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Kinds of Opportunities

High School Electives

Obviously, not every school can offer all subjects to meet the needs of every individual student, but distance learning makes it more feasible. Classes like Novels, Anthropology, Oceanography, and International Business are high-school classes, taught by licensed Indiana teachers, that apply to your high-school diploma. Some may even make it possible for you to shoot for an Academic Honors Diploma rather than the more typical Core 40 Diploma. Or it may be that instead of settling for Journalism, which is offered in your school, you get a chance to take Creative Writing, which isn't. Home-schooled students often benefit from being able to take specialized subjects as well.

High-school level classes are currently offered state-wide via technology by the Academy for Science, Mathematics and Humanities at Ball State University and the Ripley County Learning Network, a collaboration of the Ripley County school corporations. Indiana University Virtual High School also offers a complete North Central Association accredited high-school diploma online, with a wide variety of subjects from which to choose, but since the diploma is not recognized by the Indiana Department of Education, it would be smart to check first with your guidance counselor to see if a particular course will apply.

Advanced Placement

Advanced Placement is a program sponsored by The College Board in cooperation with universities and high schools throughout the country. Basically, the classes prepare you to take the Advanced Placement examinations, which are evaluated by a mix of college professors and high-school teachers as well as testing experts, with grades assigned on a scale of 1 to 5. In general, students who score at a 4 or 5 are able to receive college credit for introductory classes and generally do even better in their next-level classes than those who did take the introductory classes at the college. Scores of 3 provide less assurance—some colleges do allow credit, others don’t, though the evidence indicates that most students who score a 3 are at least able to keep up with the next level of work as well as their peers coming out of the introductory classes. These are still considered high-school level classes and do count toward your diploma’s elective requirements.

In Indiana, they are currently available via technology from the Academy for Science, Mathematics and Humanities at Ball State University.

Dual Credit/Concurrent Enrollment

Dual credit is a generic term meaning that a student is simultaneously earning both high school and college credit. Dual credit courses can be taken online, on a college campus, or at a high school. Visit http://cell.uindy.edu/docs/INDualCreditProviderDirectory.pdf to view a directory of all Indiana dual credit providers. Offerings vary from one semester to another, but dual credit arrangements are generally available for technology-based classes through Ball State University, Indiana University School of Continuing Studies, University of Indianapolis, and Vincennes University, among others.

Concurrent enrollment is a specific type of dual credit taught by a university-approved and trained high school instructor in the high school during the regular school day. In the concurrent enrollment model, you take one course and simultaneously (on successful completion, of course!) receive high-school and college credit. Typically, concurrent enrollment courses are offered at reduced tuition which makes it a low-risk way to see whether you can handle college-level work. Concurrent enrollment options abound in areas both near and far from college campuses in a site-based format. In order to have the class apply to your high school diploma, it must be taught by an Indiana-certified teacher; in order to get college credit, the course must be taught by a university-approved and trained instructor who maintains the collegiate standards for the equivalent course.

Concurrent enrollment was problematic in the past because all too often a course taken on a concurrent basis wouldn’t transfer from one university to another, but most of those problems have been ironed out. Through the creation of the Indiana Core Transfer Library (CTL), both college and high school concurrent enrollment students can easily view how more than 70 common college courses will transfer among Indiana’s public institutions. Visit www.transferin.net for more details. Transferability also has been increased through the development of common procedures for assuring college-level work. Typically, the college provides special training to the high-school teacher and continues to monitor the teacher and provide feedback during the course so the institution can reliably state that the content learned was truly the same as what would have been learned by taking the class at its campus. A national organization, known as NACEP (www.nacep.org) is responsible for accrediting concurrent enrollment programs after a rigorous review process, and four institutions in Indiana have attained this accreditation (IU Bloomington, IU South Bend, University of Southern Indiana, and Vincennes University), while several more are in the process.

Early College Enrollment

Early college enrollment refers to taking a college class while you’re still enrolled in high school—but this isn’t the same as concurrent enrollment, because the class doesn’t count toward your diploma. Essentially, it provides a head start for those who know they want to go on to college, or sometimes a toe-in-the-water test for those who aren’t sure whether they can do college-level work. One of the advantages, regardless of motivation, is that you can start accumulating credits early and have a better chance of completing a degree in the “standard” two or four years—and that can mean a real dollar savings for students and parents alike. In some cases (though not all), you can even qualify for lower-than-usual tuition costs or scholarships, though you won’t be eligible for State or Federal financial aid yet.

Indiana’s colleges and universities offer hundreds of college undergraduate classes via technology every semester, and over 100 of those have been identified as open to enrollment by qualified high-school students (sometimes more than one institution offers the same class). In some cases, you’ll need to take a placement test to assure you’re really ready for the class, but in several of those cases the placement test is available online and you have results almost immediately. See more about requirements under “How to Enroll.”

At this point, distance classes are available to high-school students from Indiana State University, Indiana Purdue Fort Wayne, Indiana University School of Continuing Studies, Indiana Wesleyan University, several regions of Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana, Purdue University, Taylor University, University of Southern Indiana, and Vincennes University. Several other campuses are considering opening their classes similarly, so keep checking if you don’t see your intended college listed right now. And remember that course-transfer arrangements are in place for many of these classes, so you could take the class from one institution and transfer the credit to the institution where you actually end up enrolling after high school. (As always, though, check with someone at your intended institution first to be sure.)

Also Consider ...

Also consider the possible advantages of some of the other kinds of noncredit or credit-bearing classes available. Even though they may not apply to a degree program, there are opportunities for SAT preparation as well as study-skills classes that can help you prepare for admission to and success in college. Some of these more obvious choices are listed under “Other College Preparation Opportunities,” or you can check out others in the “Search for Courses” section of the ICN Web site.