Over the past few years, numerous Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students have opted to take dual enrollment classes. These classes offer many advantages for students, such as having the chance to boost their GPA, earning college credits early for free and getting an opportunity to see what being in a college class is like.

MSD’s current dual enrollment options include Broward College classes offered on the MSD campus, in-person classes at Broward College, online classes through Broward College and online classes through the University of Florida.

“I feel that [dual enrollment is] slowly preparing me for the type of work I’ll have to do when I go to a four-year college,” junior Nesya Small said.

Dual enrollment allows eligible students to take college classes, while still being enrolled in high school, for free. They earn both high school and college credits at the same time, allowing some students to graduate high school with an associate’s degree.

“I love that whilst in high school, I can start my college GPA, as well as get college credits in,” senior Amoli Kulkarni said.

To be eligible for dual enrollment at Broward College, a student needs to be enrolled in either a Florida public or non-public high school or a home education program in Broward County. They must have an unweighted high school GPA of at least 3.0, unless they are homeschooled, by which they are exempt from this requirement.

Additionally, the student must be “college ready” in English, reading and math, which is determined by placement testing. Students can determine this by taking the accuplacer test. The accuplacer helps colleges determine what level the applicant is on and what classes the student is eligible to take.

If the student meets these requirements and decides to dual enroll, they will need to complete a Dual Enrollment Recommendation Form each semester with signatures from themself, a parent/legal guardian and their school counselor.

“My class is fully online, with no virtual meeting,” Small said. “The professor assigns us work to do every week and her email is available if we ever need to contact her.”

Broward College offers many courses for dual enrolling students. The most common courses include Composition I, American Literature, American Sign Language I, Beginning Spanish I and II, College Algebra, Trigonometry, Total Wellness, Art Appreciation, General Biology with lab, National Government and Developmental Psychology.

At MSD, students can take in-person BC dual enrollment classes, such as College Algebra and Precalculus Algebra with Dr. Donna Numeroff, English Composition with Aaron Avis, Public Speaking and Speech Communication with Dr. Jacob Abraham and Strategies for Success with Jason Friedlander.

The Florida Department of Education releases a “Dual Enrollment Course-High School Area Equivalency List” each year that informs students and parents on the amount of high school credit a dual enrollment class gives them. For example, “Introduction to Poetry” offers a high school credit of 1.0. Students need a minimum number of credits to graduate in each academic category.

For students wishing to join the dual enrollment program at UF, they will need to be a registered junior or senior at MSD and maintain a 3.6 unweighted GPA. They will also need to meet a minimum score for either the SAT with a composite score of 1100, the ACT with a composite score of 22 or the PSAT with a composite score of 1130.

In many cases, students prefer dual enrollment over Advanced Placement classes.

“I took one AP class in my freshman year and the coursework was very overwhelming,” Small said. “In comparison, while dual enrollment is just as challenging, if not more so, I feel that it is much less overwhelming and much easier to manage than the AP class was.”

AP students receive college credit if they receive a three or above on the AP exam. On the contrary, dual enrollment students receive college credit without needing to take an exam, in most cases.

“Dual enrollment guarantees college credit, plus the rigor is much less,” Kulkarni said.

For any questions regarding dual enrollment, students should reach out to their guidance counselor to discuss their academic course load moving forward.