ONE WAY TO REDUCE FUTURE COLLEGE COST
Met:
Could you share this information with your readers?
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High School Dual Enrollment (Running Start, etc.)
For those parents who have High School age children and are not aware of the option of having their High School children take College level classes for College Credits while in High School. Some States call the Program Dual Enrollment, while others call their program Running Start or various other names. I observed that the Guidance Couselors at many of our Children’s High Schools are not making this option available to African American Students or try to dissuade them from participating in programs like these, which can significantly reduce the overall University Tuition Cost, which keeps rising every year. I am amazed at how few parents are aware of this program and how few African American children participate in these programs.
If the opportunity exists in your State, please take a look at Dual Enrollment (DE) program, where your High School kids can take college level classes at a local Community College or other state Universities. They can potentially complete ALL their prerequisites (~60 credits) for your College Major by the time you complete High School. In most States, the Tuition, Fees and Books are completely free to the High School Student, essentially paving the way for your child to complete their Undergraduate Degree by the time they are 20-years old and only having to pay for two-years of College/University. IMHO, it is best to do Dual Enrollment as oppose to Advanced Placement (AP) classes, since most Colleges/Universities will only accept a score of 3 or better in AP Courses, while a C or better earned through Dual Enrollment will transfer to most, if not all, colleges/universities.
In some States (example, Florida), you can spend your final year of High School on Campus (Early Admission) at one of your local Community Colleges and not attend high school. You end up getting both High School credits and College credits through the Dual Enrollment process….a win-win proposition in my book. Dual Enrollment is the best deal for High School Students who meet the requirements (have an unweighted GPA of 3.0 and pass the College entrance Test) for the DE program. Who wouldn’t want two years of their College Education paid for by the State/Local School Board? This is worth anywhere from $20K – $60K or more!!
Finally, there are aspects of the DE program where you can attend specialized High Schools for your Junior and Senior Year as part of the Dual Enrollment program and receive an AA or AS at the end of the two years (very competitive program to get into). Most of these programs are actually co-located on the University of Community College Campus.
Would love to hear your feedback or provide any information you might have on other opportunities that exist for reducing College cost for our children.
Excellent article on education. Thank you !
This is true my younger sister did it and graduated from high school with AA degree as well as a high school diploma. Tuition and books were free.
Can you share with the rest of us in which State the High School is located?
best information ever I have 10 years to go for mines She will be in that Dual programme….
Good looking out. That’s y I love the site. I learn a lot.
I wrote the first comment. There are LOTS of schools that offers college classes for high school kids right in Brookyln, QUeens, throughout NYC and other states. In NY it is called the ‘college now program. ‘
Some schools call it by different names.
There are also high schools that cater to early graduation and college classes.. In ny u can look up the information in the high school directory that u get for free.
My teenage daughter is in tenth grade taking two college classes already . She will-graduate from a High school with as much as twenty five college credits. I didn’t mention it because it is not always happy days, kids in these programs are under a LOT of stress to succeed and the workload is tremendous. I have to remind her daily that she is blessed for such an opportunity and thank God for her intelligence before he take it from u.
Parents if u put your child into such programs make sure they are willing to discipline themselves with the workload. Many 4ams my daughter is up typing papers as not to miss serious deadlines for teachers and professors. All in all, these are great programs that cut the cost of college.
Please people follow the news and support Obama’s proposal. I watched and read last night he wants to make the first two years of community colleges FREE for working Americans.
Great look, let’s see if congress will pass the bill. Hopefully
Obama is calling the idea America’s College Promise, modeled after Tennessee Promise, which Republican Gov. Bill Haslam signed into law last year to provide free community and technical college tuition for two years. It has drawn 58,000 applicants, almost 90 percent of the state’s high school seniors. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s former White House chief of staff, has a similar program for students in his city.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/article5674302.html#storylink=cpy
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If Obama is successful with the Free Community College Program, it will be a big game changer, as most High School Graduates would attend a Community College first and then transfer to a 4-year College. This will of course impact the enrollment numbers at four-year Universities, and I suspect, the 4-year Colleges would mount a campaign to defeat this bill. Look at what happen in the State of Tennessee, which have the same program. 90% of the high school Seniors applied to the program.