Because of *The Post-secondary and Workforce Readiness Act, Warren Township High School is offering more dual credit classes. However, this creates a lot of confusion for students who want to earn college credit in high school. **Should you be taking AP classes or these new dual credit classes? Why would you pay $100 for a chance at college credit when you can just register for a class you would have to take anyway, and earn college credit at the same time? These are the kinds of questions many students are asking themselves as new opportunities arise. I myself am one of them, so I went around searching for the differences and the pros and cons of each.

If you have ever looked for dual credit classes offered here at Warren in the curriculum guide you’ll know just how hard they are to find. The only real way to look for dual credit classes is by doing ctrl+f and typing dual credit, and even then you’ll find there are only about three. So Warren offers a lot more AP classes than dual credit, which means you won’t be able to fill up your whole schedule with dual credit classes anyway. Knowing that, is it even worth taking an AP class when there’s a dual credit option for the same course?

First, I should probably explain what dual credit and AP classes are. A dual credit course is essentially a class where you can earn high school credit and college credit at the same time, hence the name dual credit. An AP class is where you earn high school credit by taking it, then at the the end of the year you pay $100 to take a test where if you score high enough (usually a 4 or 5 on the AP exam) you can get college credit. With both you only earn credit for that specific course you’re taking (I’ll come back to this later).

So obviously, everyone should be taking dual credit classes, right? The problem is, it’s not that simple. Warren has an agreement with the College of Lake County (CLC), where students can earn dual credit through them. This credit is then transferable to other colleges, but as it happens, only certain universities will accept credit from CLC. I can say with complete certainty that any in-state college will accept the transferred credit. ***There are other colleges that will accept credit from CLC that aren’t in Illinois, but not a large number. To see a list of colleges that accept dual credit earned through CLC, scroll to the bottom of the page.

Okay, now that I explained it, it’s easy. If you want to go to college in Illinois take dual credit and if you want to go to college out of state take AP classes. Guess what, it’s still not that simple. I just explained the limitations to dual credit classes, but there are also limitations to AP classes. You see, depending on the university you plan on attending, they may accept the credit earned through AP classes as credit for the actual introductory course or as elective credit. If it’s only accepted as elective credit this means you’ll still need to pay the money to take the introductory course. I would suggest researching how the colleges your plan on applying for accept AP credit. 

Remember when I said you can only earn credit for the specific class you take with these programs. It’s time to get back to that. So, when you go off to college you’re supposed to have a major picked out. Listen, if you don’t it’s fine, but I’d suggest having some sort of idea on what you want to do. Do you want to go into STEM, english, history, business, etc, etc? Because whatever you go into you have to take classes in college aligning with that. Say you want to major in biology or something. You can take AP Bio, but really, what’s the point. You’ll have to take another biology class in college anyway because that’s what you’re studying so is it worth taking a whole AP class for it, and paying $100? I have a solution. So what you’ll want to do is take AP and dual credit classes in courses that don’t specifically align with what you want to do in college. Going back to that biology major, they would probably want to take an AP or dual credit class in english or social science. This way, they can save money by not having to take that class again in college. Now I’m not saying go for the easiest classes possible for ones that you’ll have to take again in college. Still take the honors version of those because that’s what a potential college would want to see.

So with all this new information, what’s the plan? Well, that really all depends on you. You see, colleges actually prefer when you take AP classes over dual credit courses. AP classes tend to be more rigorous than dual credit courses so colleges are more impressed when they see you took an AP class versus a dual credit class. Although, if your goal is to save as much money as possible, because college is ridiculously expensive, then taking dual credit classes is the safer bet. ****The scale of rigorousness that colleges usually use is this (from most rigorous to least): 

1. AP classes
2. Dual credit
3. Honors
4. Standard

This means, if you think you’re probably going to go to college out of state it would most likely be the best option to have your AP classes be the ones that don’t align with your major and the dual credit ones be the ones that do align with your major. This is because colleges are more impressed with more rigorous courses. Honestly, unless have you have a very specific college you know you’re going to attend, the best option is diversifying the type of classes you take. 

So I know most of the people who would click to read on this article would be people who are planning on going to college (most likely a four-year one), but I would like to add something for those of you who don’t plan on attending a four-year university. *****CLC offers what is called articulated credit. These classes allow you to complete a CLC degree or certificate quicker. These credits won’t be transferable to other colleges, however if you’re looking to attend CLC this may be a way to save some money. The majority of courses that offer dual credit at Warren are in the Industrial Technology Department or at the Technology Campus.

So I hate this, and I know you hate this. I, as the researcher, especially hate how none of this information is easily found. I have set up countless meetings, searched far and wide on every website imaginable, and emailed the masses with my never ending list of questions. AND I’M STILL CONFUSED! I feel like this is set up to be hard to find, but I have no evidence to suggest that besides my endless struggle. But in all seriousness guys, if you’re confused about all of this, it’s okay. Your counselor or one of the teachers in the ******College and Career Center would be happy to answer your questions. I just hoped I could help a little in this time of confusion.

*To find more about the Postsecondary and Workforce Readiness Act click here.

**To do your own research on the differences between AP and dual credit click here.

***To see a list of colleges that will accept dual credit earned through CLC click here.

****To learn more about the rigor scale click here.

*****To see more about articulate credit offered at CLC click here.

******To see the emails of the college and career counselor at your campus click here. (scroll down on website)