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Community College & Online High School Courses

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Session Agenda

What Are Community College Courses?
Benefits of Community College Courses
Example Courses Offered at Community College Courses
How to Apply for Community College Courses
Online High School Courses
Middle College Program
FAQ Slides

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What Are Community College Courses?

Community colleges offer traditional academic classes that transfer to a four-year college or university

Most community colleges offer classes online due to the pandemic

At some community colleges, select courses were online before the pandemic (only tests—midterms and finals—were in-person)

Dual Enrollment: high school students can take courses at community colleges

Most cases: free

Community College Courses are essentially courses offered by community colleges.
Community colleges offer traditional academic classes like math and history that will transfer to a four-year college or university but also offer community programs like resume help to job seekers, or swim classes to children.
Some schools offer community college courses on high school sites and some on the college campus
Most community colleges offer classes online due to the pandemic

At some community colleges, select courses were online before the pandemic (only tests—midterms and finals—were in-person), but it does depend from college to college.

High school students can also take classes from community colleges by way of dual enrollment. These courses are free in most community colleges, like Ohlone and Foothill.

Source: https://www.internationalstudent.com/study_usa/community-colleges/what-is/#:~:text=Community%20colleges%20offer%20traditional%20academic,or%20swim%20classes%20to%20children.

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Benefits of Taking Community College Courses

As a high school student

Exploring interests (Ex: taking a Java course to see if you’re truly interested in CS)
College workload experience
Skipping certain classes in high school

Not the case in most high schools (check with your school counselor)

For the college application

Transferring course credit in college

Course credit may be transferable to 4 year college/university

Primarily useful for UC’s and CSU’s (the course description on the community college’s website will say if it is transferable to UC’s and/or CSU’s)

Beneficial to show initiative in college application by adding external courses

Now, let’s talk about some of the benefits of taking community college courses in high school.

Taking community college courses is a great way to explore your interests. Interested in the STEM field? Go ahead and take some community college courses to help get a feel for it. You can see if you are really interested in those fields that way.
Taking community college courses give you a feel of how life is at college in terms of course load. It can help you get a feel of what life is going to be in colleges. When you apply to 4 year colleges or universities after finishing high school, they may see your taking community college courses as a sign of you being up to the standards of college-level rigor and course load, which is a good thing.
In some schools, you have the option to skip taking classes in high school by taking them in community colleges. Say for example, I want to take Spanish 2 in high school, but I have not done Spanish 1 yet. (You need to complete Spanish 1 to take Spanish 2). What I can do, if my school allows it, is to take Spanish 1 in a community college, then directly take Spanish 2 at school. Note that only some schools allow it. You should talk to your school counsellor to see if your school allows it.

Next, let’s talk about the benefits of taking community college courses in general.

Some colleges allow you to transfer community college credits into 4 year colleges or universities, so you don’t have to spend time taking those courses again. But, not all colleges do that. It is best to reach out to the 4 year college or university to see if they allow that.

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Note that you should take community college courses ONLY IF you have the time to.

If you are taking a community college course, you want to get the maximum grade possible (all credits or an A) in the class.

Getting a low grade in a community college course because you cannot put enough effort into the course can prove to have a negative impact on your college application.

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Courses Offered at Community Colleges

Community colleges generally offer courses all across the board for different majors

At Foothill College, for example, there are courses pertaining to computer science, english, social studies, chemistry, and more

Colleges pay little attention to what exact courses you take at community colleges (introductory vs. intermediate vs. advanced)

Rather, these courses are to increase your semester count
Can take more advanced courses to prove yourself as a distinct student

Hence, try taking introductory courses as you will have an easier time as taking advanced courses does not provide you with any benefit (in terms of the college application)
Example Course: https://www.foothill.edu/cs/syllabi/f18/mazloom-1a-1y-f18.pdf

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Applying to Community Colleges

Process can be found in our documentation on the FAQ page of our website
Direct link is the following: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1w2MmfYCiEoMvcobQ3JSkunQoylhnVydGLB7U1nYuQ4A/edit?usp=sharing
Due to the pandemic, they have switched to an online method for signatures, for which Foothill College uses Adobe for you to fill out the dual enrollment form and send it to your principal and Foothill administrator electronically

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Online High School Courses

Online High Schools are schools that offer high school classes virtually
A popular online high school is the National University Virtual High School (NUVHS)
Like other online high schools, NUVHS offers courses like High School Math and High School Spanish
Depending on your high school, you can transfer the courses you did online onto your official high school transcript
When applying to college, you send your high school transcript and your transcript for the online course
This is beneficial since you can use your class space to take other courses at school

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Middle College Program

With the middle college program, a high school/school district would establish a partnership with a community college to earn a high school diploma and get credits for college courses during their high school tenure as well

This is an interesting pathway to pursue as a traditional high school setting may not be effective for all students, and middle college could serve as a better learning environment for some

Benefits for high schoolers to do the middle college program:

Learn more here: https://academics.otc.edu/middlecollege/faq/

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Frequently Asked Questions About CC Courses

Question: For community college what’s a good number of courses to take, how often can you take them, and how should you apply for them?

Answer:

The exact ideal number varies between college counselors, but some say that around a semester count of 54-56 is good to have when applying for colleges

The 54-56 number includes courses that you have taken in your high school and any external courses that you take
If you will be below 56 based on just your high school courses, it is a good idea to take courses at community college courses to bring this number up

Take as many courses as you can handle in each quarter (there are 4 different quarters - summer, spring, winter, fall) to ensure that you will perform well in all of them

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Frequently Asked Questions About CC Courses

Question: Is taking community college courses beneficial to include in college applications?

Answer:

Work Ethic - The number one way in which community college will help your performance at an institution of higher learning is in the work ethic you gain with real-world college experience. If you can prove yourself academically in community college, chances are good that you will be able to do well in a four-year university also.
Transferring Credit - Transferring credit gained from passing community colleges courses into a four year college CAN be a way for you to skip select courses (it is rare that this will be the case, however
Initiative - When you apply for college, your application will be graded for how much initiative you had. When you're a high school student taking community college courses, attending community college shows that you have the drive to do what it takes to succeed.

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Frequently Asked Questions About CC Courses

Question: Are there specific prerequisites before signing up for a community college course?

Answer:

There can be prerequisites when applying to courses at a community college. For example, if Ohlone is offering a Calculus course for a high school student, there is a prerequisite that the student must have completed Pre-Calculus before or is currently enrolled in a Pre-Calculus class.

The prerequisite for any course should be stated in the course description

Other courses do not have a prerequisite such as coding courses at Foothill College

For example, for an introductory Java course, the professors do not expect you to have any prior knowledge of Java and start from the basics

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Frequently Asked Questions About CC Courses

Question: Can you apply to community colleges if you don’t have a green card or you aren’t a citizen of the United States?

Answer:

Yes if the person does not have a green card or is not a citizen of the United States, they can still apply for community colleges but will need to provide other information such as their Visa Status, Proof of Residency and Tax Statement. This process will generally be taken care of in the first application that is denoted in the documentation for “Applying to Community College Courses.”

Note: Not all of the Community Colleges will ask the same questions or ask to provide all of the information.