TPS College (Dual Credit Option) Courses – Affordable Credits, Flexible Options
TPS offers college dual credit courses in a unique way that is advantageous for homeschool and independent high school students. Our dual credit courses are full-year top-quality live classes taught by our own dedicated expert teachers. Also, you get to decide later in the course whether to register and pay for the optional college credits.
What makes TPS College (Dual Credit Option) courses superior among the various college credit courses available for high school students?
- Dual credit optional. With TPS College dual credit courses, you register and pay for the college credits in the second half of the course. You have the option to complete the course as only a high school credit without the college record and fees.
- Full-year top-quality live classes taught by our master teachers with timely effective feedback and ample evaluated opportunities to build a good course grade over a year.
- Other college dual credit courses are usually one semester, covering less material at a faster pace with less instruction, less feedback, and with all the course grade weight on a few high-value assignments.
- Other courses offered by colleges to high school students are often taught by part-time adjuncts with little or no involvement from the college’s academic departments.
- Flexible scheduling. TPS College dual credit courses are engaging live classes which may also be taken with modified attendance or by recorded classes (i.e., without live attendance) for students with schedule or time zone conflicts. (See below for details.)
- Cost-effective. The TPS College dual credit option adds a relatively small cost to the high school tuition, for a lower total cost than you can find nearly anywhere, especially compared with the university level credit offered by TPS College courses.
- Biblical worldview. TPS College dual credit courses combine top scholarship with an uncompromised biblical worldview.
How does TPS Flexible Scheduling work for AP and college dual credit courses?
- When you enroll in a TPS AP or TPS College course, you have the option to select Recording Only.
- TPS will review your enrollment and approve you for Recording Only (i.e., no live attendance) if you are academically prepared for the course but have a schedule or time zone conflict.
- If you have a schedule conflict that will limit your attendance but will still allow you to attend regularly (e.g., you must miss one day each week of a two-day course), you may contact TPS to make this flexible arrangement without selecting Recording Only.
- We keep track of Recording Only enrollments so we can manage live class sizes for attending students.
- The Recording Only option is not available for a few select courses that require significant graded class participation for course credit.
- These include spoken language courses (e.g., French, Spanish) and discussion-based courses (e.g., High Scholars, College Creative Writing).
- For these courses, if you have a schedule conflict that will limit your attendance but still allow you to attend at least half of the live classes, please contact TPS to obtain our authorization in writing prior to enrolling for the reduced attendance enrollment for credit.
What should you consider before choosing any college dual credit course in high school?
TPS has gathered feedback over the years from many former students who entered college with one or more dual credit courses (community college, online courses directly from colleges, and TPS College dual credit). The one comment we hear consistently is: “Research your potential colleges (ones you hope to attend) to find out what credits they accept and how they will be applied toward your potential college degree requirements.”
Colleges will nearly always accept transfer credits, but they often count them only as elective (“gen ed”) credits that do not replace any degree requirements, so they do not lower your college course load or your college bill. Fortunately, colleges will tell you in advance (even before you enroll) how a particular course’s credits will transfer and be applied, so you do not have to guess or take blind risks when considering the future usefulness of particular college course or AP exam credits. Here are key questions you can easily research:
- Will the credits transfer to the colleges you are considering? Check first. It is easy enough to find out in advance, so don’t wait until after you take the course to learn that your intended colleges don’t accept credits from your community college or another college’s online program.
- If the credits will transfer, what will they count toward? Again, check with your likely or potential college(s) first. You may find that your dual enrollment credits just expended your general (“Gen Ed”) and elective credits, still leaving all your required courses and leaving you less flexibility than if you had not taken the college credits in high school.
- Would I get more credit if I took the similar AP course and exam? AP courses and exams are usually harder than the dual credit college courses, so there are pros and cons to consider for AP vs dual credit. But in many cases, the AP exam (with a good AP course) be your best dual credit option.
What college dual credit courses does TPS offer and what are the credits?
The links below take you to the TPS course catalog details for each course, including the Belhaven University course number and name so you may also reference the Belhaven University course catalog information as needed.
Integrated Humanities
- High Scholars (24 English/History/Humanities credits)
Literature and Composition
- College Composition (3 credits)
- College British Literature and Composition (3 credits)
- College American Literature and Composition (3 credits)
- College World Literature and Composition (3 credits)
- College Creative Writing (3 credits)
Mathematics
- College Math – Quantitative Reasoning (3 credits)
- Precalculus/Trigonometry (3 credits)
- Calculus AB (3 credits)
- Calculus BC (6 credits – two semesters of college Calculus, each awarded 3 credits)
History
- College U.S. History (3 credits)
- College Contemporary World History (3 credits)
Social Science
- College Psychology (3 credits)
Music
- College Music Theory (3 credits)
Art
- College Art Appreciation (3 credits)
