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Community College Dual Enrollment
Dateline: February 20, 2003
By Ann Zeise
It started out innocently enough. Our son, Scott, wanted to
learn computer
aided drafting. To learn this computer application one needs
a very powerful computer and a rather expensive piece of software
called "ProEngineer."
The books
that are sold to explain this software are all very thick tomes.
Didn't exactly look too friendly to our teen autodidactic. Our
local community college, Ohlone
in Fremont, California, offered the course, and the teacher
seemed friendly enough and willing to take on a youngster. The
class would be self paced, with the teacher coaching on new features.
Sponsored Links
To
enroll as a high school student, we had a form to fill out
and we were supposed to have a permission letter from a local
high school's principal or counselor. I asked them if a student
from a private boys school wanting to attend Ohlone, would they
require permission from a public school to do so? This got a
ball rolling and the admissions folks decided that they wanted
to see our R4 and
to have a letter from me, the administrator of our "private
school" giving Scott permission to take the classes and
to not hold them liable for progress.
Here's my template, on our "ZeiSchool School Letterhead,"
with some editing for this publication:
Admissions Office
Ohlone College
Fremont, California
Dear Sir,
I am pleased to recommend that Scott Zeise be allowed to take
more than 7 units at Ohlone College in the Fall Semester 200x.
He is a good student and intends to take:
[List of courses.]
Scott, who is 16, has our full approval to take these courses
or similar substitutions, if he can't get in these courses.
We do not hold Ohlone College liable for his progress in these
courses.
ZeiSchool is a legal private school in the State of California
and has an R4 Affidavit on record at the Santa Clara County Office
of Education. A copy is provided for you.
Ann Zeise
Director, ZeiSchool
We have resubmitted this letter each semester, and they've
gotten used to us now, and the application for another semester
goes through easily.
As a new student, he had to take assessment
tests for Math and English. He placed just where we thought
he'd be in math, but English surprised us: he placed right into
freshman English! The test hadn't required any actual essay writing,
and Scott has a good vocabulary, reads widely, and so recognizes
good English when he sees it, not because we've drilled him with
grammar lessons. We had him take a basic writing course.
Why change from being an unschooler to being a college student
at 16 some might ask? For Scott the novelty of it was an adventure.
Most of his classes are not so different than his own explorations
when he was younger. He's often done self-paced courses of his
own choosing, startling us with the decision to go through something
like a physiology book meant for nursing students all on his
own. He's also been studying biology and Latin with a homeschooled
friend. Sometimes teens who have been under no pressure for a
good number of years, suddenly get a yen to try organized classes,
and decide that college may well be a good idea. When this hits
at 16, you wonder if you can possibly get this kid a transcript
that might be acceptable! Two years at a community college can
cover all courses most colleges would like to see. Best yet,
the courses are almost all considered "honors" courses!
Are we still legally homeschoolers? Yes. We still file the
R4. I suppose we could have had Scott take the GED or CHSPE and
then apply for college entrance to Ohlone, but it was recommended
to us by Wes Beach, of Beach
High , at one of his seminars, that we go the route of dual
enrollment as a high school student. Not only does the transcript
of 'honors courses' look better, but the colleges do not charge
course fees for high school students! [This is written before
the full effect of education cutbacks in 2003 are fully known.
See Bill Mosely's comment below.] The cost of books and supplies
is still very high, so it isn't exactly a free ride. We also
pay a small amount for a photo ID and some college health fees.
I am a full-time faculty member at a California community
college. Enrollment for any student that does not have a GED
or diploma is going to get increasingly difficult for the next
couple of tight budget years. I know that there has been at least
some discussion at our school and the state chancellor's office
about closing the doors to high school students as a means of
allowing access to the students who "really need it"
-- ................ Bill Moseley
We attended a college fair at St Mary's College in Moraga.
Most of the private colleges seemed very impressed at the work
he was doing. The UC and CSU system, so overwhelmed with applicants,
didn't seem as warm. The private colleges seemed to be handing
out financial discounts, cuts in fees as long as grade average
stayed above B-. Our plan is to have him attend a 4-year college
with most of his undergraduate core coursework completed so he
can have more time to experiment.
This page will be updated as the budget cutbacks become known
and how they will affect high schoolers, homeschooled or not,
who wish to dual enroll in a California community college.
Update: After getting a phone call from the University of
Hawaii encouraging him to apply, Scott thought he'd give it a
try, having not filled out an application before, he did this
as an academic exercise. He applied for the spring semester,
to enter as a transfer student, mid-year sophomore level. The
University of Hawaii based his entrance solely on his having
more than 25 transferable units with the grade point average
they wanted to see. He's now having a great time in Honolulu,
and having fun complaining to me about the heat!
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- College Without High School
- A Teenager's Guide to Skipping High School and Going to College
- by Blakes Boles
- The author, who leads teenage unschoolers on educational adventures, offers several suggestions for life-changing, confidence-building activities that will demonstrate those results. This intriguing approach to following your dreams and doing college prep on your own terms will be welcomed by students (and their parents).
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-
- Paying for College without Going Broke
- 2009 Edition
- by Princeton Review
- Thoroughly revised and updated to take the stress, confusion, and guess-work out of applying for financial aid.
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-
- The Best Way to Save for College
- A Complete Guide to 529 Plans, 2009
- by Joseph F. Hurley
- Before this book came out, good information on 529 plans was hard to find. Joe Hurley has done a terrific job of making it easy to get all the details on these plans.
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- How to Go to College Almost for Free
- by Benjamin R. Kaplan
- Kaplan parlayed intelligence, hard work, and creativity into $90,000 of scholarship money, then graduated from Harvard to write a book designed to help others negotiate their way to unencumbered college cash.
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- College Money Handbook 2009
- (How to Get Money for College)
- by Peterson's, Fern Oram (Editor)
- A great resource for anyone looking to supplement his or her federal financial aid package with aid from colleges and universities. This comprehensive directory points you to complete and accurate information on need-based and non-based gift aid, loans, work-study, athletic awards, and more.
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- Best Selling
Homeschooling Books
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