With the pressure of college being right around the corner, making transcripts look as rigorous as possible is a student’s top priority. There are many decisions to be made when it comes to which classes to take all the way through high school. This pressure hits especially when it comes to junior and senior years.

With so many different options, which classes will make a student stand out on their transcripts?

Classes Offered at Pentucket

Pentucket offers a variety of options for the type of classes you can take. We offer College Prep (CP), Honors, Advanced Placement (AP), and dual enrollment classes. CP and honors classes are just the basic grade-level classes with honors being slightly more difficult than CP. On the other hand, AP and dual enrollment classes have college-level material, with the option of earning college credit. 

Some of our AP classes include: AP US History, AP Biology, AP English Language and Composition, AP Spanish Language, AP Physics, and many more.

In addition to these AP classes, Pentucket offers several dual enrollment opportunities with both Merrimack College and Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU). The courses partnered with Merrimack College are Anatomy and Physiology I and II and Careers in Health Science. As for SNHU, the dual enrollment courses offered are Environmental Science, Statistics, Psychology, World Literature and Composition, and Chemistry. For the SNHU classes, the student must be enrolled in an honors-level course to begin with. 

Our dual enrollment and AP classes are great opportunities for students to earn college credits for a much smaller fee than any actual college class. 

Cost

The costs of these courses are important for a lot of students and families. Pentucket students must pay a $50 fee to sign up for an AP class in the spring before the next school. Early on in the next year, while taking the AP course, students must pay $99 for the exam that takes place at the end of the course in May. 

As for dual enrollment courses, those from Merrimack College are free of charge to all Pentucket students. This means that any student who takes these courses and passes all of the requirements from the college will receive college credit for free. This is a great deal considering many college classes cost thousands of dollars.

For the SNHU dual enrollment courses, each costs $100 per semester. Therefore, if a student earns a C- or higher in the course, they will earn three college credits per semester for only $100. This, again, can seem like a bargain because credits are being earned for such a small amount of money compared to taking these courses in college. With this being said, dual enrollment classes offered at Pentucket are ultimately cheaper than the AP courses offered. 

When it comes to dual enrollment classes, college credits are, for the most part, guaranteed. However, with AP classes, there are more requirements for achieving these college credits. At the end of the year, AP students take an exam on everything they learned throughout the year. The score one gets on this exam determines if the class will be accepted as college credit or not. AP exams are scored out of five. Most colleges now only accept a four or a five as college credit and anything below that will not be accepted. 

Student opinion

Looking at the differences on paper is not as helpful as hearing firsthand accounts from students. Asking students their thoughts on college-level classes gives much better insight to help decide which classes might be best for you! With that being said, senior Sean Mitchell gave his opinion on the difference between AP and dual enrollment classes. “Dual enrollment is definitely easier than AP, but AP looks better on paper,” said Mitchell. 

Senior Maisie King also offered her opinion on the class types after taking both kinds. “Dual enrollment doesn’t have a test, but I feel like I gained more from AP classes,” states King. 

Lisibel Soto, a senior who has also taken both kinds of classes said that she prefers dual enrollment classes because they are more like an honors class. They are less difficult than AP classes. Soto believes dual enrollment is better in terms of getting college credit “because it’s just a better-guaranteed way since you don’t know what you are going to get on the exam.” 

Gigi Parra, another senior, gave her input on AP classes versus dual enrollment. Parra commented on the fact that AP classes can add up, especially if your schedule is loaded up with those classes. Since each class has a fee of about $150, it can become expensive very quickly. Conversely, Parra talked about why she prefers AP classes over dual enrollment. “I think part of why I don’t take dual enrollment is because some colleges accept credits and some don’t, and the colleges I want don’t accept dual enrollment.”

Hearing student opinions is a great way to decide which classes would be best for certain students.

Overall conclusions

After interviewing students who have taken both types of classes, it has become apparent that students find dual enrollment courses to be easier, but AP classes teach more and look better on applications. 

What kind of student you are will ultimately determine which classes you take during high school. If you are willing to put in the time and effort that is required of an AP class, then that curriculum is best for you. But, if you are unwilling to take that jump, dual enrollment is an equally good way to earn early college credits.