Taking College Level Courses? (Exlcuding AP/IB)

[bescherelle]

Hey. How do you take college level courses example, linear algebra, organic chem, differential equations all that other stuff in high school? Lol when applying to top-ranked schools in the states or in the world these kids will have such a greater advantage than the regular AP/IB/ applicant. Am i wrong?

My Question: Do these people enroll in like summer programs at local universities or do yr round programs? or do their high schools offer them? So far, ive only seen these type of people from the states. None from canada/ anywhere else. Thanks in advance

Edited December 20, 2008 by bescherelle

[Hyperbole]

Well, quite a few people at my school (non-IBers only) do university-level mathematics. It's offered as a class here; it's a cooperation thing between my school and the university in the region. So I guess they do it as an all-year-round thing.

But I don't necessarily think that they will have an easier time getting into university! If they go into a degree where these maths courses would be useful, then perhaps they can shorten the time of gaining their degree, but I don't think it'll make it much easier to get into uni. (Although that might be because the Swedish acceptance system is quite a bit different from the US/UK/other countries' systems that I know of.)

[ezex]

They have a program in our state, Florida, called Dual-Enrollment. Pretty much you enroll in the colleges nearby and you take whatever class you want. It's all free too, books included, and you can usually take as many classes as you want. I've taken like 12 classes in college:

Trigonometry, gen. chem 1, gen chem 1 lab, gen chem 2, gen chem 2 lab, calculus 3, differential equations, linear algbra, orgo 1, orgo 1 lab, orgo 2, orgo 2 lab and physics with calculus but i had to drop it casue it was messing up my schedule.

All of these classes were usually at night or at least after 5PM for the first 3 years of high school. The last year, this year, the school gave me permission to skip 7th and 8th period every day to go to college. So i get out of school 2 hours and a half earlier than usual.

Of course it is still the United States so I don't know of anywhere else around the world. I really think this is an awesome opportunity and loved it all the way. Still, really big colleges, like MIT, don't take these courses anyways so really it was all for my own likings since most of these courses I'm gonna have to retake.