Help picking community college classes

[originalamyj]

Hi! New here and have been reading tons to begin to wrap my brain around the process. I'm the mom of a 16yo and we are working together to put a plan in place.

Right now she's a dual-enrolled homeschooler at our local CC. We have access to free classes for the next 2 years I believe - but they may start charging DE kids soon, not sure. Anyways they will be around $100 probably, so comparable to a CLEP except for time.

While they are free we want to maximize them. Can anyone point me to a thread to help decide what she should take in person at the CC vs CLEP or other avenues? We will likely stick with general ed stuff of course because its a CC and also because she hasn't decided on a major yet (psych or english). If she goes the PSY route she wants to leave the door open for grad school so a good GPA is a plus, so taking courses at the CC where she's most likely to get a good GPA is one way to pick? Or do gen ed GPAs not matter?

I also can't figure out what will transfer as equivalent - looking at TESU right now. For example, if she takes a Intro to Visual Arts class at the CC, would that just fit under Gen Ed req? Our CC is not listed on the TESU site to look up equivalencies. Is Humanities or Cultural Anthropology listed under diversity where she needs 3 credits?

Bottom line is I don't want her to waste any time/credits. She already took one that was required of DE students called EDUC 1300 Effective Learning Strategies for College Success. I wonder if that will transfer, and if so in what category?

Any help is appreciated!

Amy

[clep3705]

You have one GPA listed on a college transcript. They don't provide a general education GPA. Graduate schools and employers aren't going to go to the trouble of computing multiple GPAs. Of course someone can cite an exception, but the exception doesn't invalidate the rule. If there is a CLEP test in a specific subject and your student is weak or unmotivated for that subject, you should CLEP to protect the GPA.

If your student wants to do something in healthcare, taking biology is better than CLEP. Medical, dental, and veterinary schools want to see actual grades.

[allvia]

Statistics. Get it out of the way - it is the one common thing that the majority of people here seem to battle with. I'd add College Algebra as well. The CC route would get your daughter access to hands on tutoring through the school if needed. There are just so few college programs that would not require these two things.

[rowan555]

Statistics. Get it out of the way - it is the one common thing that the majority of people here seem to battle with. I'd add College Algebra as well. The CC route would get your daughter access to hands on tutoring through the school if needed. There are just so few college programs that would not require these two things.

I was about to post the same thing - my son has taken about 80 credits using various alternative credit sources, and statistics was the only one which he struggled horribly with. It's just too much information to try to cram into a week or two of study, at least for him it was. He attempted it via ALEKS and then took two tries at Straighterline before passing. Of course he did pass and get it over with, but if he ends up going to grad school and needs to take graduate level stats, he really didn't learn the basics properly. If there is any chance your child's college curriculum will include statistics, community college is the way to go for that one.

[dfrecore]

I would say that there are generally 3 good reasons to take CLEP exams: 1) for things she is less interested in (because she'll hate the class); or 2) things that she's already really good at because she learned the material (like maybe US History); or 3) Psych 101, so that she could spend the time at school taking courses that interest her more, and getting Psych 101 out of the way as a prerequisite is a good plan.

Also remember that classes being "free" is not the only thing you have to think of. The cost of textbooks can be outrageous, so that has to be factored in. I took a class a couple of years ago, and it only cost me $155. BUT, the textbook was $375!!! I found a work-around for $20, but if I hadn't have, it would certainly have been a very expensive option to take an inexpensive course. So you will want to look up the required textbook for each course you want to take, to see what the cost is and if you can find the book used or rent it for a lot cheaper.

[rowan555]

Also remember that classes being "free" is not the only thing you have to think of. The cost of textbooks can be outrageous, so that has to be factored in. I took a class a couple of years ago, and it only cost me $155. BUT, the textbook was $375!!! I found a work-around for $20, but if I hadn't have, it would certainly have been a very expensive option to take an inexpensive course. So you will want to look up the required textbook for each course you want to take, to see what the cost is and if you can find the book used or rent it for a lot cheaper.

YEP - My son received a full scholarship at 16 plus $200 per semester towards fees/books - I was so happy! Then we discovered fees for taking courses online were $250 per course, and textbooks totaled about $220 per course with the required online codes/keys all the teachers insisted they have.

[wombat777]

Hi. I am also a homeschooling mom with kids dual-enrolled at the local colleges (one at CC, one at state university). IMO a good one to consider taking at the CC is college writing/freshman composition because your daughter will get the benefit of targeted feedback on her writing. This can be helpful for future classes which may require writing papers. If she instead takes the CLEP, yes, she could get the credit, but not the instruction to help improve her writing.

Of course, perhaps she is already an excellent writer. Then this advice wouldn't necessarily apply.

[Ideas]

Or do gen ed GPAs not matter?

I also can't figure out what will transfer as equivalent - looking at TESU right now.

TESU and COSC won't give grades for transfer credits.

[rebel100]

We used dual enrollment, initially, to provide things we couldn't easilly teach at home. My kitchen is a poor substitute for a real science lab...Chemistry and biology were taken at the local CC. Likewise, their Mom and I are not versed in any foreign language, so French and American Sign Language were taken there as well. In the end about half the credits for an AA were CLEP and half courses from the school. My oldest graduated with her AA at 17. We used CLEPs for math in particular knowing there was potential there for a GPA ding ( I also spent a few hundred on a math tutor).

Keep the grades up and try to join PTK, opens up scholarships to finish at a 4 year school.

[swalke321]

Each school will have their own requirements. For TESU in the gen ed some categories are very specific while others are a bit more flexible. one category is human cultures and any social science or humanities course will fit. Most of the basics such as Intro to Soc, Intro to psych, foreign language, history, government, intro to philosophy, math, science lab, etc. are fairly easy to transfer.