Thanks for advises! Now let me go back to making my own backpacking gears. That’s my old hobby that I just picked up again.
Good for you, SculptorDad! 
If the school (or the state) requires courses to be taken for high school graduation, then your daughter will either have to take them or take others to fulfill the requirements of 4 history classes, 4 English, etc. Most states will only count math or a foreign language taken in 8th grade as part of the requirements for high school graduation, no other courses (such as a community college course or a homeschool course the parent certifies as HS level). If daughter took the equivalent of APUSH and doesn’t want to take it again, she’ll have to take some other history course in order to get a diploma.
So the researchers in the Atlantic article point out that “when they controlled for things like race, gender, socioeconomic background, and standardized-test scores, the courses that students took in high school had very little impact on college grades.”.
Well, no, if you do a regression analysis and only compare kids in these extremely defined little subgroups, there will not be much difference in what they do or learn in high school, or even what type of college they go to, what type of course they take there and what type of grade they get. Doesn’t meant it would not make a difference if these kids actually did very different things in high school. Since most kids probably don’t, outliers disappear in the noise.
@twoinanddone
She plans to stay 4 years in HS and take 4 history classes. Fortunately, the school offers many core and elective history courses.
@Tigerle,
I agree. DD worked very hard for those courses, sometimes studying through the night because the courses were challenging (but still within Zone of Proximal Development) and she still wanted to excel. She worked much harder than she would have in regular courses, and her understanding of the world and writing skills have greatly improved through them.
@VikiSocal, Our high school lists all high school level work on the transcript. My kid’s high school transcript dated back to 5th grade. I think you are thinking more of ECs, and I would agree that those are usually not mentioned, but I would do so if they were pretty remarkable.
@twoinanddone my D never took math at the public junior high or high school and she was able to graduate from HS.
in California
The counselor just signed off that it wasn’t necessary. Maybe every district is a little different
SD’s daughter already has an associates degree’s number of college credits, not just a few supplementary courses. They will need to be claimed come college app time.
We have submitted her community college transcripts to her high school and will do that when she apply to colleges as well. I already have talked to some colleges’ adcoms and personally know quite a few students who got the freshman admission with even more units than dd’s.
What is likely to happen is that they will generally give 30 (private) or ~60 (in state public) units but will allow the rest courses to be used to meet prerequisites or general education requirements, allowing the students to focus on advanced courses or take another major during the 4 years. Some schools give junior status for class registration purpose even though the student is a freshman.
One of my kids took all her math through pre-Calc before high school and her high school transcript simply states:
Algebra requirement met in middle school. (actually it was met in elementary, but not to quibble)
Because the only thing the state of California cares about is Algebra 1. But it will be obvious to colleges that she took higher level math in m.s.
As far as English, the nice thing about English is that it is rarely ever really review. Every time you read Hamlet and discuss it with a new teacher/group of classmates you learn something new. I had read a lot of books we read in college classes in high school classes and somehow it never felt like review.
Our high school requires every high school credit course to be listed. Middle schoolers are offered the option to forgo the credit for high school level classes they take and keep them off the high school transcript, but then they must repeat the class in high school.
DD20 took two high school courses in eighth grade, the ms and hs are next door to each other, so she literally walked across the parking lot. There is absolutely no way to make them show on her high school transcript. Other than placing higher when she is in high school it is as though they never happened.
@SculptorDad, privates, particularly the elite ones, may give no credit whatsoever for dual-enrollment courses. My homeschooled D is an incoming first year at a ‘top 20’ school. She had about 60 dual-enrollment credits and the school doesn’t grant credit for any of them, since they were used toward her high school degree. She would have been better served in that respect by doing yet more AP’s, but she preferred the college classes so much more that she has no regrets on that score.
@hs2015mom is absolutely right. Of course, this is highly dependent upon the college. Additionally many private colleges do not allow exemptions from gen ed requirements. But again, we’re three years away, maybe a little less, from when this discussion needs to be had.
I think you are best served by taking the classes that interest you in high school and then fully appreciate the entire 4 year college experience. At many of the elites they let you take whatever classes you want within certain parameters. It is more a question at college what class do you feel comfortable in rather than you cant take the class because you didn’t take some other class
We never used any official “dual enrollment” program, as dd was too young - only 10. She got personal exceptions from the colleges after interviewing with their VPs of Student Affairs. I arranged the interviews but she brought her drawing portfolio and a box full of sculptures to the VPs, said she would like to take college art classes and will do well. And they gave her the registration.
College courses she has taken will not be used as high school graduation requirement. Private colleges say that they will give evaluations after the admission.
I have personally heard from other parents that their students were generally given 30 semester units credits and were allowed the remaining still be used to meet prereq and requirements. Because engineering / science majors often needs more than minimum graduation units to meet their math / physics /engineering chains, this often had effect of given credits of a lot more than 30 units. Then again it is just a few personal experiences and that’s all.
Regarding general education, I might have been mistaken.
In-state pubic schools, such as University of California campuses have been a lot more generous in giving credits taken at California community colleges, provided that those credits were not used for high school graduation requirements.
Let me share emails that I have exchanged with Stanford admissions;
Note that Stanford uses quarter system, hence 45 units instead of 30.
Your email from Stanford confirms what I said.
Also, be aware that the max credit earned before college will include ALL manners of accumulating credit, including AP’s. So in Stanford’s case, it’s 45 quarter units max for AP credit, CC credit, etc, combined. Something to keep in mind if she’s planning on taking a bunch of AP exams.
What may be more relevant for many students is whether college courses completed before high school graduation is counted for subject credit or advanced placement. For example, it can be extremely wasteful of a student’s time and tuition if s/he takes college math courses like calculus, multivariable calculus, linear algebra, etc. while in high school, but the current college does not allow them to fulfill math requirements for majors that need those courses, so s/he must retake them at the current college, even though the previously taken courses cover the same material similarly to the current college’s courses.
It does not look like UC has any limitation on granting transfer credit for college courses that were also used for high school purposes: http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/q-and-a/miscellaneous/#13 . Note also that students can take college courses before high school graduation or the summer immediately following June high school graduation and still be frosh for UC purposes (noted in answer to previous question in this link).
There is a 70 credit limit on the number of non-UC lower division credits that can be transferred, but all courses can be counted for subject credit even if not all credit units can transfer. See http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/files/Transfer_Credit_Practice.pdf and http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/files/uc-transfer-maximum-limitation-policy-chart.pdf .
Will keep that in mind. Thanks for pointing out those. Stanford (or other selective private colleges) gives very little AP credits anyway.
Now, with UC campus that dd has actually reasonable chances of getting admitted and is likely to end up with, rather than unreal dream schools like Stanford, etc., the policy is very very generous. It’s not unusual for an entering freshmen being treated as if he were a transfer, with all general education and lower level major requirements completed and junior stance for class registration, except that he can still enjoy 4 full years rather than 2.
Yes, very true that the student in this situation can choose to stay 8 semesters / 12 quarters or graduate earlier. However, students who take college courses while in high school often have not been choosing them for the purpose of fulfilling college subject requirements (major, general education, etc.), so two years’ worth of such college courses may not necessarily advance a student two full years toward graduation, particularly in majors with long prerequisite sequences or courses rarely taken by high school students.
But note that at least some UC campuses do not prioritize registration purely by class standing. Some courses use class level (which counts semesters attended since frosh entry); some lower division courses prioritize frosh/soph undeclared students who may need them for possible majors, so junior/senior students taking them for out-of-major electives may have lower priority.