Advanced Placement and Dual Enrollment: What’s a student to choose?
Properly preparing students for college is of the utmost importance for parents and high schools, especially when reports indicate that many students are not “college-ready”. Making students college-ready varies, but more often than not exposure to more rigorous coursework is the determining factor. Two well-known programs that prepare students for college-level work are Advanced Placement and dual enrollment. There are numerous reports highlighting the positive outcomes of each individual program, but which program best prepares students for college rigor?
Advanced Placement
Advanced Placement (AP) classes are advanced high school courses with similar rigor to that of a college course. Below are some key characteristics of AP courses:
- Students are enrolled in a course for an academic year and then take a comprehensive exam to test their proficiency in the course material.
- Depending on the AP exam score received students can be potentially waived from taking certain introductory college courses and/or receive college credits for the course. This is at the discretion of the institution the student plans on attending. More selective universities often require higher test scores in order to award college credit (a 5 being the max score).
- Students receive high school credit for the course, regardless of the AP exam grade earned, as long as they pass the coursework.
- Courses are taught by a high school teacher.
Dual Enrollment
Dual enrollment programs, also known as concurrent enrollment, allow students to enroll in college-credit courses at a local college/university while in high school. The goal of dual enrollment programs is usually two-fold; to allow students to earn college credits and to expose them to the rigors of college-level work. Although program formats vary by institution, below are some general program characteristics:
- Classes are undergraduate level courses offered by a local college/university in collaboration with a high school.
- Courses take place at the high school, college campus, online, and/or a combination.
- Students earn transcribed college credits from the college/university upon successful completion of the course (usually a grade of C or higher). How these credits transfer to other institutions are dependent on the receiving intuition’s transfer credit policies.
- Instructors are college faculty (tenure-track and/or adjunct).
In addition to dual enrollment programs, some institutions partner with high schools to provide Early College programs. Early College programs allow students to earn a high school diploma and substantial college credit courses (usually an associate’s degree) simultaneously. Regardless of the program format, by allowing high school students to take college courses while in high school universities expose them to the crucial differences between high school and college which enables them to become better acclimated to college.
Postsecondary Outcome Differences
Although both AP and dual enrollment courses provide rigorous and challenging coursework there are some differences between both, especially with respect to postsecondary outcomes. In New York City, the Department of Education (NYCDOE) has a dual enrollment partnership with the City University of New York (CUNY) called College Now (CN). The following is a comparison of CUNY first-time freshmen from New York City public high schools who entered the University with and without CN Psychology credits and AP Psychology experience during fall 2017.
College Now (CN) and Advanced Placement (AP) Psychology Postsecondary Outcomes
Descriptively, we find that students who successfully complete both CN and AP Psychology courses outperform students who only completed CN Psychology or AP Psychology. This is consistent with CN’s Fall 2017 first-semester outcomes for CUNY first-time freshmen from New York City public high schools with and without CN credits and/or AP experience.
Overall College Now (CN) and Advanced Placement (AP) Postsecondary Outcomes 
It should be noted that the demographic and academic profiles of students who participate in CN, AP, and CN + AP are very different. This may be due to the fact that AP courses have historically had more rigorous acceptance standards, therefore enrolling already “high achieving” students. Dual enrollment programs on the other hand, tend to cater to all students including students who meet the minimum college readiness standards and may be uncertain about their postsecondary plans.
Conversely, students who only take CN courses on average successfully complete and earn more college credits than students who only take AP courses. Remember, AP to college credit transfers are dependent on students passing a high stakes exam while performance in a dual enrollment course is assessed by multiple factors (exams, assignments, presentations, etc.). Additionally, as mentioned earlier, students in dual enrollment programs earn transcribed college credit upon successful completion of the course. This is a primary reason why students who participate in dual enrollment are more likely to earn college credits versus their AP taking counterparts. Note, CN college credits are accepted by all CUNY colleges.
Implications and Recommendations
As highlighted by the postsecondary outcomes data above, participating in both programs best prepares students for college-level coursework. Participating in both AP and dual enrollment courses offers students the opportunity to explore potential majors/careers and the possibility of graduating college earlier and/or reducing tuition related costs. Additionally, each program offers certain benefits that the other may not. For example, through dual enrollment programs students may have the opportunity to experience an actual college campus, have access to the institution’s academic resources, and interact with subject matter experts (researchers, practitioners, etc.).
Alternatively, students in AP courses may have the opportunity to prepare academically for college at the convenience of their high school with a teacher they may already know. This has tremendous academic benefits as research has shown that having a strong positive relationship with one’s teacher can result in higher levels of achievement. This is more likely accomplished when students interact with the same teacher on a daily basis, unlike in college where courses tend to be two days a week. At the very least, students should aim at participating in one of these rigorous preparatory programs as students who participate in AP only and CN only do better academically than their non-AP/CN counterparts as noted by first semester GPA.
