And that’s why neither I nor @skieurope made any comment about whether or not OP should or should not do it - only made sure the OP (and future readers) knew that these high school courses - unlike every other course taken during high school - will follow the OP (and future readers) through college and into the med school admissions cycle unlike many other career paths.
@mmmkkk2: your GC made the right call by having you enroll in the local state college. Your high school is offering only 2 AP classes and is likely considered lower-performing. Course rigor there is not very good. Therefore, you showed that you loved learning and wanted to be challenged by taking these classes.
Colleges know that the best predictor of success in college is success in college classes (surprise, right?! 
) Therefore, your ability to get A’s and B’s in college classes will be essential, for college admission and, later on, for college success especially if you’re taking 4 or 5 college classes through Dual Enrollement (taking college classes through a HS is called Dual enrollement, Running Start, PSEO, or early college).
Many students don’t “claim” their credits, certainly not all of them. This way, they take classes similar in level to what they’ve already taken, and can ease into college. So, if you took Calc 1&2, you wouldn’t retake Calc1, but you could retake Calc2, taking into account a college like Stanford (or Pomona, or Harvey Mudd) will have more course rigor factored in. (Well, everyone’s taken Calc1 before HarveyMudd, it’s an application requirement, and everyone starts in Calc2, which is super accelerated). If you studied up to Level 4 or 5 of a college language, you would get credit for all previous classes if you enrolled in the upper-level class into which you placed (you’ll have foreign language, math, and English placement tests before you start college).
If you’re aiming for universities such as Stanford and Pomona, course rigor, love of learning, will to challenge yourself will all matter greatly. If you can take sophomore-level classes as a HS senior, after taking freshman-level classes as a HS junior, it’ll be even better. Try to see if a professor needs an assistant for research and get involved in that, too. Seek high and low because many may not be amenable to the idea of a HS student in their lab, but there may be one :).
I have not heard of any college that accepts college credits that also appear on a HS transcript, so please educate me. There was a recent thread exactly on that subject, by a parent, and most people agreed that if there was a choice to put the actual college course name on the HS transcript vs. a “science elective” with no name (in that case) on the HS transcript, it would be insane to put the college course on the HS transcript because of the potential of it not counting for transfer purposes.
I know at the college I teach at, we have had students get extremely angry at us because if they took the college class, ANY college class in HS, they cannot get college credit for it at our college or any affiliated college. If there are a substantial number of exceptions to that, I apologize, but I expect there aren’t that many people posting who have awarded and denied transfer credit for a research university in the past few years.
But the subject of the thread seems to be “am I screwed?” which means it is too late anyway. That’s just wasting time better spent on other issues. Perhaps the question should have been “how can I maximize the value of taking college courses during my HS career in terms of my college application and transfer credit?”
And to that I’d say:
- make sure to get a college transcript sent to the colleges you are applying to, and get at least one recommendation from a college professor
- find a college that does allow college courses that are on a student’s HS transcript to transfer in - my college definitely does not, no matter what, end of story
@rhandco Here is one example for you:
http://www.fau.edu/registrar/dual-enrollment/#FAQ
You need to use the transcript from college for credit transfer.
Here is another one that the specify those college level courses taken for high school graduation requirement as Dual Credit and those college courses not required for graduation considered as Dual Enrollment. Obviously the former is included on HS transcript. Both can be transferred to colleges/universities, at least for those on the list.
http://www.sic.edu/academics/high-school-students/dual-credit-dual-enrollment-faqs
The original question was: was it a good move to dual enroll since my school is low performing/only has two AP’s? And the answer is “yes”.
Whether OP gets credit or not, it’ll benefit him/her by giving him/her access to top schools (including Stanford), that offer the best financial aid packages, will prepare him/her well to succeed in college, and will provide a better environment than the current school. So, OP should thank his/her GC for the opportunity.
I’ve never heard of FAU. Looking briefly at their webpage, they are four-year only so that may matter; my college gives both undergrad and graduate degrees. The OP does not seem to be targeting FAU or similar.
Not required for HS graduation is important, and generally the best idea is to make sure anything not needed for graduation is not on the HS transcript, just in case.
Is it really obvious that if a HS has few AP courses, they have to take college courses in order to get into a great college? That is not what I understand. They look at the most rigorous courses available at the HS and compare what the student is taking. And special courses that are not AP like science research can count a lot.
I don’t see any benefit of taking college courses that count for HS graduation over taking honors courses that count for graduation and self-studying for AP exams.
There are also online AP opportunities available through Johns Hopkins.
Well, if nothing at the HS is rigorous, yes the student is supposed to take initiatives and look for challenging coursework elsewhere. They’re not supposed to be content in an environment where Algebra2 is a high math attainment, foreign language and science are afterthoughts, and the average ACT is 17.
Self studying for AP exams doesn’t count for course rigor. It can SUPPLEMENT course rigor but it doesn’t replace it.
Johns Hopkins is expensive. DE/RunningStart/PSEO is free. For students in lower-performing, poor, and/or rural districts where most students do not attend 4-year colleges postgraduation and where classes are geared toward another category of students, DE is the only way to demonstrate they’re ready for college work.
