Hello again!
I made a post about a month ago asking for help with planning my schedule and got a lot of great advice, so I’m back again!
I had completely forgotten that I have the opportunity to do something called Early College, where I would be 100% attending my local community college while still being a high school student. This is different from regular dual enrollment because, even though I may be a high school student, I would no longer be taking classes at my high school, instead at the college.
Cons:
One of the counselors at my school said most of the students who do Early College aren’t in any clubs because they don’t have the time.
All the AP classes I took would become useless. UMD accepts a max of 60 credit hours, and the AA in CS is 60 credit hours.
All the easy CS classes and a lot of gen-eds would be completed.
Pros:
I would be saving money on undergrad. (If I get a 5 on the APCSA test, and take the other AP classes I planned to take the overall difference won’t be much)
Exposure to college-level work.
Would be saving time on undergrad/ going to med school.
Things to note:
Both my school and the community college EC program have sent students to schools like MIT, UMD, Cornell, etc. The prestige between the two doesn’t really matter to me. Also, when applying to university, you don’t apply as a transfer. You have to apply as a freshman since you were/are a high school student.
In truth, I’m not really sure what I’m asking. I had previously come to the conclusion that I didn’t want to do the program because of the cons above. However, I’m having doubts again because of time. I guess I just want other perspectives on how this could help/hurt me later.
Are you seriously considering medical school as an option?
If so then there may be another con: College classes that you take, even while you are officially a high school student, will count towards your university GPA for admissions to medical school.
It sounds like you are a very strong student. Even with this, you are likely to be a still stronger student in two or three or four years. Premed classes will be tough and will be full of strong students. There is something to be said for being as well prepared as you can be before you take these premed classes.
There are tradeoffs. It can be tough to decide how rapidly to take on the more difficult classes that are inevitable at some point for a very strong student. Perhaps my number 1 recommendation would be to only do this if you are quite sure that you want to.
Extracurriculars do not necessarily have to be clubs as school.
Will the AP scores give you advanced placement (based on the charts at both the community college and UMD / other four year schools you are considering), so that you can take more advanced courses in dual enrollment?
Taking actual college courses at a college while still in high school can smooth the transition to college since you will not be doing that transition at the same time as other college frosh transitions.
Be aware that any college courses taken while in high school and their grades will count toward college GPA calculated for medical school. So if you are a pre-med, try to earn A grades. Also be aware that medical schools often look down on pre-med science courses taken at community colleges; if you take any such courses there, you may have to take more advanced upper level courses at a four year college to confirm your knowledge in the eyes of medical school. Note also that repeating college courses or AP credit is also looked down on by medical schools.
Thank you for the advice! I’m not sure if I want to☹️ I agree, It will help with exposure to college level work, but unlike an AP test if I fail it’ll do a lot more damage to my premed transcript. However, unlike other dual enrollment options I would not be taking highschool classes alongside the college ones.
I am worried i’m going to regret not taking my time in highschool. This is why I has not chosen to go with Early college before.
I think it would actually be in a class with only the other students in the Early college program. It’s this odd in-between on college coursework exposure but not college environment exposure
I did not quite understand how the courses in CS would transfer if you are going to be a pre-med with a different major. Unless your goal is to major in CS and go to med school.
Is this something new? Does the reporting of DE grades also apply for Business and Law schools? Several members of my extended family have done DE in HS and professional schools after college, and I don’t recall any talking about their DE GPA. That said, their DE GPA’s were not a negative.
In that light, if DE GPA really does matter for professional school, I’d almost see this as a benefit. Getting an A at a local Community College in basic econ, psych or some other classes may be substantially easier than earning an A in some other colleges (grade inflation aside). Agreed pre-med courses should not be DE, but stacking a bunch of A’s that will bump your GPA for med school even before you start freshman year and getting a better preparation for college to boot sounds pretty good to me.
@HNH I am not sure how new this is…but yes, these courses do count in the GPA for medical school applicants now.
Like all other college applicants, all transcripts for all previous college courses are required to be sent to the colleges.
Another thing if premed is a consideration…some medical schools have issues with required courses for medical school applicants taken at community colleges.
If you’re asking about the normal dual enrollment option? If I don’t do Early college, I would take 1 or 2 DE my senior year. My school offers almost all the AP classes, so I was sticking to mostly that.
Not new for medical schools. AMCAS has required this for at least the last 20 years.
Any coursework that generates a college-level transcript must be reported and an official transcript must be sent to AMCAS/ACOMAS/TMDSAS. (This specifically includes any and all dual enrollment classes.) All college level coursework will be included when calculating a GPA for medical school application purposes.
Additionally, an applicant must send a transcript or official letter of release from every institution where the student has ever enrolled in any post-HS level coursework, even if the student withdrew from the class and did not receive a grade or if the student audited a class and did not receive any credit.
Failure to send all transcripts will result in the application being rejected/returned to the student, and can, in egregious cases, result in permanent disqualification from applying to med school.
Med schools calculate 2 different GPA-- an overall GPA and science GPA (sGPA). sGPA only includes coursework in biology, chemistry, physics and mathematics. The sGPA is one more generally used by med schools.
Also adcomms are aware that CC classes may be easier than classes at a 4 year institution and take that into consideration when reviewing applicants.
The AMCAS application also breaks down coursework report by year in college (as determined by credit counts) with GPAs/sGPAs calculated for each year separately.
We are getting a little off topic here. If you use AP credit for required courses for medical school applicants, medical schools will expect that you take a higher level of that course as a college course.
No, so long as the credits are accepted by your undergrad as fulfilling graduation requirements.
And most med schools will accept some AP credits. How many credits and for which courses varies by school. Please consult MSAR for details.
As @thumper1 noted, med schools expect that any AP or CC credits for pre-reqs to be supplemented with additional UL coursework in the same department if you want to be considered a strong applicant.
Early college will make almost zero difference when it comes to med school admissions. It’s not something that will make your application stand out. You will still be expected to supplement any Early College pre-req coursework with additional UL courses in the same dept.
But if you take any science or math class in Early College, med schools expect you to take at least 1-2 more upper level classes in the same department as the CC classes to show that your good grades at the CC/Early College program weren’t a fluke.
For example, if you take a semester of college writing during Early College, that’s fine. You don’t need to retake that. But you will still need a second semester of college-level writing to fulfill med school admission requirements since med schools require 2 semesters of writing skills. If you take 2 semesters of college-level writing skills in Early College, you’re done.
If you take Bio 1 and 2 at Early College, you will need to supplement those classes with 2 more semesters of upper level biology classes even though med schools only require 2 semesters of college bio.
I guess I just want other perspectives on how this could help/hurt me later.