There are high school students who want to go to college. But the particularly ambitious high school students have already started. Through dual enrollment, students take college courses while they are still in high school, enriching their high school curriculum with college-level material under a college professor’s guidance while they still finish their senior year.
However, these students must know that not every college or university allows one to transfer dual enrollment credits, which may leave them in a problematic position if it’s the college they want to attend.
How do you transfer your dual enrollment credits? Which colleges do or do not allow you to do this? We are here to find out.
What are Dual Enrollment Transfer Credits?
Dual enrollment is an education program in many high schools that allows students ready for college-level courses to start going to college before graduating high school. Dual enrollment usually entails taking college-level classes in your current high school or attending college to complete those classes. However, just because that’s the college you took dual enrollment in does not mean you want to go there.
There are many colleges that allow high school students to take up courses. For all intents and purposes, they become a college student. However, since those students are still attending high school, they are limited to a limited number of classes. If a student wants to pursue a college different than what they earned those credits in, they must transfer those dual enrollment credits. However, not every college will allow students to transfer their dual enrollment credits. There are several hurdles and obstacles that may hinder a successful transfer.
One challenge a transferring dual enrollment student worries about is whether you can transfer your dual enrollment credits to a college in a different state. Do dual enrollment credits transfer out of state? Many colleges have different rules regarding education, travel, and handling intra-state relations, so this is one of the more important things to learn before jumping at your next school.
Can You Transfer Your Dual Enrollment Credits to Another State?
If you have to move or want to pursue a university in a different state than the high school / dual enrollment you participated in, you need to transfer those credits over. There are no universal rules to this: your chances of success deal heavily with the place you want to go to. It would help to be warned ahead of time that not every college so readily accepts transfers from different states; notably, a college may not give you the full credit for doing so.
Many states have transfer credits valid only from high schools within the same state as the college. These local schools nearly uniformly work with the college, including community college, to ensure that students from dual enrollment can proceed as usual. However, they have less incentive to do so for schools out of state.
Earlier, we talked about “full credit.” A given college course has a number of credits that contribute to your graduation (though often not your grade point average, which may instead multiply the quality of your credits). A college not so kind to out-of-state dual enrollment transfers may not register your dual enrollment credits as “full credits.” Instead, they may consider it an elective and give you fewer credits than if the student completed the course at the university themselves. The college could also grade the credits on a different scale than usual.
The answer is determined college by college. The only way to answer this question is to call the college ahead and confirm it yourself. Colleges that allow transferring dual enrollment credits out-of-state will count them as full credits; this makes it much easier to move on to college.
However, all of the prior details run on the idea that these colleges allow you to transfer dual enrollment credits, to begin with. Many do not, for various reasons. Let’s get to the real issue: what kind of colleges accept dual enrollment credits anyway?
3 Colleges that Accept Dual Enrollment Credits
To help you understand what kind of colleges do and do not accept dual enrollment credits, we have compiled a small list of colleges that accept dual enrollment credits, along with an explanation of their qualifications or exceptions. In total, there are over 3,000 colleges in total across the United States that accept dual enrollment credit. You may not be going to these colleges yourself, but they will help you understand which colleges you want to attend.
Augusta University
Augusta University, formerly known as Augusta State University and Georgia Regents University, is a university in Augusta, Georgia, that allows dual enrollment students to transfer their credits. Students are, in fact, encouraged to take college classes in high school before they undertake Augusta University.
However, dual enrollment admissions require that the student have a minimum GPA of 3.0, an SAT minimum of 1080 between Math and Evidence-Based Reading and Writing, and an ACT minimum of 21 between English or Reading and Math. Additionally, students are only eligible if they complete the 17 units of the University System of Georgia’s Required High School Curriculum.
New York University
New York University is yet another college that accepts dual-enrollment credits. New York University will award up to 64 credits to students who have taken college courses while in high school. However, which of these credits will transfer is entirely up to the discretion of New York University. A student will need to personally contact New York University beforehand to be certain of their changes.
New York University will award credit for courses if:
- The student has received a grade of B or higher.
- If New York University has a course corresponding to the credit.
- If the course was taken at a college or university.
Loyola University New Orleans
Loyola University New Orleans in Louisiana is similar to New York University in transferring dual enrollment credits. Like New York University, a student can transfer up to 64 credit hours.
The requirements for what credits can transfer at Loyola University New Orleans are also lower than New York University’s: merely requiring that the student has had a passing grade and that the courses are in accordance with the Louisiana Department of Education.
3 Tips to Ensure Your Dual Enrollment Credits Transfers
Never apply to a college before you know what you are getting into. There is a low chance that you will get the results you want. You need to ensure that all of the credits you worked hard for will follow you when you go to college. Here are three tips that will help your chances and expand your perspective:
Research Ahead of Time
You should always be prepared for any future obstacle. If you are cautious or curious about how and if your dual enrollment credits will transfer, you should know as much as possible before applying. It would be best to look up the college you want to go to and see what they have in terms of transferring dual enrollment students. You need to talk to your high school guidance counselor(s) and the dual enrollment advisor at the college you went to, and consult the policies of the college you want to attend.
Once you become as informed as possible, making the right decision will become much easier, even if you have to choose a different college entirely.
Get the Paperwork Together
There may be particular paperwork and sheets you need to complete your credit transfer, regardless of how and if your chosen college will accept your credits to begin with. When you are dealing with more complicated transfers like, for example, trying to transfer credits to a college that doesn’t quite have the courses you completed, you need to carefully read and understand the paperwork presented to you and ensure that it will guarantee success.
Another measure you can take is comparing the courses on your dual enrollment high school transcript with the available courses at the college.
Speak to Every Authority
This tip is strongly related to the first; it is in your best interest to talk to everyone involved for the best results. Many figures and personnel can inform you about where you should go and who you should talk to: not just the high school guidance counselor or your dual enrollment advisor, but the other staff and faculty in both high school and college. You can get more perspective from other dual enrollment students or people who have gone through the transfer issue themselves.
Wrapping Things Up: How to Transfer Your Dual Enrollment Credits?
In this article, we have established what dual enrollment transfer credits are, how a student can transfer dual enrollment credits between colleges and across states, what kind of colleges accept dual enrollment transfers, their limitations, and exceptions, and how you can guarantee that those extra college courses won’t go to waste. You have reached the end of the article with a greater understanding of how dual enrollment credits transfer between colleges, even if they are from an entirely different state. Now all there is left to do is get ready for college admission!