What would you do?

[mom-from-missouri]

DD#3 just went to a week of science camp at a near by college. It was a 6 day program, with science studies 10 hours a day. Even their meals involved science, they studied everything from bioethics, to ecology, biology, heart disection, went to an observatory and watched stars, worked in labs, did experiments..... She loved it.

I paid $200 in tution for her to go. She stayed in a dorm, meals and all fees were included. They ended it on Saturday with a presentation and science fair for parents and guests.

Now, I have been informed that if we pay another $200, she can get 1 college credit hour as a general studies elective in science. She is only 11.

Of course, she will have to have more science when she goes to college, but would you all pay it for her to get her first credit at age 11? If she goes again next year, she could earn another credit in science, and also the same college does a similar program in music and writing, where she could possibly earn more credits.

I am tempted to do it, but am I pushing the gun for an 11 year old to have college credits already?? She is just entering 7th grade, and we homeschool.

[zakity]

If you have the extra money, then is $200 cheap for a college credit?

[normaldude]

Sounds like a great program, but I wouldn't put too much weight on the college credit. No university has to accept the college credit.

This is why AP exams are done during a student's senior year in high school. At that point, the student knows where they're going, and they can get written confirmation that they'll be able to use their college credits earned from AP exams. In the summer before the student's freshman year, the university will then confirm exactly how many AP credits will qualify.

So I highly doubt that your daughter can go to a school like Harvard, and insist that they must accept these college credits that she earned from some science camp 7 years ago.

[mom-from-missouri]

Sounds like a great program, but I wouldn't put too much weight on the college credit. No university has to accept the college credit.

This is why AP exams are done during a student's senior year in high school. At that point, the student knows where they're going, and they can get written confirmation that they'll be able to use their college credits earned from AP exams. In the summer before the student's freshman year, the university will then confirm exactly how many AP credits will qualify.

So I highly doubt that your daughter can go to a school like Harvard, and insist that they must accept these college credits that she earned from some science camp 7 years ago.

Why would they not accept them?? I guess I am confused as to why they would not. It is an accredited college.

Credits I earned in band camp during high school were accepted when I went to college as a freshman-I just had to have the transcript sent. Why would these be any different? Would it be due to her age??

FYI, she has already taken her ACT and SAT tests and scored well enough to start now college now. In fact, we were thinking of letting her take a english class possibly on-line next year. That would be for a full 3 credits. I am just wondering if the 1 credit at her age would really help her.

The additional $$ for the credit would be in line with the colleges fees.

[normaldude]

Why would they not accept them?? I guess I am confused as to why they would not. It is an accredited college.

Credits I earned in band camp during high school were accepted when I went to college as a freshman-I just had to have the transcript sent. Why would these be any different? Would it be due to her age??

No, it depends on the college. In your specific case, your college credits were accepted. But no college is required to accept external college credits.

[JanH]

I'm thinking you could check with a possible candidate for her college education and see what they say. Or maybe even two. Talk to someone in admissions perhaps? Find out if the outside earned credits will be able to be applied. Let them know about her scores. I do know that high schools here have co-programs where they receive high school and college credits at the same time, but I don't know if they have a special dispensation for them. I'd ask. Good luck!

[PrincessPerky]

I see nothing wrong with speeding up the college start (online, or local, not suggesting sending an 11 year old away!). In fact 11 is fairly normal for homeschooling


I would check with the local college to see if the credit would be useful.. No college is required to accept another's credits...in fact some limit the number of outside credits they will accept (so you can't take a ton at community college and still graduate one semester later from Harvard....)

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

I doubt you would find another college to accept that science camp course unless it was in the same state system that also offers a similar type course for which they award credit. When colleges evaluate what credits they will accept for transfer, they normally have to find one existing in the own offerings that it is equivalent to.

And even if you go to a school that accepts that transfer credit, your daughter may be enrolled in a major where the department says that her general ed science credits must be chosen from among the following 20 courses, and none of them are the one you spent that extra $200 back when she was 11.

