How early to start working on college credits?

[AJ_Atlanta]

So I want my teen age daughter to start earning college credits (soon-ish). How old should a young person be to start? I would love to hear peoples opinions/facts/experiences about it. I know it comes up in threads now and then but it is usually aside of the actual topic, so lets hear about it as the topic

[rowan555]

My son started at 16, and I wish I had known about SL and Study.com earlier so he could have started at 15. Of course this depends on the child - my younger son turns 16 in March but I don't think he's quite ready. My older son actually started this journey by taking 3 courses via Saylor - Intro to Business, Corporate Communication, and Marketing. He did great on those but then bombed Micro and Macroeconomics on Saylor - he took a break then tried those two courses on SL and did great.

[OakLakeNC]

I think it varies by age. There could be kids who are ready at 12 and there could be kids who still aren't ready at 16. I would be nervous about spending too much money on college classes for teens before they are certain about where they will attend.You could potentially spend a lot of money on credits that don't transfer to the college they ultimately choose to attend.

[jsd]

It also depends on where your kid is going. I imagine most wouldn't want to do this route, and outside of some AP and maybe some CLEP/DSST credit, you'd be wasting time with ACE credit for most more traditional paths.

[AJ_Atlanta]

It also depends on where your kid is going. I imagine most wouldn't want to do this route, and outside of some AP and maybe some CLEP/DSST credit, you'd be wasting time with ACE credit for most more traditional paths.

I agree, unless they are going to roll those into an AS of some kind. Most schools limit transfer credits even if they accept ACE.

My son started at 16, and I wish I had known about SL and Study.com earlier so he could have started at 15. Of course this depends on the child - my younger son turns 16 in March but I don't think he's quite ready. My older son actually started this journey by taking 3 courses via Saylor - Intro to Business, Corporate Communication, and Marketing. He did great on those but then bombed Micro and Macroeconomics on Saylor - he took a break then tried those two courses on SL and did great.

Nice work, given many adults on this forum bomb economics that isn't too bad

[rowan555]

It also depends on where your kid is going. I imagine most wouldn't want to do this route, and outside of some AP and maybe some CLEP/DSST credit, you'd be wasting time with ACE credit for most more traditional paths.

It was an easy choice for my son because he learned about WGU and decided that's what he wanted to do - so ACE approved credits were a no-brainer. I'd think, though, that any teenager would do well to go this route and get an associates degree by the time they graduate high school - then they can choose whatever path suits them to get their bachelors.

[clep3705]

A high schooler who does well in school should take CLEP U.S. History 1 and 2 as soon as those high school history courses are finished. Take the exams while the material is fresh. The reality is that academic core courses or general education courses or whatever you want to call them are not the courses you want to take in college. They are mostly weed out courses. Not taking these courses in college isn't missing out on anything.

[jsd]

'd think, though, that any teenager would do well to go this route and get an associates degree by the time they graduate high school - then they can choose whatever path suits them to get their bachelors.

Not all schools accept a block transfer of an associates for general ed courses like WGU does. I'd guess MOST schools don't. Heck, even TESU doesn't (unless the AA is from within the NJ state school system, I believe). So even if you get an ACE-style AA and then go to a traditional school for a BA, if that BA school doesn't accept ACE, you'll be repeating much of your AA over again as traditional courses. It's still a gamble. AP/CLEP are a little different though, since AP is pretty much accepted everywhere, and CLEP isn't too far behind.

[rowan555]

Not all schools accept a block transfer of an associates for general ed courses like WGU does. I'd guess MOST schools don't. Heck, even TESU doesn't (unless the AA is from within the NJ state school system, I believe). So even if you get an ACE-style AA and then go to a traditional school for a BA, if that BA school doesn't accept ACE, you'll be repeating much of your AA over again as traditional courses. It's still a gamble. AP/CLEP are a little different though, since AP is pretty much accepted everywhere, and CLEP isn't too far behind.

Interesting - I didn't realize that. Thankfully both my kids want to do college online.

[dfrecore]

A high schooler who does well in school should take CLEP U.S. History 1 and 2 as soon as those high school history courses are finished. Take the exams while the material is fresh. The reality is that academic core courses or general education courses or whatever you want to call them are not the courses you want to take in college. They are mostly weed out courses. Not taking these courses in college isn't missing out on anything.

I would recommend that they take the AP exam rather than the CLEP exams - AP is more widely accepted, so I would always tell a HS student to take the AP exam rather than CLEP if that was a possibility.