How to Standout in College Admissions Through Dual Enrollment

Inline with my previous article, I will be continuing to talk about advanced courses for high school students. As a high schooler who didn’t have this information, I hope to share it with high schoolers with ambitious goals. Now, the subject of this article is in my opinion the best way for high school students to accelerate themselves not only mentally but in the college admission process, and that is dual enrolling at a local community college.

What are dual enrollment students? Well they are high school students who also take courses at a local college to gain high school and college credit simultaneously. It’s similar to AP courses, except dual enrollment students get a letter grade for their courses and don’t have to take a massive exam in May. The benefit of dual enrollment is that many public institutions take these credits even if students get a C grade. Not only that, but dual enrollment can include higher level courses that aren’t normally attainable in high school. For example, mathematics in high school ends with AP Calculus BC, but with dual enrollment a student can take Multivariable Calculus which would put them ahead of their peers and other applicants to selective colleges.

Not only does dual enrollment have these benefits, but it has the overarching idea of saving money for college. With the constant rising tuition prices, dual enrollment is a far more efficient method of paying for college and in some community colleges dual enrollment fees are waived! With all these benefits, dual enrollment seems like a no-brainer for ambitious high schoolers

Ultimately, I wish I had taken advantage of dual enrollment when I was in high school. I didn’t know about it and its benefits for driven students. But now with the knowledge I have, I hope to inspire high school students to pursue dual enrollment, even if they only take one course.