BYU-Idaho is now extending the opportunity for all its courses to be available as “dual enrollment courses” for high school students who are seeking a head start into their college career.
During the Fall 2018 Semester, eight eastern Idaho high school students enrolled in on-campus classes, and received credit towards their high school diploma and a BYU-Idaho degree.
While most state universities around the country offer college courses within high schools, BYU-Idaho’s dual enrollment is set up a little differently. Instead of high school students receiving their instruction in their high schools, they are invited to campus, or into an online course taught by BYU-Idaho instructors. In a class among college students, these high school students are treated no differently.
Institutional Planning Managing Director Aaron Sanns says this guarantees these students receive an authentic collegiate experience.
“We want to offer the service because we feel like we can offer a high-quality education in a spiritual environment. That way, students are receiving gospel insight, while studying secular subjects. Students can also get a head start on their degrees and take classes not typically offered through other dual enrollment programs. Local students can now get a better taste of a BYU-Idaho education before they graduate high school,” Sanns said.
This new change allows more opportunities for degree-seeking students and members of the Church around the world.
In past years, BYU-Idaho focused solely on its concurrent enrollment program (meaning a high school student can concurrently take college credits that will count toward a college degree, but not necessarily a high school diploma), because online programs were growing so rapidly.
Chad Price, concurrent enrollment and space management & planning director for BYU-Idaho, has worked with high schools in eastern Idaho to determine articulation agreements— making the process easier for high school students to participate in dual enrollment.
Whether or not a BYU-Idaho course can count as “dual enrollment” is determined primarily by the high school each student attends, not by BYU-Idaho. If there is a specific BYU-Idaho course a student would like to receive high school credit for, they can discuss the course content with their high school’s representative who oversees dual-enrollment courses. If it’s a local school, it could be the case that there is already an agreement in place to count that course as both high school and BYU-Idaho credit.
“Some students who really work hard at it and plan ahead, could have their whole bachelor’s degree paid for,” Price said.
Another benefit includes an increased likelihood of receiving campus employment while attending school, upon completion of various certificates offered by the university.
For example, if a high school student is interested in data analytics and completes the five-course data analytics certificate, they could walk into their collegiate experience with that skill set under their belt. That student could get hired immediately in the university’s Strategic Enrollment Management, Data and Analysis Services, or Institutional Research areas.
“If a student doesn’t quite know what area they want to study, they can enroll in meta-major courses to help refine what they want to study, so that when they come in as a true freshman, they’ll be that much more prepared for what direction they want to go,” Price said.
It is recommended that if a high school student is interested in pursuing their college degree early, that they enroll in the college success course (GS106), which will teach them about successfully navigating their collegiate experience.
If employees have any further questions about the dual enrollment articulation process, contact Chad Price at pricec@byui.edu.