Early College: Walk before running

Dual Credit and Early College, programs that give public high school students a chance to earn college credit while in high school, definitely have a role. For students who can handle the challenge, it is a win-win. Dual credit allows students to “double count” classes, getting high school and college credit at the same time, while programs like Running Start allow students to earn college credits while in high school. Note that I included the caveat, “for students who can handle the challenge.”

In my experience as a college counselor and college adviser for under-resourced students who are first generation to college, I have seen myriad examples of good intentions gone bad. While I have had about 20 percent of very-high-achieving students find success, about 80 percent have found themselves with pretty dire unintended consequences.

First off, students and their parents are often unaware that an ill-fated attempt at college while in high school haunts the student well beyond high school.

I have advised several high school students who have been shocked to find out that they are starting community college with a 2.0 or 1.0 or even a 0.0 GPA based on their high school attempts. Aside from having to dig themselves out from under their low GPAs, they also often lose financial aid when they are finally ready to actually enter college, and this can also affect college admission for those who have set their goals higher than community college.

Even if a student has the foresight to withdraw from a class if it is not going well, students can still find themselves ineligible for financial aid if they fail to complete two-thirds of attempted credits, which could happen after withdrawing from even one class. With dual credit, a failed attempt can be even more dire — not even graduating from high school if they gamble on a high school requirement as the dual credit class.

I had a student — high achieving but struck with a severe case of senioritis — almost not graduate due to taking college-level English second semester of her senior year, which double- counted as her high school senior English. Luckily she skated by with a D. This student was near the top of her high school graduating class and almost did not graduate — and she was one of the more prepared ones!

For the right student, such programs are wonderful. However, schools are targeting far too many students without explaining the risks, especially students who are first generation to college, and high schools are targeting students as young as freshman year, which is downright scary.

Aside from the financial and grade-point risks, what about the bigger picture? What about safety?

Some classes are held on high school campuses but often students have to go, unsupervised, to open access college campuses. Is that advisable, especially for the younger ones, to be mixing with college students and adults?

And are college professors keeping their classes PG-13 for such students? Are they keeping their classes free from bias as high school teachers are bound to do? If not, is it developmentally appropriate for a 15- or 16-year-old? And if the professors are censoring themselves, is it even college?

Let’s walk before we run, focus on providing a solid college prep curriculum for all of our high school students who want one, and look at other options like expanding our very successful online AP program for students without AP access.

Save the unfettered intellectual milieu of college, with all of its inherent risks and freedoms, for college students or the select few high school students who truly outgrow high school and can handle and benefit from an early college experience.