How Does Dual Credit Work?

How does dual credit work?

Are you familiar with how students can earn dual credit from both high school and college? Do you know if homeschooled students have the same opportunities? Just how does dual credit work, anyhow?

Not everyone has even heard of the term “dual credit.” It means that a student earns both high school and college credit for one course.

Not only does this course count toward graduation from high school, but it also helps the student complete their college education sooner as well. It often helps to save money as well.

Students are often surprised to find that many of their first-year college courses are very similar to some of their high school courses. Many of what are considered to be the basic or the core college subjects that every student takes are repetitive classes. They are most often considered to be English, Science, Math, History, Civics, etc.

Why would anyone want to spend time and money repeating these classes if there was another choice? Who would not want to earn double credit by taking a course that satisfies both high school and college requirements when it is allowed?

Working smarter, not harder, can pay off in this instance. The following info answers the question of how does dual credit work:

Have you spoken with your student about their potential career path?

Do they even have a clue as to what career they may wish to pursue? Is a college degree required for their career goal? When a degree is not needed, the many benefits of a college education are still worthwhile. In spite of that, a college education is not always necessary nor even the best choice for every student

You may not need an actual college degree, but college-level knowledge can still be a good thing. Most people consider having broad knowledge encompassing many topics to be desirable.

Whether for career advancement or personal interactions when meeting new people, a comprehensive education can be helpful.

The friendships made in college often provide a lifetime of potential networking connections that help in career advancement. The years spent in college offer a “buffer zone” of sorts where students mature in a semi-protected environment.

Dual credit courses can be taken whether your student attends a local high school or is homeschooled. This is regardless of the career path or goal. Most high school students have no solid idea of their career plans.

Even student with a plan rarely adhere to it closely. Getting some of your first-year college courses out of the way while still in high school is a good thing, regardless of long term plans.

Here are a few ways your student can benefit from taking dual credit classes.

• It gives the parent the option to play an active role in helping your student to assess the many different worldviews presented in college classes by professors and other students.
• If the college-level course is on the semester format, it counts as one full year of high school credit.
• The dual credit option allows students to spread college credits out more years, thus lightening his course load later.
• Some courses allow for “testing out” for credit. Students sit for an exam. They receive full credit, if they receive a passing grade, just as if they had taken a full course. Taking a college-level exam instead of an actual class costs less!
• Earning dual credit further reduces college tuition, books, room, board, etc.
• Students taking dual credit courses can save you thousands of dollars in room and board alone. Students as young as 13 have taken these classes and made a significant dent in time and money spent toward their future degrees.
• Typically, dual credit classes cost less than the same class if taken as a college-level course.
• Students learn valuable life skills such as developing a schedule, managing time, setting priorities, making deadlines.
• Dual credit courses are impressive on both the student’s high school transcript and resume.
• The two for one deal offers credit at both high school and college levels, saving time and energy.
• Students can demonstrate their capacity to do college-level studies and begins an academic track record of success early on.
• Taking dual credit courses helps the student to stay sharp and to avoid the tendency to slack off, especially during the senior year.

You Can Earn Dual Credit Three Ways 

• You can take Online courses from either a junior college or a four-year college or university. Be sure to verify that the degree-granting school in which your student ultimately intends to enroll will accept the specific courses taken online. Transfer credits are common. Each school determines there own requirements.
• Students can take courses 0ffering dual credit at both junior and four-year colleges or universities.  As with online courses, verify that credit for each specific course can is transferrable to the degree-granting school in which your student ultimately intends to enroll
• Via CLEP (college-level exam) This option was created for the express purpose of awarding credit for what is known as “prior college-level knowledge.” Students study independently at home and take the exam at a specified testing center. The credit received is the same as those for students who spent a semester in a classroom and who paid full price. On average, these exams cost less than $90. This amount is even less than the cost of taking dual credit classes. There will also be a minimal testing center fee. The time required for testing is about 1½ hours. Saving both time and money is of great benefit to many students.

 

 

(Some, but not all, of these benefits are shared from HSLDA’s website.)