By Hunter Haskett, Editor-in-Chief
It’s 11:30 p.m. and you’re furiously typing away at your computer, desperately searching for that much needed Quizlet to get a good grade in COA Art Appreciation, just one of the many classes where you always wait until the night assignments are due to complete anything.
Dual enrollment classes like Art Appreciation are pushed hard by the counseling center here. Once a student reaches their sophomore year, it seems that students scramble to fill the schedules with COA courses.
In theory, I see the benefit they’re trying so hard to sell to us. We’re being given the opportunity to take a college class and therefore receive college credit. More college credit equals less money to pay in the future at any public North Carolina college.
Not to mention this college credit also happens to give you the same GPA boost as an AP class, so hence the popularity. But in reality, COA courses are a joke. Hate to break it to you.
I’ve taken five of them myself, and I know that they’re no comparison to an AP class.
Most of these dual enrollment classes are online courses where you post a discussion board once a week, comment on two of your classmates’ ideas, take a quiz (with the helpful Quizlet, of course) and write a paper without reading the chapter and yet – you still get a 95 on it.
And this year it has gotten even easier to be enrolled in them. In years past, the counseling center used a PSAT or PreACT score to determine your eligibility or you took a placement test, all while upholding the minimum GPA requirement.
Now all a student has to have is a 2.8 GPA and no test scores are looked at. I’m not saying I’m a proponent of standardized testing, but I do believe that if you’re taking a college course at 15 years old you should have to jump through a couple of hoops.
The proof is in the pudding, though: This new drop of eligibility requirements speaks volumes that the courses themselves aren’t challenging or equal to the standard of work seen in an AP class.
Not to mention that almost every student knows COA classes aren’t as challenging – why do you think so many seniors take them? They can get an A in each class without even comprehending the work they’re doing, and there’s an added bonus: a modified schedule.
Bottom line, I don’t believe that dual enrollment courses are on the same playing field as APUSH, AP Bio, AP Chem, BC Calc or AP Lit. In those classes, students can be expected to complete at least one hour of homework a night, be tested rigorously, perform labs, write timed essays, etc.
In the end, despite the countless hours put into each of these courses (some kids take five at a time) they still might come up empty handed. In most of these subjects, a kid has to score at least a 3 on the exam to get some sort of college credit.
There’s a chasm of difference between workloads of dual enrollment and AP classes, yet they’re weighted exactly the same when it comes to the GPA scale. It makes it so that kids who passed with flying colors in COA (no surprise there) can surpass the kid who worked really hard for that B or C in AP Chem in the race toward valedictorian.
Is that really fair? I know some really deserving people in the senior class who, granted, are in the top 10, but definitely not where they’re supposed to be. They’re the ones who chose to take APs and elective courses, and somehow this puts them behind because of the wrench that dual enrollment classes throws into things.
These college classes basically allow for kids to work the loopholes of both the GPA system and the college application process.
If you amass enough COA credits, you are technically considered a transfer student when applying to public North Carolina colleges. It’s pretty common knowledge that it’s easier to be accepted into a more rigorous university if you’re considered a transfer student.
Again, how is that fair to the kids who chose a different route in high school and their only option is to apply as an incoming freshman like everyone else?
I’m not saying I’m completely against COA classes – I mean, I’m currently taking one and I understand that for some people they are a better financial option for college. However, I do think that in Dare County Schools, the reward for AP and dual enrollment courses should be seriously thought about and adjusted.
Dual enrollment isn’t just a growing trend in Dare County, but across the country. It’s time that both colleges and high schools from around the nation begin to discuss the kinks that these college classes are causing in our GPA and application systems.
AP classes and COA classes are on two completely different planets in terms of the work needed to succeed in them. If they were each a rigorous path I could understand but they’re not, so stop treating them like they are.
Senior Hunter Haskett can be reached at hasketthu0318@daretolearn.org.
