What are
Dual Credits?
The National Alliance for Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships defines dual-credit courses as “the opportunity for high school students to take college credit-bearing courses taught by college-approved high school teachers.”
It may seem obvious, but it is worth making clear what exactly dual credit means. Dual credits allow students to earn credit that goes toward both high school and university graduation requirements. Dual credits appear on both high school and university transcripts. Students will receive an official transcript from said university.
It's not a college preparatory course....
It is college
These courses are not simply college preparatory or pre-university courses, dual-credit courses are legitimate university-level courses. They are just as rigorous and difficult as those provided on a college campus. Dual-credit students are required to adhere to the same academic policies and standards of the said university.
How Dual Credits Work at
AESA Prep Academy
In order for an educational institution to provide a dual-credit program, that institution needs to be approved by the university. The high school teachers teaching/supervising the students needs to also be approved by the university providing the dual credits.
AESA Prep Academy has informal partnerships with the University of Texas at Austin, University of California at Berkeley, and University of Wisconsin. If an AESA student requests to take a dual credit from another distinguished university, AESA will consider it.
AESA students complete dual-credit courses under the supervision of our teachers. With AESA’s small student-teacher ratio, particularly with the dual-credit courses (average 2:1), AESA students receive quality and effective support. With quality teacher support, AESA students are able to overcome the rigor of high-level dual-credit courses and importantly, receive high marks as well.
We recommend Juniors and Seniors take at least one dual-credit course. However, we suggest AESA students take multiple dual-credit courses if possible. AESA does not offer Advanced Placement classes, and considers our regular classes to already be at that level. There are many and better benefits for taking dual-credit courses over AP courses.
Dual-Credit Courses
AESA Prep Academy Offers
- Spanish I – UT
- Spanish II – UT
- French I – UW
- French II – UW
- United States History – UT
- American Government – UT
- Microeconomics – UT
- World Literature – UT
- Shakespeare Literature – UT
- PreCalculus – UT
- Calculus I – UCB
- Calculus II – UCB
- Physics – UT
- Mechanics – UT
- Computer Programming – UCB
Why
Dual Credits?
The debate between Advanced Placement (AP) courses and Dual Credit courses is over. Dual Credit courses are superior to AP courses in every way. Here's why:
Dual-credit courses are the single best way to academically differentiate yourself during the college admissions process. College admission advisors recognize and view dual credit courses as highly valuable and unique. Dual-credit courses not only qualify students to earn a "distinguished" diploma (the highest level of high school diploma recognized by TEA.), but also help prove to admission advisors that the student is already capable of completing undergraduate-level work.
Not only do dual-credit courses highlight students academically over other students during the college admissions process, but also gives students a chance to experience undergraduate-level coursework. Beyond the educational content of dual credit courses, these courses allow students to experience the difficulty and challenge of college courses. Our AESA alumni surveys have overwhelming suggested that dual credit courses made the transition from high school to college much smoother.
Dual-credit courses also save students and their families time and money. Since dual-credit courses awards both high school and college credit, students can focus their time and tuition monies on the courses they need to graduate. This situation allows AESA students to graduate college early or have a couple semesters with fewer credit-hours. This extra time allows students the opportunity to have an internship/job, participate in student life, or even study abroad!