College Level Examination Program
CLEP exams are a lesser-known option for earning college credits, and you can do so by paying a relatively small fee of $89 and demonstrating sufficient knowledge in one of 34 different areas. Administered by the College Board, the same company who runs AP and the SAT, CLEP exams are accepted by over 2,900 colleges and universities.
Since there is no accompanying course for CLEP exams, you are pretty much on your own in terms of preparation. Pick up a CLEP study guide for ten bucks, get a sense of the material covered, take a sample test, and if you feel like you have a firm grasp on the material, give it a try. The best time to do this is typically right after completing high school coursework that is relevant to the exam. Maybe you just finished an honors economics course and feel like you understand the material at a college-level. Your knowledge gained in the classroom plus your self-directed independent study should be a solid recipe for success on the CLEP.
Evaluating Credits With The Textbook Approach
Are you using a high school textbook written by a reputable publisher as the basis for your teens course? If so, then the publisher has already decided how much credit the course is worth.
For example, you might be using an algebra or biology book from a textbook publisher as the main resource for a science course. As part of the publication process, the publisher assesses the content of the course and the amount of time necessary to complete the assignments.
A textbook designed to be completed in one school year is given 1.0 credit, while a textbook meant to be completed in one semester is given 0.5 credit. Many publishers and curriculum sellers will provide this information online.
Students do not need to complete every question, problem, or assignment in a textbook to earn the course creditbut please do not shortchange your teen. Using good judgment to prevent wasted effort, youll want to make sure your student diligently covers all the content of the textbook.
Many textbooks include extra problems, questions, or assignments to help students who are struggling with various concepts. Like any good expedition guide, you can lead your teen over easy territory quickly and help them face more challenging territory with deliberation.
We recommend that your student completes at least 7580% of the assignments in a textbook to earn the credit.
Converting College Credit To High School Credit
Students who take college-level courses while still in high school can simultaneously earn both college and high school credit. Most states call this dual enrollment .
If your teen completes a 3- to 5-credit college course in one college session , we recommend converting this course to a 1.0 credit high school course on your teens high school transcript.
There are a few exceptions to this college-to-high-school credit conversion factor. And of course as the administrator of your homeschool, you are free to determine how you wish to convert college course credit into high school credit!
However, most high schools around the country use the conversion outlined above, and we recommend it.
Now that you know how to determine high school course credit, you can go deeper on four-year planning, choosing curriculum, grading, recordkeeping, or transcriptsjust check out the posts below!
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Is Dual Enrollment Worth It
Yes, says Noriko Kantake, a parent who lives in Ohio. Her state has a dual enrollment program called College Credit Plus for high school students which offer free college courses. A student can earn up to 120 college credit hours before high school graduation, but Noriko notes thats an extreme and requires a lot of planning.
Norikos daughter, now a first-semester high school junior, has already earned 13 college credit hours through dual enrollment. But figuring out the college course offering and alignment with the high school schedule is not easy, says Noriko.
The State of Washington offers a Dual Enrollment program called Running Start that allows juniors and seniors in high school to take tuition-free college courses at the states 34 community and technical colleges, earning both high school and college credits. Sherridan Poffenroths son did one year of the high school program, earning nine credits that will allow him to graduate from Washington State University in three years.
Georgia has a Move On When Ready program which allows for Dual Enrollment. Jessica Floyd Olivers son took university courses while in high school and started his freshman year at Georgia Tech with 52 credit hours.
Not every college, particularly not all private colleges, will accept Dual Enrollment credits.
Virginia is one state with school districts offering Dual Enrollment courses, but the states four-year colleges and universities do not uniformly accept the credits.
How To Earn College Credit In High School
Too many talented students pass up opportunities to earn college credits during their high school years for just a tiny fraction of what they will pay later in freshman tuition. Understanding the options that may be available to you at your high school is step one. Step two is exploring the policies of each of your prospective colleges with regard to awarding post-secondary credits earned prior to matriculation. What follows is a look at the most common ways to accrue college credits while in high school including:
- Advanced Placement tests
- College Level Examination Program exams
- Dual enrollment
- Summer or Winter study sessions
For each option, we will explore how they have the potential to save you tens of thousands of dollars at almost any college or university in the United States.
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How Many College Credits To Graduate
The number of college credits a student has played a huge role in deciding if and when to graduate. When it is time to graduate, and a student does not have the correct number of college credits, he or she will not be able to receive a diploma.
However, the number of college credits needed to graduate varies greatly depending on the pursued degree. Students need to earn a certain amount of credit hours for different degree levels. View the list below to see a breakdown of how many credit hours each degree needs.
