Can I Take a Dual Enrollment Class and a Regular High School Class at the Same Time? A Teacher’s Answer
The August air stuck to the window glass of my office, and the old box fan in the corner hummed so loud I had to lean forward to hear 11th grader Javi talk. He twisted the frayed black soccer bracelet on his wrist over and over, and his mom sat forward on the folding chair across from my desk, her iced coffee leaving sweat rings through the paper napkin under it. Javi had his fall schedule all mapped out: AP Bio, 11th grade English, US History, PE, and a study hall. But the local community college’s dual enrollment Intro to Engineering— the one he’d been asking about since he built a working mini trebuchet in his garage last spring— only had one open section, and it met Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. It overlapped his last period high school class by 15 minutes. “Everyone says dual enrollment is great for college,” his mom said. “But can he actually do both at the same time without everything falling apart?”
I’ve been a high school guidance counselor for 12 years, and this is the question I get more than any other right now, as dual enrollment becomes more common and more students want to get a head start on college credits. Most people assume it’s an either/or situation, but that’s rarely the case. Yes, you can take a dual enrollment class alongside your regular high school classes, but whether you should comes down to a handful of small, practical details that most families don’t think to check first.
First, we checked the district policy. Our district allows any student with a 3.0 unweighted GPA to take up to two dual enrollment classes per semester while taking a full load of high school classes. Javi had a 3.4 GPA, so that box checked out immediately. Some districts have stricter rules, only allowing dual enrollment for seniors, or limiting it to classes that don’t conflict with the high school day, but many will work with you if the class is something your student can’t get at the high school. This is always the first step I tell families to take: don’t assume it’s allowed or forbidden before you check the official fine print in your student handbook.
Next, we worked out the schedule overlap. Javi’s conflict was only 15 minutes, plus 10 minutes of drive time between the community college campus and our high school. I always tell families to talk to every affected teacher in person before you commit, not just shoot a quick email. It lets teachers see how committed the student is, which makes them far more likely to bend a little. Mr. Hale, Javi’s AP Bio teacher, already knew Javi was one of his strongest students, so he agreed to let Javi leave 10 minutes early every Tuesday and Thursday. He posted all his lectures to Google Classroom, so Javi could watch the last 15 minutes of class that night, and turn in his exit ticket before class the next day. No extra hoops, just a simple adjustment that worked for both.
The big worry mom had was workload, and that’s where most plans fall apart. Most families don’t realize that 3 college credits usually translates to 3 to 6 hours of extra homework a week, on top of whatever your high school classes require. I didn’t just tell Javi to “be careful what you sign up for” — I asked him to walk me through a typical week, hour by hour. He had soccer practice every weekday after school until 5, got home by 5:30, ate dinner, and was done with all his regular homework by 7:30 most nights. That left him an hour and a half most evenings to scroll TikTok, play video games, or work on his robot. He didn’t have a part-time job, and his only weekend commitment was a single game on Saturday morning. We mapped it out together on a scrap piece of notebook paper: dual enrollment would take up 2 hours of class time and another 4 hours of homework a week. He could shift 30 minutes of his lighter English reading to the days he didn’t have class, and use the free Saturday afternoon after his game for bigger engineering projects. That left him with almost 3 hours of unstructured free time a week, enough to not cut into sleep or hanging out with friends.
The last thing I always make families agree on before they sign up is an exit plan. The community college lets students drop any class within the first four weeks of the semester with no mark on their transcript and a full refund. We all agreed that if Javi’s grades in any of his high school classes dropped more than a full letter grade after three weeks, he could drop the engineering class no questions, no guilt, no “you let me down” talk. That took a lot of the pressure off mom, who was worried Javi would try to power through even if he was miserable.
Javi started the semester eight weeks ago. He stopped by my office earlier this week to pick up a transcript form for a summer program, and he had a smudge of grease on his jeans from working on his robot after practice. The engineering class is going well — he got an A on his first midterm, and his AP Bio grade is still a B+, right where it was last year. Two weeks ago, he had a Bio test and an engineering group project due the same week, so he skipped one optional after-practice scrimmage to get his work done. His coach was fine with it, and Javi said it was worth it to present his group’s bridge design to the class. Mom emailed me a few weeks back, said she still peeks at the online grade book every other night, and she still worries when he’s up working an hour later than usual most Tuesdays. But she said he comes home every Tuesday and Thursday talking nonstop about what he learned, which is something he rarely does for his other classes.
I still sit through meetings like this two or three times a week during fall and spring registration. The answer to whether you can do both is never a simple yes or no. Some students work 20 hours a week to help their family pay bills, and even a 3 credit dual enrollment class would mean cutting into sleep or skipping shifts they can’t afford to miss. Some students sign up just because they think it looks good on college applications, and they quit after a month when they realize they don’t care enough to put in the extra work. For the right student, with the right schedule and a clear plan, it works. For Javi, right now, it’s working. That’s all you can really ask for.
Please indicate: Thinking In Educating » Can I Take a Dual Enrollment Class and a Regular High School Class at the Same Time