Before you start creating your high schooler’s 4-year plan, you should determine whether your child will follow the more rigorous academic college path or whether high school degree will be sufficient for their future profession. While thinking about it though, let us be realistic: How many 14-year-olds know what they want to be when they grow up? Even though we may be able to see certain trends and inclinations in our children, these may change a number of times before the child reaches their senior year. As a matter of fact, it has been predicted that people in the 21th century will change their profession about four times during their lifetime.
So why should you determine whether your child is going to be college or non-college bound during their high school years? The reason is that a college-bound student can take advantage of completing courses that will earn them academic credits recognized by two institutions at the same time – high school and college. Some of the college credits obtained this way can even be accomplished FREE of charge. Yes, that’s right: Your child can earn a significant number of COLLEGE CREDITS during their high school years for FREE! This type of studies is called DUAL CREDIT.
What Are the Benefits of Dual Credit?
There are many benefits that can be mentioned when thinking about dual credit. In this article, we will explore 5 most significant ones:
- Your student will get a head-start in their college studies: With the 21st century life-style, many college graduates wish to have an earlier start in their professional life and not wait until they are 22 or 23. Dual credit enables them to graduate associate and/or bachelor degree at the age of 18, or at least give them a significant number of credits that can be applied towards their chosen degree.
- The college expenses become significantly lower: Taking CLEP and/or DSST exams, the most common dual credit exams, or even enrolling in a specific local college course, will allow your student to pay their college cost per credit step-by-step without acquiring any student loans. You can learn more about taking CLEP exams for FREE in How to Take History of the United States I CLEP Exam for FREE.
- Your student will be able to set their own pace for obtaining college credits: Unlike being enrolled in college, you and your student can determine how long to study for an exam and when to take it. This allows the faster students to shorten their study time, while the slower ones can extend their studies over several months or even the entire school year.
- Earn college credits from your home: In addition to saving on gas, you will have a complete access to your student’s study environment and can continue to help them in their spiritual, mental, and emotional development.
- Experiencing college-level work while still in high school: There is nothing like good experience!
What Are the Cons of Dual Credit?
If it is so easy and inexpensive to earn college credits during high school, why would I NOT choose to take this path? There are several reasons why the college path may NOT be the best option for your family. Let us look at a couple of them:
- Your child may not be mentally ready for CLEP and/or other college exams: College studies require a higher level of mental processing than early high school years. Even though the exams are not difficult to pass with diligent studies, some children find they need an additional year or two to mature enough to be able to process their style.
- You prefer longer-term and project-based learning that allows for the information to remain with the child for a life-time: Even though it is possible to study for college exams long-term and include various projects, most of the families of college-bound children opt for gaining credits as fast as possible in order to complete a degree. This leads to scheduling as many credit-earning subjects in the high school days as possible. It has been proven though that learning something over a longer period of time will increase its chances to stick in the mind for longer.
Whether you and your high schooler decide to take the college path or not, rest assured that homeschooling high school is not a difficult task. Explore your options, develop your plan, and enter the 9th grade with confidence that there is nothing you and your child with God by your side cannot tackle together.
Please let us know what your experience has been in the comments below. We would love to hear from you!
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