Kinds of college credit:
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Direct transfer based on the equivalency of courses between the two institutions (e.g., PSU Writing 121 maps to an equivalent campus college writing course)
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Elective credit (course isn’t equivalent but the institution honors the learning; elective credit counts toward overall required credits to graduation). Elective partial credit may be given when converting a quarter credit to a semester credit (quarters are 10 weeks/180 credits to graduate; semesters are 16 weeks/120 credits to graduate)
- Advanced standing or exemption (no actual credit but able to take a higher-level course, granted a prerequisite waiver, or granted an exemption to a required class.) In all cases, you still save money and time.
Small liberal arts schools, including Whitman, Willamette, and Puget Sound, have boiler- plate “no dual credit transfer” policies (though they will consider advanced standing). Their reasons:
Questions to ask visiting College Recruiters:
o If the response is that they don’t allow double dipping, your response is that your Challenge course exceeds regular high school learning outcomes required for graduation in Oregon. Schools that have transferred credit when the double dipping question is clarified by a letter from us or a high school registrar include Lewis & Clark, Stanford, Rice, Cornell.
o If the response is that your Challenge class is not a true college experience, ask about their AP, IB, and online policies since these have less exposure to college experience than dual credit classes.
• What petition process is available to provide evidence of:
o Equivalent courses and learning outcomes (syllabus, assessments, etc.)?
o Program governance?
o Authenticity of experience?
• Why should a Challenge Program HS student, who can demonstrate both the academic learning and cultural outcomes of a successfully completed college course, apply to a college that does not recognize this work, or does not have a petition process in order to assess this work on its own merits, vs. a blanket no-credit policy?
Challenge’s Responsibility: to deliver an authentic college course at our high schools, both culturally and academically and to be able to defend this authenticity with evidence.
A Challenge student’s responsibility: To make an informed decision about your college choice; if credit transfer is a priority, make sure you know a school’s dual credit policy. If you want to challenge that policy, be ready to demonstrate your learning—save your syllabus and any work that provides evidence of your learning. Seek out the Chair of a Department to request an assessment of this learning for credit consideration. And let us know how to help.