Earning college credit in high school sounds like a nice-to-have until you see what families actually do with it. A double major that wouldn't otherwise fit in four years. A Spanish minor squeezed into an already packed education degree. An engineering student who's also a collegiate golfer, carrying a lighter course load because he arrived on campus with 33 credits already banked.

VSA partners with Cairn University in Lancaster, Pennsylvania to offer dual enrollment across a range of courses. This video explains how it works, how it compares to AP and CLEP, and which courses tend to transfer most reliably.

What Is Dual Enrollment?

Dual enrollment means your student takes a high school class and, for an additional fee, simultaneously earns college credit for it. High school credit and college credit — from one course.

VSA partners with Cairn University in Lancaster, Pennsylvania for dual enrollment. You don't have to be in the Diploma Program to pursue dual enrollment, but the fee is lower for diploma students. Any student taking a qualifying course can add dual enrollment.

Why It Matters

The best way to understand dual enrollment is to see how families have used it.

All three of my college-age kids took about 30 to 33 hours of dual enrollment credit through VSA. Each one used it differently.

Michael wanted to pursue dentistry and complete a finance major alongside his pre-med coursework — two of the hardest majors at a university. The only way to finish both in four years was to arrive with a full slate of dual enrollment credits already done. No speech class, no English 101, no statistics. He earned them in high school.

Madison is an elementary education major with a Spanish minor. Elementary ed is a packed four-year degree with almost no room for a minor. Dual enrollment created the space she needed to fit both.

Nicholas is an engineering major and a collegiate golfer. NCAA programs often won't allow STEM students to compete as athletes — the course load is simply too heavy. Nicholas made it work because he arrived on campus with enough credits to carry 12 to 13 credit hours per semester instead of 16. The courses are still hard, but there are fewer of them, and he can succeed in both the classroom and on the golf course.

A fourth option some families pursue: using dual enrollment to graduate from college in three years. I've seen it done, though that wasn't what my kids chose.

Which Courses Work Best

The strongest dual enrollment choices are what I call round pegs in round holes — courses your student will almost certainly have to take in college anyway.

Rhetoric II maps to COM 101 (Speech). Nearly every degree plan requires some version of speech or oral communication. Take it in high school and arrive at college with the requirement already done.

Senior Thesis maps to English 101. Find me a degree plan that doesn't require English 101. This is one of the cleanest trades available.

U.S. Government is another strong one. It shows up as a requirement at many universities — handle it in high school and move on.

For diploma students, we spend full hour-long seminars going deep on dual enrollment strategy — which courses transfer most reliably, how to choose based on your student's intended major, and how to maximize the benefit. The overview here only scratches the surface.

How It Appears on the Transcript

When applying to college as a diploma student, your student will submit two transcripts: their VSA transcript and their Cairn University transcript. The receiving university merges them. Your student's college transcript will reflect both the Cairn credits and any new coursework they complete on campus.

For non-diploma students, the process is the same — your own homeschool transcript plus the Cairn transcript.

Does Dual Enrollment Affect College GPA?

Eighty to ninety percent of the time, dual enrollment credits transfer as pass/fail and don't positively or negatively affect your student's college GPA. Some universities — like Oklahoma Christian — bring the actual grade in. In those cases, a student who earned strong grades in dual enrollment can arrive on campus with a healthy GPA already established.

Because you don't always know in advance how a university will handle it, the practical advice is: work hard, aim for an A or B. The credit will likely transfer regardless; the grade might matter too.

Advanced Placement

AP stands for Advanced Placement. VSA offers four fully audited AP courses.

Why Only Four

An AP course is only as useful as the exam score behind it. If your student doesn't score a 3 or higher on the College Board AP exam — taken independently in May — the course alone doesn't earn college credit. The exam requires its own preparation beyond the coursework, and students should plan to supplement their class study with dedicated AP exam prep materials.

Scores run from 1 to 5. A 3 is typically the minimum for credit, though some schools require a 4.

AP vs. Dual Enrollment

Dual enrollment credit is guaranteed — if your student passes the class, they earn the credit. The only question is whether the receiving institution will accept it.

AP credit is not guaranteed. It depends entirely on the exam score, which is separate from the class grade. The upside: a 4 or 5 on an AP exam is a strong signal of academic rigor to selective colleges, including highly competitive universities. For families aiming at those schools, AP scores carry weight that dual enrollment doesn't.

My own kids chose dual enrollment because I wanted the guarantee. But the right answer depends on your student's goals and target schools.

What About CLEP?

CLEP is a third option — a standardized exam students can take independently to earn college credit. Like AP, it requires self-directed study. CLEP scores run up to 80, with cutoff scores typically around 50 for many subjects, though requirements vary by school.

All three — dual enrollment, AP, and CLEP — are legitimate ways to earn college credit. The key differences:

• Dual enrollment offers guaranteed credit if the class is passed; credit is tied to coursework, not a separate exam
• AP requires a passing score on an independent exam; stronger signal for selective colleges at higher score levels
• CLEP is exam-only, like AP, with its own scoring thresholds and institutional acceptance policies

Whichever path your student takes, both AP and dual enrollment send the same underlying message to admissions offices: your student is ready for college-level work. That matters.