Which Type of College Level Class is Right For You?

  At Pinecrest High School, Advanced Placement, online, and college courses are available for students. With all these options, one might wonder which is the best fit for him/her.

 Though online classes may be nice as they are malleable to your schedule, they do come at a cost. A study done by Columbia University Community College concluded that students who took at least one fall online class were 34 percent more likely to drop out after one year compared to 26 percent who only took face-to-face classes. This is generally attributed to the lack of face-to-face communication and social facilitation. Senior Kylie Rose, argues; “Like any class, the effort you put in determines your success whether it’s an online class or a traditional class.”

 Advanced Placement, better known as AP classes, are taken by many students in order to gain college credits and/or have on their college applications in hopes to improve their chances of acceptance. Though AP classes are a great challenge and show rigor on college applications, they do not always translate to college class credits. If your goal is to get college credit, you have to do research about each college’s standards as they do differ. “AP classes challenge me to think in ways I am not used to and [they] push me to do new things I didn’t know I was capable of,” said junior Kendall Snyder.

   Sandhills Liaison Mr. Newton explains,  “Sandhills offers two different groups of courses that high school students can choose from, College Transfer courses and Career Technical courses.  The College Transfer courses can and will transfer to in-state 4-year public universities as long as a student makes a "C" or higher while the Career Technical courses may not.  When a student is looking at any private or out of state university the best way to ensure a class will transfer is to call the admissions office at each school. Each private or out of state school could have a different policy regarding classes from SCC.  

Even if the courses at Sandhills don't transfer it is important to remember the other benefits of taking classes at SCC.  For example, students gain the 'college experience' of working with professors, of being surrounded by adult degree seeking students, and taking challenging courses.  I encourage all students to look at both the options of taking AP and/or SCC courses. Each group of courses (AP or SCC) can be extremely helpful to students when they get to the college level even if they don't receive transfer credit or make the grade needed on their final exam to ensure credit.” Though all these options are available, make sure you are making the right choices for your education. If you have any questions, check in with your counselor, the scholarship coordinator, Mrs. Devine, and/or the Sandhills liaison, Mr. Newton.