Another problem is that some colleges will not accept any transfer credits over a certain number of years old. Even more common is for the department to not accept credits earned more than, say 5 years ago. (Example: I was tutoring a nursing student who was a chemical engineer, but her degree was about 12 years old. She wanted to go to a certain nursing school with an excellent reputation and low tuition, but decided against it when they wanted to make her take a chemistry for non-chemistry-majors course! It was what they made all nursing students take and she could only use her degree to bargain out of it, if she'd done the course work in the last five years. They absolutely would not budge.) Your daughter might decide to delay college, and then her credit for this course might be aged out.

Also, I think you've said in the past that your daughter just very science oriented. If that is the case, she may well want to Major in a science and not even want to use her old credit. She may find much more "delicious" classes to use for those credits instead. Even if she goes to college at the usual age, it may be too old a credit by then.

I think it is Northwest MO State Univ, that has the live-in high school & college joint program. That begins in sophomore or junior year of HS and all classes are college classes. The child finishes with a HS degree, an Associates degree, and a good start on completing the bachelor's. I think your daughter is going to get a recruitment letter for that program. It is not particularly good for the sciences, though. But if she went to it, there would be ZERO tuition to pay for any of those college credits, and they are not specially created classes, but the regular college classes that probably can transfer elsewhere 90% of the time. So, if you hold your horses, daughter can get all those credits paid for, as the state has obligation to pay for the education of all up to age 18. ...Plus, the kids in that program almost always end up with full ride scholarships at any state university....Don't know why the state does not publicize that live high school/ college program more. They just hit you with an invitation letter out of the blue. Oh and yes, homeschoolers do get the invitations if they have taken those SAT and ACT tests as you daughter has.

Plus, the school is hoping to have locked in her heart so that she will choose to come there where she already has familiarity and credit. The more times a kid is on campus, the more likely they will go there for college, and the school would like to have such brights students as your daughter.

I think your child is going to have a lot of options and that it probably is not going to be beneficial to have locked in the credit with $200.

[maat55]

I would not do it just for the credit. If you think she will get something more from the program and you have no better use for the money, then go for it.

[GrimJack]

I would suggest adding the $200 into her college fund; check out the current cost of college credit and compare it.

[jIM_Ohio]

Sounds like a great program, but I wouldn't put too much weight on the college credit. No university has to accept the college credit.

This is why AP exams are done during a student's senior year in high school. At that point, the student knows where they're going, and they can get written confirmation that they'll be able to use their college credits earned from AP exams. In the summer before the student's freshman year, the university will then confirm exactly how many AP credits will qualify.

So I highly doubt that your daughter can go to a school like Harvard, and insist that they must accept these college credits that she earned from some science camp 7 years ago.

If your daughter majored in liberal arts, I think the credits would work.

If she majored in pre-med the liklihood the credits would transfer is less.

I was an engineering major and very few people could transfer any science credits as freshman- physcis must be calculus based, chemistry needed to be broken up between organic, inorganic and environmental.

In addition the physics eeded to be mechanics in one course and electric in another.

My college was VERY particular in this regard.

The most common classes to transfer in were economics, calculus (even the calc was broken up differently, but it still transferred), and foreign languages (I knew one person which did this).

If you want to think college credit, the summer of her junior year, have her take economics at a local community college, then use that as the HS course and get college credit for it.

I agree with poster above that not all colleges will accept the credits in any case you or I mentioned.

[Greer]

This is potentially a waste of money for you and your daughter, if you've got the $200 spare then use it to start a college fund for your daughter (if you havent already) by putting it in a high interest savings account to go towards whatever type of higher education your daughter does after high school.

[floridaharris]

The program sounds great, but the extra monies for the possibly non-usable college credit don't seem worth it. If you knew where she were going to college and could get confirmation, well that's another situation. As she's only 11 she might not have an idea where she wants to go and the time elapsed until she does go might negate any information you could collect now anyhow. Putting the money towards her college fund seems a more sound idea.
Good luck!!

[mom-from-missouri]

Since someone updated this thread, I thouht I would update. She now has 3 college credits in science from summer science camp. She has already earned a full ride scholarship and will be taking a college english class this summer. She will be graduating from high school just a couple months after her 16th birthday (she is now 13). We are looking into doing the dual credit, where she will have an associates degree when she graduates from high school. There are several colleges now that have programs for homeschoolers to do the dual program.

As for confirmation, we called around and every college we called in Missouri would accept the credits.