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Dual Credit

My oldest son is currently eighteen and enrolled in the ECS for the last two years of high school. He really enjoyed it, and so did we. He took math, English comp, science, and history/government classes to get the general ones out of the way before he transfers to the University of Texas. At this point, he has more than forty credits  and is getting close to being able to get his AA (Associate of Arts). The price was definitely right... He liked the independence. It was good to have him answering to an outside person and becoming accountable to someone else. And he did tell me that because he had been homeschooled since fourth grade, he had it in the back of his mind that he was not as smart as his public school friends. Once he took the community college entrance test and started doing really well in his classes, his success really boosted his opinion of himself and his abilities.           ~ Lisa

My almost-sixteen-year-old junior took an English composition class at community college last semester and is taking calculus there this semester. Next year she plans to take some science classes. I think it is great experience for her, kind of "intro to college," plus it is good for her to have to answer to someone other than her parents, and college professors can teach her things we cannot (like calculus)! ~ Sarai

My oldest three have all taken several classes at our local community college while still homeschooling through high school. We have seen only positive benefits. They grew stronger in their self-discipline and time-management skills, and they gained valuable experience in debate-style classroom discussions. They also garnered some wonderful, objective recommendations from community college professors when the time came to apply to four-year schools and enjoyed placing into more advanced classes at their universities. ~ Kim

It has been a positive experience for us. It helps your student adjust to a college setting and workload. I think working on organizational skills is key to balancing the workload. The students can get a jump on basic college credits while fulfilling high school requirements at only the cost of books. My suggestion is to talk to your friends and get teacher recommendations—it  can make a huge difference in the experience your child has. As much as possible, you want it to be a good fit.   ~ Phyllis

Our experience has been mixed. It is a great time for my nerdy son to be in a class where he is more able than the adults in the class. He is accountable to someone else, does all his homework, and is doing perfectly. It is worrisome for us with our older, yet more impressionable, daughter. She somehow is trying to fit in. It would be better if I were taking her and staying and bringing her home. She is a legal adult and has to go out into the world, so she is independent. She has to find out for herself. However, in the classroom she is accountable to someone else, and this has been a great way to get rid of some of the prerequisites before it becomes expensive. Forty dollars per class for being out of district is much more affordable, and finishing a year of a class in a semester is nice too. I would not suggest sending kids earlier than junior year for anything other than math…This is a young adult atmosphere, and no special  consideration is going to be given to your young, early enrollment student. ~ Chandra

My daughter took some courses at the local community college during her senior year of high school. She earned all As and gained some confidence that she could be successful in college, although her university courses are much more challenging than the community college courses. She earned credits that could be transferred. That allowed her some breathing room when it came to scheduling her university courses.

And the most valuable part of her community college experience: it helped her to decide on a major. She applied and was accepted to several universities as a psychology major. She took a psychology course at the community college her senior year in high school, and while she found the material interesting at times, she realized there were many aspects of psychology that she really did not enjoy studying and came to the conclusion that she did NOT want to major in psychology. Because of this realization, she applied to change her major at her first-choice college, even before she started there. The structure of the program of her chosen major is such that had she not changed before she started, it would have been very difficult for her to change after she started and she would have most certainly had to take summer courses or go an extra semester. So, the community college experience helped her in deciding to change her major before she even got to college, and that saved her time, money, and aggravation.                                    ~Christine

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