Dual Enrollment in Florida

OK here it is! Dual Enrollment or sometimes called Early College is when a high school student attends college classes and earns both high school and college credit. Here in Florida, the college classes are free for Dual Enrolled students. For private school and home schooled students books are NOT covered although public school students are covered for books. My tax dollars at work.

The state of Florida has guidelines regarding dual enrollment but each college can set rules regarding number of classes per semester, the types of classes and also when the dual enrollment student is allowed to register. With budget cuts at all of the community colleges, a very good question to ask is, "when does the dual enrolled student get to register for classes?" For the community college that allows dual enrollment students to register AFTER the other students, well, it will surely mean that many students will not get a class, or at least the class of their choice.

There are also requirements regarding age, test scores and overall GPA, unweighted. Please talk to the dual enrollment office of your local community college.

Why not AP classes? I know that MANY of the high schools are all about the AP classes. Frankly, MOST students do not pass the required AP test to receive AP credit. BUT the school receives the MONEY for having these students in the class. Your student can get an A in the AP class but if he does not pass the AP test, then he will not get the college credits. Another aspect of the AP debacle that had me very concerned as the dual enrollment advisor was that sometimes two of the AP classes will give the student the same college credit. For example, if your student takes AP English Language and passes the AP test with a 3, he will receive the credits for ENC 1101 (remember, this is a Florida course number). If your student takes AP English Literature the following year and also receives a 3 on the AP test, he will receive the credits for, ENC 1101. Which he already has from the previous year. MOST students and parents do NOT know this! What a waste of time and resources! In ONE year (two semesters) your student can take ENC 1101 and then ENC 1102 at the community college and receive the college credits for both.

Here in Florida the universities MUST weigh AP classes and Dual Enrollment classes the same! UF can no longer weigh DE classes the same as honors while AP classes are weighed higher. Nope. Not anymore! For a high school GPA, AP and Dual Enrollment classes are weighed the same!

Please contact your local community college dual enrollment office for the details.