and apply them towards an undergraduate degree. If you have “too many” of these credits, you may be considered to be a transfer student rather than an incoming freshman. That puts you in a different applicant pool and can affect your chances of getting in, since there are usually far fewer slots available for transfers. And being classified as a transfer may make you ineligible for many scholarships (which may be offered only to freshmen).</p>
<p>However, it’s usually not a problem with the top-tier private universities since most of them do not give credit for dual enrollment classes, especially if they were taken at the high school (which is the most common setup in our state). If these classes were truly “dual enrollment” and counted towards your high school graduation requirements, many of the elite schools just consider them as rigorous high school classes. Although at some schools, you have a better chance of getting credit for them if they were actually taken on the college campus with college faculty teaching the class.</p>
<p>^^^
This is my understanding as well. WUSTL, specifically, awards only up to 15 units of credits for AP, IB or college classes. And one of the criteria for the college credit to be applied towards WUSTL is: The course is not on the high school transcript and did not count toward the high school diploma. This is the case with most of the tier 1 schools.</p>
<p>Here is the situation for my son who is a high school sophomore now. He started taking college courses since he was freshman. In his high school the dual enrollment courses are classified as high school credits only, both high school and college credits, or college credits only. So by taking extra courses at the college, he will have about around 60 “college only” credits if he takes more college course in the senior year. If that really hurt his chances to get into top tier colleges, then he possibly should not take the college courses.</p>
<p>I thought this thread was going to be about how top schools think dual enrollment classes are not as challenging as AP or IB classes. I knew many won’t give credit for them, but I thought his thread would talk about top schools disliking them…</p>
<p>Policies are different at different colleges. You should take a look at how each school, that your S is interested in, awards credits for the dual enrollment courses. WUSTL, for example, would not award a credit for a college course taken prior to the junior year of the high school. So, your son will get 15 credits from his college only credit classes. I dont think it will be at any disadvantage if he applies to Wash. U. </p>
<p>I believe, Princeton does not give any credits for college classes taken in high school. So, here your son would be better of if he takes AP classes instead (if its an option).</p>
<p>The problem is that his high school only offers 4 AP courses (That is the reason he takes courses from the college). He will take 2 of them but will take all four AP exams.</p>
<p>There is a huge difference between ‘disliking’ and not giving credit. Colleges want to see kids challenging themselves, which can mean college courses. They like that. That doesnt’ mean they will give credit although they often give placement. If your goal is to get through college in three years, using dual credits, that may be difficult to pull off at the most elite schools, but if your goal is admission, that’s a different kettle of fish.</p>
<p>"So by taking extra courses at the college, he will have about around 60 “college only” credits if he takes more college course in the senior year. "
And by doing so he will have shown colleges that is MORE than capable of doing college level work, which will NEVER be viewed as BAD by college admissions officers! On the contrary! So if all you are worried about is will top colleges be more likely to reject him if he has done college level work then RELAX. IF however, he is hoping to blast through his UG degree in 2-3 years because of all the units he has already taken, then realize that strategy won’t work with private colleges. Private colleges limit the units taken at other colleges when deciding how many classes a student must take to graduate, and most will use their own placement tests to determine class placement, and some won’t give any college credit to dual enrollment classes taken in HS.</p>
<p>Actully he is taking college courses to show his capability of doing college work and in case he can not get into one of those top private universities, so he can use his credits for going state public university.</p>
<p>^^ you are going to have to research carefully how YOUR state U handles dual enrollment classes, because it varies a lot. But for MOST top private colleges, taking college level classes, and doing well in them while in HS, will never be viewed as a negative factor in admissions decisions. It probably won’t reduce the number of years it takes him to graduate from a top private college however, because they DON’T view those students as transfer students.</p>
<p>I did call the state university, the admission officer said as long as he does not have more than certain number of credits, he will be admitted as freshman and eligible for the scholarships for freshmen. That sounds good.</p>