The Plan
We have a plan.
The plan, of course, is worthless, according to the old Army aphorism; but the planning itself is everything.
How else will we know what to deviate from? (Sorry, Churchill, but ending a clause with a preposition is something up with which I will put. Although I must mention that the fabled connection between Churchill and the preposition issue is tenuous and confused.)
So here's the plan: we have married L's high school requirements with the P1052C engineering pathway at Durham Tech and come up with an idea of what his junior and senior course load will look like.
Note that when I say high school requirements, I am not talking about what is actually required in order for him to graduate. (As the principal of a legally recognized home school in NC, I have carte blanche to decide what is required in order to graduate him.) I am instead referring to the far more relevant question of what most colleges expect him to have taken, which is the following:
High School Transcript Expectations
English—4 credits
Math—4 credits
History/Social Science—3-4 credits
Science—3-4 credits
Foreign Language—2-4 credits
P.E.—1-2 credits
Electives—4 credits
Note also that students in the Durham Tech Career and College Promise program are not required to complete a College Transfer Pathway, merely to be on one. So the goal is to use classes at Durham Tech to fulfill his high school requirements in a way that also gains him some useful transfer credits that he can carry with him when he applies as a freshman to the NCSU College of Engineering. Those credits will have more or less value to him, depending on his intended department at NCSU.
The biggest value they have is during the admissions process, because dual enrollment validates the homeschool high school education. By choosing dual enrollment, we eradicate the potential for the age-old issue with homeschooled students: How Do We Know You Didn't Just Sit Around and Do Nothing and Mom Still Gave You an A to Make You Look Good??? As a homeschool student myself back in the Paleolithic Period, I had limited options. Never mind that I had scored well on both the SAT and the ACT, and that a couple of out-of-state schools had offered me scholarships; this was not sufficient for the UNC admissions department. They wanted me to jump through all kinds of hoops before they would acknowledge that I hadn't faked an education, and it took all my dad's lawyer-like negotiating skills to keep the extra testing to a reasonable minimum.
Taking college-level courses in high school and doing well in them shows that a student has challenged himself and risen to that challenge, which in my opinion is the chief value of dual enrollment. Any college transfer credits they get out of it are bonus.
If you listen to the Career and College Promise people talk, your kid can get a year of college under their belt for free, which sounds really good, until you probe deeper. The fact is, it all depends on the four-year school and program to which they want to apply. At the NCSU College of Engineering, for example, there is a lot of benefit to coming in as a freshman. Once such benefit is their E101 course. This class is required for all first-years, whether you come in Undecided or Specific-Department-Intended, because the point of the course is to give you a lot of hands-on experience in a lot of different engineering programs. They want you absolutely sure that you are happy with the program you end up in. If I recall the statistics correctly, about 30% of freshmen come into the CofE Undecided; but of the remaining 70% Intended, meaning those who came in with a strong enough idea of what they wanted to do to declare a department ahead of time, about 50% of them change their minds and apply to a different program instead as a result of their time in E101. It's not a course you are going to skip just because you took the "Intro to Engineering" class at another school.
It is possible to get into the CofE as a transfer student, but the admissions statistics look very different. They take fewer transfer students, and then if you do get in you are heading straight into the weed-out courses in your department. Not fun. And not at all easy to change your mind once you're there.
That's not to say that L won't get any good transfer credits out of his dual enrollment. Other than noting that your transcript looks good for admissions purposes, NCSU doesn't pay much attention to your college transfer (or AP) credits until you apply to your specific department at the end of your freshman year. That's when you find out whether you've shaved off any college requirements that would make getting your degree easier. For example, if a student goes in as Computer Engineering Intended (or goes in undecided and then chooses CE as his major), the suggestion from NCSU CofE advisors may go something like this: You will have to take a lot of upper-level physics courses in your degree, so we need to make sure you have a really solid foundation in physics. We recommend you not take the transfer (or AP) credit for physics, and just retake our entry-level physics course. On the other hand, you took Honors Chemistry in high school and then took CHM151 at Durham Tech and got an A. You don't have a lot of Chem requirements in Computer Engineering, so just take that transfer credit and check chemistry off your list. As you can imagine, the conversation with a student who had taken the same dual enrollment credits but was interested in another department, such as Chemical Engineering, could look quite different.
