<p>I go to an early college high school. With this program, students have the opportunity to take college classes at the state university and local community college. I already have 45 colleges credits, and by the end of my senior year I will have enough credits equivalent to an associate’s degree in science.</p>
<p>Nobody at my school has been able to tell me what kind of advantages this will give me in the application process. I’m applying to highly selective schools, and I know there are students out there who have applied to universities with a handful of college credits. Will it make me stand out from the other applicants, or does it even out that fact that my high school offers no AP courses?</p>
<p>Assuming that the college courses are non-remedial* ones in typical subjects taken by bachelor’s degree students**, they are likely to be seen as at least as rigorous as AP courses, and probably more rigorous in many cases, since AP courses are often slower paced than college courses they emulate, and college courses may be more advanced than those that AP courses emulate.</p>
<p><em>Remedial in a college context means any course that covers material normally expected to be learned in high school, such as math below calculus level.
*</em>Such as English, other humanities, math, science, history, other social studies, foreign language, and visual or performing art.</p>
<p>I think this will defiantly look good because it states that you are already college ready. If you did good in those classes, then it states that you are ready to move on to a good university. :)</p>
<p>With 45 credits wouldn’t you be considered a transfer student? I remember seeing some places stating that you are a first year student if you have less than 32 credits.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t be considered a transfer student because the schools I want to go to won’t accept the credits. The classes are a higher level than what is typically taken in high school (example: I am in Calculus III), but despite this the only colleges that will accept a majority of the credits are the surrounding state schools.
Thank you guys so much for your quick responses. :)</p>
<p>Calculus III is not particularly impressive unless you are a freshman. Most strong math and science students at schools like Andover, Exeter, and TJHSST—even most magnet schools for that matter—will have done that plus linear algebra by the end of tenth grade. If that’s the best you’ve got and are interested in STEM, you’re behind other math and science students heading to Ivy League and similarly selective schools, especially compared to students at HYPMS, Yale a little less so, though.</p>
<p>If you haven’t applied to College, I’d encourage you to look at Emory. I did a similar program to yours and Emory took 31 hours of credit–most top 20 schools would give you nothing for community college courses taken while in high school.</p>
<p>Seriously, super-elite students at elite high schools are outliers; taking multivariable calculus (which is beyond the AP / college-frosh level) while in high school is beyond what most high school students, including most aiming for highly selective universities, reach.</p>
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<p>Most universities will not consider an applicant a transfer applicant unless s/he takes college courses after graduating from high school (exact thresholds vary; check web sites or ask directly).</p>
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<p>While many private schools find ways to exclude transfer credit (presumably, they want you to stay and pay tuition as long as possible), you do want to check that you can get appropriate subject credit and advanced placement for your prior course work, so that you do not have to repeat (for example) calculus 1, 2, 3 etc. before taking more advanced math courses.</p>
<p>Public schools tend to be more generous with transfer credit as far as credit units go (since most of their students are subsidized for lower in-state tuition, they want the students to graduate quickly), but subject credit and advanced placement need to be checked using the articulation agreements (usually between community colleges and same state public universities), or evaluated individually.</p>
<p>Am I the only one who thinks NotRSpektor1729’s post is super obnoxious? Basically saying that if you go to a public high school you have no place doing STEM at an Ivy League “or similarly selective” school. My D goes to one of the better public schools in our area and she will be in a very small group of students who make it to Calculus III by senior year.</p>
<p>I’m quite entertained by NotRSpektor1729’s post. It was rude for NotRSpektor1729 to say that to the OP. </p>
<p>My youngest will likely take Calc 3 and Diff Eq during his junior year. He is a year behind his brother in high school (who took Calc 3 this year as a sophomore and starts Diff Eq next week). I know they are plenty ahead of the curve. Even if they “only” got to Calculus by senior year, they would still be far enough along for STEM at an Ivy or similar selective university.</p>
<p>Which is why posts like that make me cranky. It gives kids that read these forums the idea that they don’t have a chance.</p>
<p>Yes, a lot of posters here seem to have warped notions of what is “normal”, “advanced”, and “very advanced” for math progress for college-bound students. For math progress in the US:</p>
<p>Remedial: did not complete precalculus/trigonometry in high school, or knowledge is too weak to continue to calculus in college
Normal: precalculus/trigonometry in 12th grade (including IB math SL) and ready to take calculus in college
Advanced: calculus in 12th grade (including AP calculus AB or BC, IB math HL)
Very advanced: calculus in 11th grade or earlier, more advanced college math while still in high school</p>