- For an Associates degree, students need to complete 60 to 65 credit hours or 20 classes.
- For a Bachelors degree, students need to complete 120 to 130 credit hours or 40 classes.
- For a Masters degree, the requirements can range from 30 to 60 credit hours, depending on the program and the college or university.
With this information in mind, students need to ensure they stay on track for graduation. Students are encouraged to set up meetings with their academic advisors and check their college or universitys curriculum. It is also essential for students to be self-aware and carefully track how many credits they have.
For more information on North Central College and how to apply, visit .
Kara Kots is a Social Media Specialist at North Central College, where she contributes her content, writing, and communication skills.
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Are You Ready To Earn College Credits In High School
Taking on college-level courses while youre still in high school is no small feat. The difficulty level depends on which option you choose. Programs like dual enrollment can allow you to earn double-credit in each course you take.
Taking college-level classes at your high school will still differ from taking them in college. Your instructor will still be a high school teacher. But youll likely find that your teacher will try to emulate a college classroom in as many ways possible, including far less leeway for late work and missed tests.
If you enroll in college courses at the local college, be prepared to make a bigger adjustment. Youll be dealing with college expectations and rules, and your peers will likely be significantly older than you. This route can give you a glimpse into what you can expect when you get to college.
Other programs, like AP and IB, allow you to earn college credits via examination. In some ways, this is an easier route. You can even take an AP test without having taken a course. However, this method also means your college credits hang in the balance based on your test scores. Youll have to study hard to earn college credits while youre still in high school.
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About Dual Credit Programs
Dual credit programs allow eligible students in high school to take college or apprenticeship courses that count towards:
- their Ontario Secondary School Diploma
- a postsecondary certificate, diploma, degree or a Certificate of Apprenticeship
High school students taking dual credit courses benefit from the supervision and support of their college instructor and the dual credit teacher at their school. Students also have access to a variety of college supports and services.
The Ministry of Education approves all dual credit programs.
Ontario high schools have a variety of job skills programs to help meet the needs, interests and strengths of all students, engaging them in learning and preparing them for graduation, life beyond high school and the jobs of the future.
Search for dual credit programs at your local publicly funded college and talk to the high school principal or guidance counsellor to see if they are offered at the school.
All publicly-funded school boards with secondary schools and all Ontario colleges of applied arts and technology are involved in providing high school students with opportunities to earn ministry-approved dual credits.
What To Do If You Don’t Have Enough Credits
Before you enter high school, you’ll meet with a guidance counselor to discuss what your course schedule will look like for the next four years. It’s your guidance counselor’s responsibility to make sure your schedule is organized and planned out so you’ll obtain all the credits you need by the time you graduate.
Unfortunately, there are sometimes circumstances in which students aren’t able to meet the requirements, whether they changed schools often, were absent a lot or failed a class. If you’ve discovered that you won’t have enough units to graduate high school, there are several solutions, the biggest one being summer school. At summer school, you can take classes over the summer break to make up for what you’re missing and still be able to graduate on time.
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Homeschooling High School: Clepping For College Credit
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Every season of homeschooling has its special moments and we have enjoyed all of them. As we launched our oldest into college this past year after 12 years of homeschooling, we enjoyed a particularly satisfying moment when he started his freshman year with multiple college credits. Without dual enrollment or correspondence courses, he entered his freshman year with 12 credits under his belt and added 3 more in the fall while he was taking his normal full-time-college-student class load.
Learn What Core Courses You Need To Get Into College
- Ph.D., English, University of Pennsylvania
- M.A., English, University of Pennsylvania
- B.S., Materials Science & Engineering and Literature, MIT
While admissions standards vary greatly from one school to another, nearly all colleges and universities will be looking to see that applicants have completed a standard core curriculum. As you choose classes in high school, these core courses should always get top priority. Students without these classes may be automatically disqualified for admission , or they may be admitted provisionally and need to take remedial courses to gain an appropriate level of college readiness.
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How To Calculate Your Credits
Calculating the number of credits you have is easy. Each course that you take in high school is worth a certain amount of credits. Credits are essentially like points, which you can add together to reach a target number. Depending on the state, classes are assigned either credits or units. Units are smaller than credits, and sometimes several credits will add up to one unit. Carnegie units, as they’re also known as, are currently the standard in the United States, with one unit equaling one year of coursework. Of course, some states have exceptions, though most follow this rule.
In the state of New York, for example, students are required to have 22 units in order to graduate. The amount of units is broken up by subjects, so for instance, students would need 4 units for English, 2.5 units for P.E/Health, 1 unit for Art, 3 units for Math and so on. To calculate your units, simply add up the number of units you’ve received for each class.