So below is a potential schedule for L's courses. Note SHC = Semester Hours of Credit, which applies to college transfer credits. A 3-4 SHC course equates to a single high school credit. Of course, this arrangement of classes is just an idea, and his actual schedule will be dependent on when courses are offered, as well as any recommendations from his advisor. (Note: the plan is worthless. But we knew that.)
_______________________________________
Fall Semester, Jr. Year
—ACA 122: College Transfer Success. (Required. 1 SHC. Note, I have absolutely no idea what this course is supposed to accomplish, despite having read the description.)
—ENG 111: Writing and Inquiry. (Required. 3 SHC. I suspect this class will either bore L to tears, or just be one of the easiest A's he's ever made in his life... but we shall see.)
—MAT 271: Calculus I (Required. 4 SHC. L should be well prepared for this after Shormann math.)
Spring Semester, Jr. Year
—MAT 272: Calculus II (Required. 4 SHC. I don't know if it's a good idea to get all the math out of the way his junior year, but on the other hand this is a corequirement for Physics 1.)
—PHY 251: General Physics I (Fulfills one of two required sciences. Coreq: MAT 272. 4 SHC)
Spanning Fall/Spring Semesters:
—French 3 at TPS (more on this below)
—DIVE Biology (L starts Bio this summer, and then can continue the course at whatever pace is manageable along with his other classes. He has a full year to finish it from the time he starts.)
_______________________________________
Fall Semester, Sr. Year
—ENG 112: Writing/Research in the Disciplines (Required. 3 SHC. Note that in theory this course offers some Honors options, but in practice I do not see any honors sections listed on the upcoming schedule.)
—PHY 252: General Physics II OR CHM 151: General Chemistry I (Fulfills the second of two required sciences. Note that Chem might be the better course to get out of the way—see my thoughts on transfer credit above—and L might want to get it out of the way first. But the plan is worthless anyway.)
Spring Semester, Sr. Year
—ECO 251: Principles of Microeconomics (Required. 3 SHC)
—PHI 215: Philosophical Issues OR 240: Introduction to Ethics (Fulfills the single required Communications/Humanities course requirement; of the options available, I know L will choose philosophy.)
Spanning Fall/Spring Semesters:
—French 4 at TPS (this is our highly probable route)
There are other courses, if L finds he can handle a heavier load. For instance, it would not be a bad idea for him to take Intro to Engineering, even though he would "repeat" this course as a freshman at NCSU, because it would give him more exposure to what's out there. He could trade in the coveted philosophy course for a public speaking class to fulfill the same requirement, but good luck getting him to bite on that line. Also, while a fine arts course is not technically necessary, most colleges like to see one because it makes you look well-rounded, so L could replace the philosophy course with an art or music appreciation course and tick off two boxes with one 3SHC course. Isuspect know he's not willing, so I'm looking into an online music theory course, such as this Udemy offering, which is so perfectly up his alley that I'm tempted to purchase it RIGHT NOW, or a free course through the University of Edinburgh (seriously??).
And then there's the foreign language. Although L could take intermediate French at DT, we know nothing about it. This is a small, technical college, and foreign language options are limited. I know one of the Spanish teachers there, but that doesn't tell me whether the French classes are any good. So after some pondering, we decided to go ahead and enroll him in French 3 at TPS for his junior year (and possibly French 4 his senior year). He's ok with this. In fact, ironically, the kid whom I dragged kicking and screaming (metaphorically speaking; actually it was more "stoic and stony-faced") through French 1 and who enrolled in French 2 at TPS out of sheer filial obedience now tells me that French is his favorite TPS course. He says it is his "chill class," the one where he can just relax and do what's asked of him without too much strain or irritation. (He did get the language genes from both sides, and while he doesn't necessarily value them highly, he has come to realize how rare a blessing that is.) The TPS French teacher is very good; I'm impressed with her. But more than that, L has found that the kids who take French at TPS are mostly there because they love French—and although L does not love French, he does appreciate being in an environment where other people are willing to work hard because they want to be there.
