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Cruise into College Sophomore Status by Christmas

By Kamilah Duggins

Taking the jump from high school to college is one of the oldest challenges out there. New friends, new freedoms, and new subjects are all part of your new beginning, but there are quite a few students who don’t wish to make college a long and drawn out social process.

It’s not that they’re anti-social or anything, but in case you forgot, college costs money, and if you can knock out a few general requirements for a much lower price at community college (In Miami’s Dade County, the books are paid for by the college and the courses are paid for by the state!) or take Advanced Placement classes in high school, then why not?

Accelerate with Advanced Placement and Dual Enrollment

Most high schools offer AP (advanced placement) classes, which teach college level material in a high school setting. At the end of the year, you can take the AP exam, and depending on your score, you may have fulfilled your credit for any number of freshmen requirements.

Many other high schools support dual enrollment programs (check with your guidance counselor), which allow high school juniors and seniors to take classes for college credit through a community college or university while attending high school.  This way, after your first semester at a four-year college or university, you could potentially already have reached sophomore status.

“We encourage our students to stay focused in their junior and senior years and take courses that can really prepare them for college,” says Howard Bruce, a counselor for the magnet program at Booker T. Washington High School in Houston. “I tell my students that college is a marathon, so what they do in high school is training. And if you’re training for a marathon, you don’t lie down and rest one month before the race, you continue to challenge yourself. That’s why we encourage AP classes and dual enrollment,” Howard explains.

Plan Before You Enroll

But as with everything, there are pluses and minuses to whizzing through the college years. Barbara Echard, a dean at Miami-Dade Community College agrees that taking college courses while in high school has its benefits, but she says, “this shouldn’t be a spur of the moment decision. This should be part of an overall plan with a counselor when a student begins high school.”

There are a few reasons for planning. First, before you can even participate in dual enrollment, a lot of community colleges will have you take a placement exam, so you don’t waste your money or time with a course you’re not academically prepared for. After you’re tested in basic areas such as math, language and reading, you can proceed.

Barbara explains that planning with your high school counselor can help you avoid earning useless credits that won’t count toward the degree you’re striving for. Let’s say you want to be a doctor and your friend wants to be a fashion designer. Both of you could take classes on the side, but while your math class credit transfers to a four-year university, her textile and apparel class may not. Planning can keep help you dodge those non-transfer potholes.

Bob Birkenholz, a counselor at the University of Missouri agrees. “Students should be aware or be making a decision on where you want to go to college and checking to see how the courses will transfer, if at all possible,” Bob explains. “Some schools will accept the credit, but it will not substitute a required course, so all you earn is elective credit. That could take the place of something else you wanted to explore outside of your major. Remember, you want to get ahead in required freshmen courses.

Be Serious about Speeding up Your Education

Accelerating past your classmates has a lot of upsides: you have the time to explore different electives and still graduate on time; if you’re studying a highly technical degree that normally takes longer than four years to complete, you can reduce your course load and still graduate on time; or if you plan on attending graduate school, you can go into undergraduate ready for what college professors expect of you, and earn the grades and stamina to enter grad school earlier.

But remember, you have to be committed. “One of the drawbacks to doing this is that students have to take this seriously,” Barbara says. “This is college.”

It is college — the big deal, the final frontier. Really, these grades are permanently on your transcripts, and those who go for it, generally do it well. “Attending college as a high school student motivates young people to take learning seriously,” Barbara explains. “Students who participate in dual enrollment usually do extremely well in college.”

So make sure this is something you’re ready for. Not sure you want to make that commitment? No sweat. Just wait until you finish high school. College will be there when you get out.