At Sandburg, many students have the opportunity to take Advanced Placement (AP) classes to hopefully gain college credit and benefit from taking a college level course. However, as more and more Sandburg students are discovering, that is not the only opportunity to gain college credit and save money. Many colleges, including Moraine Valley Community College also offer dual credit courses that students can take during high school to get college credit.
Mrs. Schultz, Sandburg’s College and Career Counselor who is located in room C120, explains that, “Dual credit at Sandburg is mostly through Moraine Valley since it’s our community college. So if you’re in a dual credit class, that means the teacher you have is qualified to earn you college credit.”
Moraine Valley’s website further explains their dual credit program. “The Early College Dual Credit Program allows high school students to enroll in select college courses and take them at their high school as part of their regularly scheduled day. This unique partnership between Moraine Valley Community College and participating area high schools allow you to simultaneously earn college credit and high school credit, which means you can save time and money when you pursue a college degree or certificate.”
The process to earn dual credit classes is fairly straightforward as well. Ms. Schultz explains, “If you register for dual credit and pay for the fee–and when I say fee, it is a fraction of the cost of what a typical college class– and then earn a C or better, that means that students have that dual credit on not only their Sandburg transcript but their Moraine Valley transcript.”
There are also classes which do not require fees for their classes. The responsibility is on the student to coordinate with their teacher and make any payments required for the class.
Despite their similarity, there is a key difference between AP classes and dual credit classes. Moraine Valley explains on their website that a dual credit course will earn credit only if a student completes the registration, the required assignments and assessments in their dual credit course, and achieves a “C” or better in the class.
In regards to an AP class, students need to score high on the end-of-year AP exam – what kind of AP exam scores are accepted for college credits varies from university to university. Once scores are in, The College Board allows students to submit one free AP exam score to their desired college or university, and if students need to submit their scores to another school, they can pay $15 for the university to receive it in 5-9 business days. Students can then check their credit with their admissions office to make sure they received the credit.
“If you have the credit at Moraine Valley, you go on their website and you search for transcripts, and they have a process where you make an account on Parchment and you send your transcripts to whatever four-year school you want to. What’s different is that every four-year university decides on how it transfers, “ Ms. Schultz explains.
“My advice is that if you’re currently in [a dual credit class] this semester, wait until the grades have been finalized before you request your transcripts to be sent to your four-year school. If you currently don’t have any dual credit classes, you can request your transcripts to be sent from Moraine Valley to [any] 4-year school. By the time you do your registration for the fall semester, they already know what college classes you had and can put it on your transcript there.”
Ms. Schultz also recommends looking at what dual credit classes transfer to a school using Transferology, as different colleges accept credit differently.
“It’s a website where you put in what dual credit course you took in Moraine and you see what transfers to the four-year school. So it’s pretty cool, because you can kind of double check yourself and make sure that you know the equivalent.”
Moraine Valley also recommends itransfer.org for schools in Illinois and transfer.org for out-of-state schools.
Nicole Bulvan, a senior who has taken both dual credit classes and AP classes, describes her experience with these courses. “ I’ve taken AP Government, APUSH, AP Language and Composition, and am currently taking AP Studio Art and AP Psychology. I have taken CAD 1 and CAD 2 this year, which are dual credit classes. I was interested in psychology and CAD as subjects; as for the rest of them, I was more interested in the college credit. I was looking to get that credit for college so I wouldn’t have to take a class in college, which is arguably harder.”
“These classes helped me feel more prepared for college. It helped me with study strategies, and additionally, it helped me prepare for the type of classwork there will be in college. I feel like dual credit has more benefits because with AP, you still have to pay money, and if you don’t get the score that you’re looking for, some colleges don’t take it, while a lot of colleges will accept dual credit from Moraine Valley,” Bulvan adds.
Students have the choice of taking AP classes and dual credit classes with their academic interests and future goals in mind while still gaining benefits from both. “The benefits are very similar. Both [can] earn you college credit. It’s kind of about which route you want to take with college credit, and which is more advantageous to the student individually,” Ms. Schultz notes.
Along with AP classes, dual credit courses are also beneficial to students as they offer more college-level opportunities without the price of AP courses. With the many opportunities offered at Sandburg, students can advocate for their higher education starting in high school, allowing them to get a head start in college and their futures.