Dual Enrollment Vs. AP Classes by Keila

Dual Enrollment Vs. AP Classes by Keila - March 2019 Scholarship Essay

If I were to be leading a tour of my high school to incoming freshmen, I would encourage them to pursue dual enrollment over AP classes. I transferred to City Honors High School when I was in 10th grade, and before that I attended Executive Preparatory Academy which is now defunct. Thanks to City Honors High School, I have been taking college classes and AP classes since I was a sophomore in school, and when I graduate high school and apply to college, I will have an associates degree with my general education already done.
I took the AP Human Geography class when I was in 10th grade and ended up being one of two students out of my thirty-two student class to pass the exam and actually receive credit for this class. Furthermore, I was the only student in the entire school history to have ever received a score of a 4 on this exam. This class was very tough to keep up with for the average student. We would receive multiple free-response questions, aka ‘FRQs’, which were multiple paragraph responses to thought-provoking prompts, a week. There was so much material covered that by the halfway mark of the school year, our binders were filled to the brim. In addition, our AP teachers would hover over us constantly, nudging us about due dates, study sessions, and reading. The whole class, and other AP classes alike, was essentially built around learning enough information to pass the AP exam, instead of learning to information to know it.
So far, I have taken four college classes: Chicana/o Studies, History 101, History 102, and Sign Language 101. In all of these college classes, I have gotten pretty much the same experience. The college professors are lenient, give you a syllabus filled with all of the assignments to be completed by the end of the school year up front, will not pester you to complete assignments, and expect you to read and study the material on your own. In all of these classes, I have definitely been held up to the same learning study as an AP class. However, I definitely was not as stress induced as I was with my AP class. Students annotate & read their materials on their own time, and discuss it when coming back to class. These two learning styles are completely opposite of each other, but if given an AP exam-like test at the end of my college classes, I’m certain I would perform just as well as I did on my first AP exam without the bombardment of material.
Overall, I feel as if dual enrollment classes are better for students than AP classes because of their original credit and more accurate preparation for college. AP classes are extremely stress inducing for kids, “preparing” them for college classes that are nowhere near the difficulty level that they are portrayed to be. In my experience with the three college classes I have actually taken, the professors are very lenient, give you notice of all of your assignments ahead of time, and conduct free minded discussions. Teachers of AP classes with overload students with papers, materials, homework, and forced studyings, where as college students are dependent on their own learning and education. Overall, I feel as if dual enrollment classes are better for students than AP classes because of their original credit and more accurate preparation for college.