In the Wake County School System there is a dual enrollment program with Wake Tech that lets students take college courses during high school. This program lets students who are sophomore, juniors, and seniors earn dual credit. With dual credit students can earn college credit and credit for your high school requirements. 

The students who are sophomores through seniors can take these classes if they have a 2.8 GPA and up. Sophomores are able to take one class; then, if approved by the principal, they can take more if they show they can handle it and do well in them along with their other classes. The program has a lot to offer, but why should students take these courses? 

When students take these classes, they are not only receiving college credit; they are also getting high school credits. The classes are worth as much as an AP on the GPA scale, so an A would be 5.0 compared to an academic class would be a 4.0. If students are trying to earn college credits and boost their weighted GPA, this is a great opportunity for them. With the college credits you earn, you could possibly only have to go to college for two years after high school.

The workload of these classes is going to be more work than your normal academics or honors classes because these are college-level classes. Even with more work than usual, these classes should be able to be completed by any students, and students shouldn’t be discouraged to take these. Unlike academic, honors, or AP classes, these classes don’t have an end-of-class standardized test to do.

These credits can be used at any University of North Carolina school. It is also possible to get as many general education college classes as possible so that when you go to college, you can focus on classes that are more applicable to your major. Doing dual enrollment classes can save students a ton of time and money. 

For Apex High School students, Jenean Abolins is the Career Development Coordinator and she helps a lot of students with signing up for classes and choosing Wake Tech classes. She can be contacted at her email, jabolins@wcpss.net, or you can check out the career development website, http://ahscareerservices.weebly.com/. Wake Tech classes are a very good thing for high school students to get ahead, and they should be highly recommended to do so.