I agree with the others to not write the days and times.
I would talk with your counselor, they should cover this in their LoR/common app form, especially if this program isn’t detailed on the school profile (ask the counselor about that too and look at a copy of your school’s profile.)
You could write in addition to my five HS classes, I was approved by my HS to take two in person classes at X college thru Program X. Then the name of the classes, their course #, and a blurb about the course (take it from the syllabus). Nothing about days/times, nothing about the 200 honors level course being a weed out, nothing about staying over at your girlfriends house.
Agree with others this is unnecessary info. The AOs will likely not see this a particularly relevant and will wonder why you are including it. What MIGHT be relevant is the workload - Class X required an additional 5 hours of prep work outside of regular class meetings or something like that. The work load is relevant. The class meeting times are not. And, honestly, it is not uncommon for high school students to take dual enrollment classes that have evening meeting times so it is not anything highly unusual worth explaining, imo.
I don’t agree with this either. There are plenty of outside of school hours things that require hours of prep. My musician spent MANY hours outside the school day doing many things. He never listed the hours or prep…
I may be thinking of the UC app and perhaps the Common App doesn’t have this (I don’t recall)…But for ECs you do list the number of hours you spend per week and the number of weeks per year that you participate. That was what I was thinking off - since you do list the number of hours per week you participate in a given EC, then it would be fair to include that information about a class that went above and beyond normal class time and, since a class wouldn’t be included in the EC, then the additional info section would be the appropriate place to state this. Again, the UC app definitely asks for the number of hours spent on each EC, don’t recall for the Common App.
My kids were long enough ago they didn’t use the common app. But yes, the hours are listed generally for ECs. They are never quite right…because of summers, etc.
I think the school counselor should address this type of coursework…because it certainly isn’t the norm anywhere else I’ve ever heard of (taking a college class at the college but not DE, and not for college credit).
And really…some students take a lot of time to prep for any number of HS courses. Should that all be listed too? I don’t think so.
I understand that logic as applied to ECs where there could be a big range of times spent, which I presume is why that is indeed part of the Common App activities section.
But unless I am missing something, those are pretty normal amounts of class time. And I have never heard of people trying to explain how much time homework or prep or studying for exams or whatever takes for any of their classes.
And in fact that seems to me like a really complex subject because two different people could take the same class, both do well, and yet one could spend a lot more time than the other outside of class. And then if you were thinking about which of those scenarios was a better indicator of future college success, I am not sure it would make sense to pick the person who worked more outside of class. I think there is a certain mindset where some kids and parents and such think it is morally virtuous to work more, but frankly if a kid can get the same good results efficiently and leave more time for other things, that is good, no?
Anyway, I am in the camp which thinks less is more in this case. Maybe it would be fine to explain such things too, but to me it feels like there is limited upside and some risk it could come across with unintended implications.
I was just guessing the time - it was a random number. My line of thinking was that a college course likely requires additional work time outside of class, more than would be required for a high school class (using random numbers: if the average high school classed requires 3 hours of homework and prep per week, then a college class may require 5 hours or 10 hours or whatever). Since the class is not well-defined as a college class on the high school transcript and may in fact appear to be just another high school class, then within the explanation that these classes were in fact college classes with far greater demands than readily apparent by transcript alone, including the time commitment involved might make sense (as part of the description of what exactly these classes were and how they differ from other classes on the transcript). So, for example, something like “CLASS NAME taken at UNIVERSITY NAME which consisted of 3 hours of instructor presentation of course materials per week, and 9 hours of outside work hours per week.” Since there is no college transcript, then the number of college credit hours will not be listed which would otherwise have indicated an approximate workload.
Which is why I gave my explanation above, along with what not to include.
So the OP can certainly say, to use an example, that they took Organic Chemistry I at the college.
What the OP shouldn’t say is that it’s a real college class with real college students and a real professor that meets weekly for a 3 hour lecture, 1 hour recitation, 4 hour lab, 1 hour lab recitation with 3-2 hour midterms and a 3 hour final and requires 9 hours of outside preparation.
The AO knows that from seeing Org Chem 1. If they wanted that level of idetail, it would be an application question.
Sorry, just to clarify, I was referring to what the OP listed for the class times in the hypothetical paragraphs.
And generally my feeling is the same as skieurope’s. If this is not clear on the transcript, I think it is fine to note these are college classes. And then I would leave all the other implications unsaid.
I don’t think it does any harm to list the days and times, but the guidance counselor can do that too. Personally, I would go ahead and write what you planned but change it slightly.
I took two courses at ABC college as part of my academic schedule (not dual enrollment) to deepen my studies in ???:
Honors Course X (1-2pm Monday-Friday, with labs??? 7-9 pm Tuesday and Friday)