Why do I take core subjects in high school, only to repeat them in college?

Hi Rachel,

Thanks for your question. I totally understand your concern. Some high schools do allow students to take dual-credit courses in which they'll take, say, an AP English course that counts as both credit toward high school and college. The state of Ohio, for example, has a program called "College Credit Plus" which allows students to graduate with their high school diploma AND an associate's degree at the same time: https://www.ohiohighered.org/content/college_credit_plus_info_students_families

Now, if your school or state doesn't offer anything like you're still not out of options. Many colleges accept both AP and CLEP exams for credit. For these exams, you simply register, pay the fee, take the exam, and, if you pass, you'll have a transcript which you may be able to use for transfer credit. I say "may" because some colleges may not exam these exams for certain classes so it is very important that you check with any school you are interested in to see if, and how many, AP and/or CLEP exam credits they'll accept.

Here's a link to each exam:

CLEP: https://clep.collegeboard.org/exam

AP: https://apstudent.collegeboard.org/takingtheexam/about-exams

Also, here's a link to Florida Southern College in which they list the CLEP exam, the score needed, and what course requirement it will meet. CLEP exams are only $80 so if you complete a few them of them you can save a lot of money. Keep in mind, though, that colleges have what's known as a "residency requirement" which means they limit the amount of transfer credit you can bring in and require that you complete "X" number of credits with them (it varies based on the college because they all have their own transfer credit requirements).

There is also another, relatively new option known as "StraighterLine" in which you take the courses through StraighterLine and then transfer them into one of their "partner colleges". With StraighterLine, you pay a monthly fee and an "exam" fee and, like the AP and CLEP exams, you can potentially save a lot of money. The drawback here is that you are selection of colleges is limited to the partner colleges. You can visit that site at this link: http://www.straighterline.com/

I wish you luck and please let me know if you need anything else.

Highschools curriculum differ and colleges/universities need to insure that the students are capable of understanding higher classes. Moreover, some student are not capable enough or don't take school seriously. For that reason you see high drop out rate at the first year of college. Lastly, there are various highschools that have bridge program between them and college. In other words, you can take college classes while you are still in highschool.