Every year, high school students are faced with the choice to enroll in an advanced placement class, AP, or a dual credit class, DC, for certain courses. There are some opinions stating AP classes allow more opportunities for college credit, but that the end of course AP test is rigorous and painful. Others say DC classes are better because it guarantees college credit if the class is passed, but only for in state colleges.

AP classes are better because they provide higher education than regular classes and really test one’s abilities to learn at a collegiate level to further prepare them for college. The end of course exam is nothing but another test to pass a class, it shouldn’t be taken any more seriously than a state standardized test or final for any other class.

DC classes require the students to pass with two different grades, a grade for high school and a grade for the college that makes the specific course. AP classes only require passing the final exam and passing the class overall. Since DC classes are created by local colleges, the colleges require a separate grade in order to make sure their class is working.

In DC classes, if a student fails even a semester, they are able to be kicked out of the class. In AP classes, students stay in no matter what their grade is, they cannot be kicked out, but still have the option to downgrade to a regular’s class. When enrolling into a DC class, students have to sign up through the local college that is instructing the course and have to take a test in order to be accepted into the class, but AP classes don’t require any prerequisite test in order to take the course.

The College Board of Organization creates AP classes, while DC classes are created by local colleges, which is why they only allow in state credit. Since DC classes are created locally, their college credits only count for in state schools, but AP classes are created for country wide use, allowing their credits to go anywhere in the country. Limiting DC students to only in state schools considering that a good amount of students probably wouldn’t want to stay in their state for college, but if they want the college credit for the class, they have to stay in state.

DC classes aren’t taken as seriously by students than AP, but still require a test at the end and still allow a college credit, but limit students to in state colleges only. For students who know they want/need to stay in their state for college, DC is perfect, but why would a student take a DC course without knowing if they’re staying in their current state for college or not? All that does is waste time students could be using to get a college credit through an AP class for any college, in any state.

There is not really a proper solution to this particular case, but students should definitely think harder about the choice of which one of these classes to take. When signing up for a DC class, one should make sure they are committed to staying in their state for college in order to get the full potential out of taking that class, or their work would be for nothing.

AP classes should be the favored choice among many because they have so many more opportunities for students in the long run.