Dual Credit Programs Can Help Students Get a Jump Start on College
Today, colleges and universities across the United States recognize the nationwide movement toward collegiate programs that allow high school students of outstanding academic achievement and/or inclination the opportunity to earn collegiate credit toward an undergraduate degree prior to high school graduation. The College of Southern Idaho, as well as the other public colleges and universities in Idaho, accept high school students as one of their important constituent groups and consider dual credit programs to be a major part of off-campus outreach efforts.
Dual credit coursework is by definition a college course taken by a high school student for which the student earns both college and high school credit. At completion, high school students earning dual credit will have the course added to a college transcript as well as their local high school transcript. At the College of Southern Idaho and our sister institutions across the state, dual credit can be delivered in a number of ways, such as:
- Face-to-face using a high school instructor
- Face-to-face using a college instructor
- Via the internet using a local Black Board system
- Via the internet through a partnership with IDLA
- In real time using a video conference system, such as the Idaho Education Network (IEN).
Programs of this type are successful because they offer something for everyone involved. Dual credit programs enable students to make substantial progress toward college degrees before they finish high school. Students who begin taking courses in their junior year can earn 30 or more college credits by the time they graduate from high school if they also take summer classes at the college. College-bound students can earn sophomore status even before they set foot on campus.
In addition to the obvious financial benefits of dual credit, accelerated learning programs, of which dual credit is just one example, also help high school students make the transition from high school to college. For one thing, students can learn what college professors expect in dual credit courses while still in their familiar high school surroundings. When a student matriculates into a college system, they will have already acquired the confidence to succeed academically. Then too, dual credit courses enable high schools to offer students more options than are available in a regular high school curriculum.
Generally speaking, college credits earned by high school students have good portability (they will transfer almost anywhere). Here are some things to consider when it comes to transferability and dual credit: Private schools often have different transfer criteria than do public institutions, and out-of-state institutions will have differing transfer criteria than will in-state institutions.
Finally, dual credit coursework will almost always transfer as elective credits, but may or may not always transfer into a college program of study. When a student or parent inquires about transferability of dual credits to a college or university, they are encouraged to contact the college/university registrar directly for information about transfer policies and limitations. Each of the public colleges and universities in Idaho, as well as Northwest Nazarene University, maintain web-sites affiliated with dual credit and accelerated learning opportunities in order to offer additional learning opportunities for high schools, students and parents.
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