Once you’ve figured out the total, it’s necessary that you take a look at your state’s requirements via the Education Commision of the States’ website to determine whether or not you’ve reached the requirement or if you’re at least on track to reach it. Keep in mind that the site was last updated in 2007, so if you want to be completely sure about how your school calculates units and how many you need to graduate, the guidance office or main office should have this information available.
What People Are Saying About Dual Enrollment
NOVAs DE has been the cornerstone to my sons accelerated academic progress and more importantly to his sense of self as a competent contributing member of society. The NOVA courses challenged him to succeed beyond high school, during high school. Arlington Parent
My son is double majoring in Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering, minoring in Mathematics. All of this is possible for him to accomplish because of the 31 Dual Enrollment credits he received from NOVA, most of which transferred successfully to Virginia Tech. His three AP classes also helped him to start at Virginia Tech as a 2nd semester sophomore with 45 credits. That directly translates into three semesters of tuition, fees and housing expenses. Arlington Parent
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Take A Free Clep Subject Exam For College Credit
The College Board offers 33 subject-based exams that cover material your student may have already learned in high school. More than 2,900 U.S. colleges and universities grant credit for CLEP exams, says the College Boards website.
Francine Massiellos daughter took Spanish 3 in high school, then took a CLEP test in French and received language credit in college.
Kerri Cook Halligan of Florida reminds other parents that CLEP exams are free to take. Her high school daughter is now studying for two CLEP exams in the hope of earning college credit.
Of course, colleges vary in the number of credits offered and for which CLEP exams credits can be given.
For example, the College of Charleston offers a varying number of college credits for high scores on CLEP exams in foreign languages, history, and social sciences, science, and math.
The University of Maryland grants credit for certain scores on the CLEP financial accounting, sociology, macroeconomics, microeconomics exams, calculus, among others.
What Do College Credits Do For You
A college credit, according to Learn.org, is defined as the number of applied hours that are recognized for satisfactory completion of a certain course of study. They are essentially a method of equalizing the amount of time spent learning and studying for each college course, to put it another way.
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Group 1 2 And 3 Compulsory Credits
Of the 18 compulsory credits, students must complete one from each of the following groups:
Group 1:
- English or French as a second language
- Native languages
- First Nations, Métis, and Inuit studies
- classical and international languages
- social sciences and the humanities
- Canadian and world studies
- American Sign Language as a second language
- Langue des signes québécoise langue seconde
Group 2:
- French as a second language
- cooperative education
- American Sign Language as a second language
- Langue des signes québécoise langue seconde
Group 3:
- science
- technological education
- French as a second language
- computer studies
- American Sign Language as a second language
- Langue des signes québécoise langue seconde
The following conditions apply to compulsory credit selections from the above three groups:
- In groups 1, 2, and 3, a maximum of 2 credits in French as a second language can count as compulsory credits, one from group 1 and one from either group 2 or group 3.
- A maximum of 2 credits in cooperative education can count as compulsory credits, selected from any of the above three groups.
Please note that the Langue des signes québécoise langue seconde course is only available in French-language schools.
What Are College Credits
Over the course of a semester , college credits are awarded based on the amount of work a student puts into a specific subject. The most frequent method of determining credit hours is to count the amount of hours put in by a student in a certain period of time. If you have completed a specific amount of credits toward your degree, you are regarded to be finished.
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Who Can Take Dual Enrollment Classes
High school juniors and seniors or the home-schooled equivalent are eligible to participate in dual enrollment classes. In order to take these courses, you must demonstrate competence in reading, writing and math.
VCCS policy allows colleges to consider exceptional freshman and sophomore students who demonstrate readiness for college-level coursework through the colleges established institutional policies. Each underclass student will be considered on a case-by-case basis. See the enrollment section or the Dual Enrollment Manual for specific information.
Other Avenues Towards A College Degree
Although our family has focused on CLEP testing, there are many other avenues of credit that can be explored and may apply to your particular situation. If youre planning on a completely online degree, the College Out of the Box publication will be immensely helpful. Another valuable resource is Homeschooling for College Credit by Jennifer Cook-DeRosa, which covers every type of college credit available. The author walks through the steps she has taken with her family to earn 9 degrees from 7 different colleges.
There is usually a list of other possible sources of credit on college websites as well. The below list is from VolState Community College, but your chosen school should have a similar list along with information regarding which subjects can be credited. As you can see, there are a multitude of possibilities for your student to acquire college credit and allow them to earn a degree with less time and cost than traditional methods.
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