So. Foreign language can now be spread over two semesters instead of one, making the course load easier, and eliminating the problem of having to figure out when to schedule your semester-long foreign language classes so that you don't forget all the French you learned since the previous course, however-many semesters ago... and yet still take your final course in your Senior year, which is college-admissions-preferable. There is, of course, the caveat that now we have to work all his DT courses around his TPS French schedule. Quelle irritation, n'est-ce pas? Mais c'est la vie.
I know you're dying to know—assuming you're still here reading this at all—how this all stacks up, transcript-wise. Here's the sum total:
High School Transcript Projection (by subject)
—English, 4 credits: TPS Eng 3; TPS Eng 4 Honors; Eng 111; Eng 112
—Math, 4+ credits: Algebra 2; Precalculus; Calculus 1; Calculus 2
—History/Social Science, 3 credits: History of Science (world history); American Government + Economics; ECO 251
—Science, 4 credits: Biology, Honors Chemistry, General Physics, General Chemistry (or General Physics 2)
—Foreign Language, 4 credits: French 1, TPS French 2-4
—Electives, 4+ credits: Philosophy; Taekwondo and Tricking should count as both P.E. and electives b/c they are more than just gym class
—Fine Arts, 1? credit:
—Phys. Ed., however many credits you want to assign him, he's got them!
There you have it, folks. The All-Essential, Indispensable Plan.
Which, now that we have it, we can proceed to scrap immediately if we like, because it's merely the Planning that is essential.
The plan, of course, is worthless, according to the old Army aphorism; but the planning itself is everything.
How else will we know what to deviate from? (Sorry, Churchill, but ending a clause with a preposition is something up with which I will put. Although I must mention that the fabled connection between Churchill and the preposition issue is tenuous and confused.)
So here's the plan: we have married L's high school requirements with the P1052C engineering pathway at Durham Tech and come up with an idea of what his junior and senior course load will look like.
Note that when I say high school requirements, I am not talking about what is actually required in order for him to graduate. (As the principal of a legally recognized home school in NC, I have carte blanche to decide what is required in order to graduate him.) I am instead referring to the far more relevant question of what most colleges expect him to have taken, which is the following:
High School Transcript Expectations
English—4 credits
Math—4 credits
History/Social Science—3-4 credits
Science—3-4 credits
Foreign Language—2-4 credits
P.E.—1-2 credits
Electives—4 credits
Note also that students in the Durham Tech Career and College Promise program are not required to complete a College Transfer Pathway, merely to be on one. So the goal is to use classes at Durham Tech to fulfill his high school requirements in a way that also gains him some useful transfer credits that he can carry with him when he applies as a freshman to the NCSU College of Engineering. Those credits will have more or less value to him, depending on his intended department at NCSU.
The biggest value they have is during the admissions process, because dual enrollment validates the homeschool high school education. By choosing dual enrollment, we eradicate the potential for the age-old issue with homeschooled students: How Do We Know You Didn't Just Sit Around and Do Nothing and Mom Still Gave You an A to Make You Look Good??? As a homeschool student myself back in the Paleolithic Period, I had limited options. Never mind that I had scored well on both the SAT and the ACT, and that a couple of out-of-state schools had offered me scholarships; this was not sufficient for the UNC admissions department. They wanted me to jump through all kinds of hoops before they would acknowledge that I hadn't faked an education, and it took all my dad's lawyer-like negotiating skills to keep the extra testing to a reasonable minimum.
Taking college-level courses in high school and doing well in them shows that a student has challenged himself and risen to that challenge, which in my opinion is the chief value of dual enrollment. Any college transfer credits they get out of it are bonus.
If you listen to the Career and College Promise people talk, your kid can get a year of college under their belt for free, which sounds really good, until you probe deeper. The fact is, it all depends on the four-year school and program to which they want to apply. At the NCSU College of Engineering, for example, there is a lot of benefit to coming in as a freshman. Once such benefit is their E101 course. This class is required for all first-years, whether you come in Undecided or Specific-Department-Intended, because the point of the course is to give you a lot of hands-on experience in a lot of different engineering programs. They want you absolutely sure that you are happy with the program you end up in. If I recall the statistics correctly, about 30% of freshmen come into the CofE Undecided; but of the remaining 70% Intended, meaning those who came in with a strong enough idea of what they wanted to do to declare a department ahead of time, about 50% of them change their minds and apply to a different program instead as a result of their time in E101. It's not a course you are going to skip just because you took the "Intro to Engineering" class at another school.
It is possible to get into the CofE as a transfer student, but the admissions statistics look very different. They take fewer transfer students, and then if you do get in you are heading straight into the weed-out courses in your department. Not fun. And not at all easy to change your mind once you're there.
That's not to say that L won't get any good transfer credits out of his dual enrollment. Other than noting that your transcript looks good for admissions purposes, NCSU doesn't pay much attention to your college transfer (or AP) credits until you apply to your specific department at the end of your freshman year. That's when you find out whether you've shaved off any college requirements that would make getting your degree easier. For example, if a student goes in as Computer Engineering Intended (or goes in undecided and then chooses CE as his major), the suggestion from NCSU CofE advisors may go something like this: You will have to take a lot of upper-level physics courses in your degree, so we need to make sure you have a really solid foundation in physics. We recommend you not take the transfer (or AP) credit for physics, and just retake our entry-level physics course. On the other hand, you took Honors Chemistry in high school and then took CHM151 at Durham Tech and got an A. You don't have a lot of Chem requirements in Computer Engineering, so just take that transfer credit and check chemistry off your list. As you can imagine, the conversation with a student who had taken the same dual enrollment credits but was interested in another department, such as Chemical Engineering, could look quite different.
So below is a potential schedule for L's courses. Note SHC = Semester Hours of Credit, which applies to college transfer credits. A 3-4 SHC course equates to a single high school credit. Of course, this arrangement of classes is just an idea, and his actual schedule will be dependent on when courses are offered, as well as any recommendations from his advisor. (Note: the plan is worthless. But we knew that.)
_______________________________________
Fall Semester, Jr. Year
—ACA 122: College Transfer Success. (Required. 1 SHC. Note, I have absolutely no idea what this course is supposed to accomplish, despite having read the description.)
—ENG 111: Writing and Inquiry. (Required. 3 SHC. I suspect this class will either bore L to tears, or just be one of the easiest A's he's ever made in his life... but we shall see.)
—MAT 271: Calculus I (Required. 4 SHC. L should be well prepared for this after Shormann math.)
Spring Semester, Jr. Year
—MAT 272: Calculus II (Required. 4 SHC. I don't know if it's a good idea to get all the math out of the way his junior year, but on the other hand this is a corequirement for Physics 1.)
—PHY 251: General Physics I (Fulfills one of two required sciences. Coreq: MAT 272. 4 SHC)
Spanning Fall/Spring Semesters:
—French 3 at TPS (more on this below)
—DIVE Biology (L starts Bio this summer, and then can continue the course at whatever pace is manageable along with his other classes. He has a full year to finish it from the time he starts.)
_______________________________________
Fall Semester, Sr. Year
—ENG 112: Writing/Research in the Disciplines (Required. 3 SHC. Note that in theory this course offers some Honors options, but in practice I do not see any honors sections listed on the upcoming schedule.)
—PHY 252: General Physics II OR CHM 151: General Chemistry I (Fulfills the second of two required sciences. Note that Chem might be the better course to get out of the way—see my thoughts on transfer credit above—and L might want to get it out of the way first. But the plan is worthless anyway.)
Spring Semester, Sr. Year
—ECO 251: Principles of Microeconomics (Required. 3 SHC)
—PHI 215: Philosophical Issues OR 240: Introduction to Ethics (Fulfills the single required Communications/Humanities course requirement; of the options available, I know L will choose philosophy.)
Spanning Fall/Spring Semesters:
—French 4 at TPS (this is our highly probable route)
There are other courses, if L finds he can handle a heavier load. For instance, it would not be a bad idea for him to take Intro to Engineering, even though he would "repeat" this course as a freshman at NCSU, because it would give him more exposure to what's out there. He could trade in the coveted philosophy course for a public speaking class to fulfill the same requirement, but good luck getting him to bite on that line. Also, while a fine arts course is not technically necessary, most colleges like to see one because it makes you look well-rounded, so L could replace the philosophy course with an art or music appreciation course and tick off two boxes with one 3SHC course. I
And then there's the foreign language. Although L could take intermediate French at DT, we know nothing about it. This is a small, technical college, and foreign language options are limited. I know one of the Spanish teachers there, but that doesn't tell me whether the French classes are any good. So after some pondering, we decided to go ahead and enroll him in French 3 at TPS for his junior year (and possibly French 4 his senior year). He's ok with this. In fact, ironically, the kid whom I dragged kicking and screaming (metaphorically speaking; actually it was more "stoic and stony-faced") through French 1 and who enrolled in French 2 at TPS out of sheer filial obedience now tells me that French is his favorite TPS course. He says it is his "chill class," the one where he can just relax and do what's asked of him without too much strain or irritation. (He did get the language genes from both sides, and while he doesn't necessarily value them highly, he has come to realize how rare a blessing that is.) The TPS French teacher is very good; I'm impressed with her. But more than that, L has found that the kids who take French at TPS are mostly there because they love French—and although L does not love French, he does appreciate being in an environment where other people are willing to work hard because they want to be there.
So. Foreign language can now be spread over two semesters instead of one, making the course load easier, and eliminating the problem of having to figure out when to schedule your semester-long foreign language classes so that you don't forget all the French you learned since the previous course, however-many semesters ago... and yet still take your final course in your Senior year, which is college-admissions-preferable. There is, of course, the caveat that now we have to work all his DT courses around his TPS French schedule. Quelle irritation, n'est-ce pas? Mais c'est la vie.
I know you're dying to know—assuming you're still here reading this at all—how this all stacks up, transcript-wise. Here's the sum total:
High School Transcript Projection (by subject)
—English, 4 credits: TPS Eng 3; TPS Eng 4 Honors; Eng 111; Eng 112
—Math, 4+ credits: Algebra 2; Precalculus; Calculus 1; Calculus 2
—History/Social Science, 3 credits: History of Science (world history); American Government + Economics; ECO 251
—Science, 4 credits: Biology, Honors Chemistry, General Physics, General Chemistry (or General Physics 2)
—Foreign Language, 4 credits: French 1, TPS French 2-4
—Electives, 4+ credits: Philosophy; Taekwondo and Tricking should count as both P.E. and electives b/c they are more than just gym class
—Fine Arts, 1? credit:
—Phys. Ed., however many credits you want to assign him, he's got them!
There you have it, folks. The All-Essential, Indispensable Plan.
Which, now that we have it, we can proceed to scrap immediately if we like, because it's merely the Planning that is essential.
 |
| I think he's ok with any plan that includes continued access to a spring floor. |
Addendum: I did purchase the Udemy music theory course because it was on sale for $12. It might be worthless, or it might be amazing, but I figured at that price we could afford to find out!
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