Questions about taking college classes in high school

[Grace is Sufficient]

If my high schooler takes Physics at home, and then at a community college, how would you record that on a transcript? Would it count as an 'advanced' course, or look like we were giving him two credits for the same class?

I guess my problem (and this goes for Math courses like Calculus as well) is this: I'm not sure if having his first experience of a certain math/science at the college level is too huge a jump and needs a high school level first as an intro, or if the material is just somewhat more difficult than a typical high school class and can be done without first taking a high school level course.

Background info, my son is in ninth, good at math and science, has gone through the Apologia program through Chemistry with almost straight As, and is in the Algebra 2 portion of videotext, also with As. I'm considering Physics at a community college next year, instead of at home.

TIA

[8FillTheHeart]

My ds took high school chemistry at home and then dual enrolled for chemistry at a university. On his transcript I simply labeled it College Chemistry (and provided the transcript from the university).

Also, my ds never took physics in high school. His first experience in physics was last semester at university. I would not say he had an easy time, but he did fine. He also never took pre-cal (full yr) or cal at home. He started dual enrolling in pre-cal 2 up and has consistently made very high As. So, I would think if your ds is strong in math, having the the first exposure at a college would be fine.

HTH

[Gwen in VA]

Two thoughts --

1) It depends on the kid. How motivated is your son? Is this a subject that he cares about?

2) Does your local college have two different levels of course? My local cc offers "physics" and then "advanced physics". To enter into "advanced physics" you need to have finished certain levels in math, but you don't do both classes. One is more rigorous than the other, but they both count as 'physics". If your son has not had any physics and is not a super-strong student, he would probably sign up for the plain physics class.

3) Our experience -- my kids just jumped into college classes (calculus 1 & 2, microecomics). My kids have been the top one or two students in their classes (so far -- my ds does not seem to be enjoying calculus 2).

[Sylvia in CA]

Our transcript shows the cc courses taken under a title with the community college name. The cc courses are weighted on the transcript.

There was no jump in math courses because dd just continued on the math track from Alg 2 to taking Trig, Pre-Cal, Calc 1, Calc 2 at cc.

But for science, since dd had not taken Biology in high school it was a big jump to go into General Biology at cc. We should have had her take Intro Biology instead. All well, she learned a lot and loved it.

[Anne/Ankara]

My ds is just starting the college experience in sciences, and is now taking an Environmental Science course this term to prepare him for "doing college." In the fall, I expect he will take the college Biology with lab, which will be somewhat of a jump for him (he will be in ninth grade) but he has done one year of elementary biology and one year of logic stage biology, so I think he will be fine. He's taken a lot of summer programs/workshops in the field and loves studying it.

Our plan is to have him take all his science courses with lab at the university over the coming years as he progresses through high school.

I think you would be fine with your son taking a physics course next year, at the community college.

[Margaret in CO]

My second dd did her only physics at the college. We listed it as Physics 140. My first dd did physics at home with Saxon (with labs at the college--she would clean the lab, set up the experiments, run them before the college kids got there, tear down and then grade their lab reports! Needless to say, she got a really good grade when she took that lab for real the next year!) So, her senior year she had Physics 140 and 170, with labs. Both girls took high school chem at home and then Chem 140 at the college. Oldest also took Bio 101 and second dd took Master Gardener (different college).