In addition, if they hope to apply to top programs and/or want to qualify for Questbridge, yes, having college courses will be a plus.
This does NOT apply to high schools that offer 30 AP courses - at these, the problem is the opposite, making the students slow down and not use the “everything but the kitchen sink” approach to APs.
@rhandco: The situation at your college is not the norm,.
Some colleges accept NEITHER AP NOR DE credits, because their classes are more advanced than those (ie., HYPSM etc), some only accept a limited number of either one (ie., Tufts, SLACs), some (such as most public universities) accept DE from instate colleges very easily and may balk at OOS DE credit. Few universites accept “college courses taken at a high school” as equivalent to college courses.
DE credits are transferable to many schools (not all), especially state schools within the same state as the high school DE courses. But I have seen them not transfer in certain instances too. The key is to look at the big picture (where do you think you want to go to college?) and do the research as far in advance as possible.
This Florida teen graduated from high school and college (BA) within the same week, thanks to DE.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/florida-girl-graduates-from-high-school-and-college-in-same-week/
A theater friend of my older son’s graduated from high school one year, and college the next (also thanks to DE).
Yes these are extreme kids, and this wouldn’t be appropriate for every high school student. And again, not all universities take the DE credits . . . when I was looking at Vandy I noticed that. But if my son goes to an in-state public university (and a couple of OOS publics), he’ll have about 26-27 credits to take with him.
California public universities do not appear to specify any restriction on accepting transfer credit for college courses taken while in high school, including in dual enrollment situations or where the college courses also fulfill high school graduation requirements.
If the student has exhausted the high school’s offerings before 12th grade (e.g. has taken the highest level of math, AP or otherwise, in 11th grade) and wants to continue to more advanced courses in that subject, then should s/he refuse to take an available more advanced course at a nearby college? I.e. look at the question more in terms of the student’s academic interests and development in subject(s) that s/he is interested in.
Harvard accepts AP credit, but requires Advanced Standing to take full advantage of it.
The poster makes it sound like Harvard doesn’t give a flying “hoot” about AP, that is incorrect per their website.
For the students I know who are in districts with few AP courses, they do not let students “push” unless they skip a grade and therefore will graduate early. Thus, the very smartest kids will take Honors Calculus in 12th grade. They do not have placement exams to place ahead into a higher grade’s class.
Of course, if mom or dad is paying for advanced classes, that is different and the assumption is the district plays ball or loses donations. But it has been very difficult to get placement to a higher grade’s courses in the high schools I and my friends and family have dealt with. The situation I know of are:
- a sophomore in AP Calc BC, who will take multivariate calc online as a junior, and will graduate as a junior - local CC and state colleges stink, no good colleges nearby
- seniors who took multivariate calc as juniors, so took science research which included entering various state and national science fair/project competitions
Low SES students who are extremely bright may not get the chance to DE unless the program is forced upon the HS (which I believe is the case in Florida).
Perhaps there is a regional difference as well. One might expect the Northeast and the South and West have different takes on the system.
I don’t think that is what MYOS was implying; I think s/he was trying to make the valid point that there is disparity among colleges with their credit policies on AP and DE.
FWIW, while technically correct that Harvard grants AP credit to those accepting advanced standing, very, very few students choose to do so.
Fwiw, all of my older children have had DE credits on their high school transcripts and all of those credits have received transfer credit at their destination universities (via the college transcript, not the high school transcript.) And yes, those schools have had grad schools.
I guess there are enough information to get someone educated. 
Curious though - does Florida, which appears to have a robust DE program, require their state universities to take all DE college credit?
And I found out that it is NJ state law which apparently limits DE credit, to virtually nothing:
http://sasundergrad.rutgers.edu/academics/academic-credit/transfer-credit-from-institutions-not-a-part-of-rutgers-university
And the answer to my question is yes according to this - see “mandatory” for Florida state colleges:
http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED484432.pdf
Students can check their state on the list. California requires state colleges to take it as well.
That link should clear up state by state…
We move quite a bit and my kids have applied to colleges with DE credit from more than one state to OOS schools. Their DE credits have been accepted. Our youngest ds had to submit course, textbook, and syllabus info to one dept, but the courses were approved for credit. Other times it has been a non-issue and credit was awarded immediately. Most of the classes have been from 4yr to 4 yr universities. One dd did transfer credit from an OOS CC.
When in doubt, make direct inquiries about how the individual institutions handle DE credit. There is not a single answer.
All of Florida’s 4-year University accepts DE credits, even those that meet HS graduation requirements. The same is true of the University of Miami, University of Virginia, UNC-CH, Georgetown University, MIT and Georgia Tech, to name a few. My daughter did about 50 college credits while in High School and they all appear on her HS Transcript and all credits transferred to a Florida 4-year Institution. These DE courses also affect her weighted GPA at the same level as AP courses (big impact!). Some of these courses also satisfied her HS graduation requirements. Only one course was taken on the HS Campus and taught by a HS Teacher certified to teach college courses. However, looking at her transcript from both HS and College, one could not detect where the class was taught.
Some of the graduates from a Dual Enrollment HS located on a Community College Campus: