Combining High School & CollegeThe idea behind dual enrollment is to offer students a chance to study a subject and earn both high school and college credit at the same time. You can take that philosophy and apply it to an entire degree.
To show you an example, we're going to put together a plan for a BA in Social Sciences from TESC that also covers a 4-year high school education. A student could finish everything except the required capstone course, graduate from high school, enroll at TESC to take the capstone over the summer after his senior high school year, and graduate college when most other students are just beginning. |
The key to designing a plan like this is to work backward. Look at the courses needed for the degree, then figure out how to apply them to a high school course of study.
We'll start our plan with English. The CLEP College Composition exam is a 6-credit test. So is the CLEP Analyzing & Interpreting Literature exam. Additionally, the 6-credit CLEP Humanities exam covers drama, poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. If your student takes and passes these three exams, he will have 18 college credits. Additionally, the free, 3-credit Saylor Corporate Communications course provides further study in writing and composition. The topics studied for these tests and Saylor course would certainly cover a 4-year high school English program, as they include literature, literary analysis, and grammar and composition.
Next is mathematics. The easiest way to get these credits is through ALEKS. ALEKS Intermediate Algebra can count as Algebra 1, College Algebra as Algebra 2, then PreCalculus and Statistics can serve as your remaining two math courses. If you live in a state that requires high school geometry as part of a homeschool curriculum, your student can complete the free Saylor Geometry course as a summer school class between his freshman and sophomore years.
For sciences, the CLEP Natural Sciences exam covers topics in earth-space science, biology, chemistry, and physics. You can complete all your high school science credits with this one exam.
As with the Natural Sciences test, the CLEP Social Sciences & History exam has many topics. These are: US history, Western Civilization, World History, Government/Political Science, Sociology, Economics, Psychology, Geography, and Anthropology. This covers all the history your student needs, plus several electives.
The CLEP Humanities exam, along with its literature sections, has visual and performing arts, plus music and architecture, providing additional elective high school credit in the fine arts.
Beyond this, it is pretty typical to see high schools require a foreign language, some kind of computer science class, and a health course. These can be covered with the CLEP Spanish, French, or German exam, DSST Introduction to Computing exam, and the DSST Here's to Your Health test.
TESC has additional degree requirements, but we'll pull them altogether into a plan now, then list how everything translates backward into a high school transcript.
TESC BA IN SOCIAL SCIENCES
General Education Credits (60 credits)
Free Electives (27)
Area of Study (33 credits)
Applying this all to a high school transcript would give you:
ENGLISH
MATHEMATICS
SCIENCE
HISTORY
ELECTIVES
Total credits: 24
From this, you would need then to determine what order you want to do things in. Would your student benefit from studying one or two subjects at a time (if your state laws allow), or do you want to follow a more traditional schedule? If you can, group things together. For instance, it would make sense to study for the psychology, anthropology, sociology, and geography exams along with the Social Sciences & History exam, because of their overlapping topics. Remember, you can put together a subject-based high school transcript instead of a semester-based one, if your student studies his courses and takes his exams by topic/subject, instead of following the usual course of study. You can find blank transcript forms on the Portfolios page; just note that they do include a space for SAT/ACT scores, which you will not need if you get a degree from one of the Big Three schools. Also, for the most part, once a student has earned his college degree, his high school transcript is likely never going to be seen by anyone outside the family. Generally, the highest level of education achieved is what matters when applying for jobs and other credentials.
STANDARD DISCLAIMER: BEFORE FOLLOWING ANY DEGREE PLAN, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE COMPARED IT TO CURRENT DEGREE REQUIREMENTS THROUGH THE SCHOOL. HOMESCHOOL COLLEGE USA CANNOT GUARANTEE ANY PLAN WILL BE ACCEPTED. (Speaking with an Academic Advisor at your school of choice is ALWAYS recommended.)
We'll start our plan with English. The CLEP College Composition exam is a 6-credit test. So is the CLEP Analyzing & Interpreting Literature exam. Additionally, the 6-credit CLEP Humanities exam covers drama, poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. If your student takes and passes these three exams, he will have 18 college credits. Additionally, the free, 3-credit Saylor Corporate Communications course provides further study in writing and composition. The topics studied for these tests and Saylor course would certainly cover a 4-year high school English program, as they include literature, literary analysis, and grammar and composition.
Next is mathematics. The easiest way to get these credits is through ALEKS. ALEKS Intermediate Algebra can count as Algebra 1, College Algebra as Algebra 2, then PreCalculus and Statistics can serve as your remaining two math courses. If you live in a state that requires high school geometry as part of a homeschool curriculum, your student can complete the free Saylor Geometry course as a summer school class between his freshman and sophomore years.
For sciences, the CLEP Natural Sciences exam covers topics in earth-space science, biology, chemistry, and physics. You can complete all your high school science credits with this one exam.
As with the Natural Sciences test, the CLEP Social Sciences & History exam has many topics. These are: US history, Western Civilization, World History, Government/Political Science, Sociology, Economics, Psychology, Geography, and Anthropology. This covers all the history your student needs, plus several electives.
The CLEP Humanities exam, along with its literature sections, has visual and performing arts, plus music and architecture, providing additional elective high school credit in the fine arts.
Beyond this, it is pretty typical to see high schools require a foreign language, some kind of computer science class, and a health course. These can be covered with the CLEP Spanish, French, or German exam, DSST Introduction to Computing exam, and the DSST Here's to Your Health test.
TESC has additional degree requirements, but we'll pull them altogether into a plan now, then list how everything translates backward into a high school transcript.
TESC BA IN SOCIAL SCIENCES
General Education Credits (60 credits)
- CLEP College Composition (6 credits)
- ALEKS Intermediate Algebra (3 credits)
- ALEKS College Algebra (3 credits)
- Saylor Corporate Communications (3 credits)
- CLEP Social Sciences and History (6 credits)
- CLEP Humanities (6 credits)
- CLEP Natural Sciences (6 credits)
- CLEP Introductory Sociology (3 credits)
- DSST General Anthropology (3 credits)
- Saylor Business Law and Ethics (3 credits)
- ALEKS PreCalculus (3 credits)
- ALEKS Statistics (3 credits)
- CLEP Foreign Language (6 - 12 credits, depending on score)
- DSST Introduction to Computing (3 credits)
- DSST Human/Cultural Geography (3 credits)
Free Electives (27)
- FEMA Independent Study Courses (18 credits)
- CLEP Analyzing & Interpreting Literature (6 credits)
- DSST Here's to Your Health (3 credits)
- Extra foreign language credits may go here, with a high enough CLEP score, lowering the total of FEMA credits needed
Area of Study (33 credits)
- Saylor Introduction to Western Political Thought (3 credits)
- CLEP Introductory Psychology (3 credits)
- CLEP Introduction to Educational Psychology (3 credits)
- CLEP Human Growth and Development (3 credits)
- DSST Western Europe Since 1945 (3 credits)
- DSST Organizational Behavior (3 upper-level credits)
- DSST Substance Abuse (3 upper-level credits)
- DSST An Introduction to the Modern Middle East (3 upper-level credits)
- DSST A History of the Vietnam War (3 upper-level credits)
- DSST Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union (3 upper-level credits)
- TESC Liberal Arts Capstone (3 upper-level credits)
Applying this all to a high school transcript would give you:
ENGLISH
- English 1 - 1 credit
- English 2 - 1 credit
- English 3 - 1 credit
- English 4 - 1 credit
MATHEMATICS
- Algebra 1 - 1 credit
- Algebra 2 - 1 credit
- PreCalculus - 1 credit
- Statistics - 1 credit
SCIENCE
- Earth-Space Science - 1 credit
- Biology - 1 credit
- Chemistry - 1 credit
- Physics - 1 credit
HISTORY
- US History - 1 credit
- World History 1 - 1 credit
- World History 2 - 1 credit
ELECTIVES
- Psychology - 1 credit
- Sociology - 1 credit
- Anthropology - 1 credit
- Geography - 1 credit
- Foreign Language 1 - 1 credit
- Foreign Language 2 - 1 credit
- Computer Science - 1 credit
- US Government - 1/2 credit
- Economics - 1/2 credit
- Health - 1/2 credit
- Fine Arts - 1/2 credit
Total credits: 24
From this, you would need then to determine what order you want to do things in. Would your student benefit from studying one or two subjects at a time (if your state laws allow), or do you want to follow a more traditional schedule? If you can, group things together. For instance, it would make sense to study for the psychology, anthropology, sociology, and geography exams along with the Social Sciences & History exam, because of their overlapping topics. Remember, you can put together a subject-based high school transcript instead of a semester-based one, if your student studies his courses and takes his exams by topic/subject, instead of following the usual course of study. You can find blank transcript forms on the Portfolios page; just note that they do include a space for SAT/ACT scores, which you will not need if you get a degree from one of the Big Three schools. Also, for the most part, once a student has earned his college degree, his high school transcript is likely never going to be seen by anyone outside the family. Generally, the highest level of education achieved is what matters when applying for jobs and other credentials.
STANDARD DISCLAIMER: BEFORE FOLLOWING ANY DEGREE PLAN, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE COMPARED IT TO CURRENT DEGREE REQUIREMENTS THROUGH THE SCHOOL. HOMESCHOOL COLLEGE USA CANNOT GUARANTEE ANY PLAN WILL BE ACCEPTED. (Speaking with an Academic Advisor at your school of choice is ALWAYS recommended.)