I just finished a discussion with a fellow engineer about Advanced Placement (AP) courses, dual enrollment, community college, etc. He had asked me about my opinions on Duke University and "Ivy League" schools of supposedly high reputations. I kindly informed him that while they may be excellent schools, they also tend to be riddled with rich snobs engaged in lifestyles well outside the means of most of us. (These reports come from classmates and friends who have attended them.) Moreover, I would never consider a school of higher education that lacked a cooperative education or "co-op" program to allow its students to begin gaining career experience early in college. My search of Web sites for Duke and MIT came empty with respect to co-op. For me, this shortcoming rules them from consideration entirely.
This led to a discussion of the monetary value of college credit earned in high school. Many programs now exist to allow capable, self-motivated high school students to earn a college transfer associate's degree concurrently with a high school diploma. Furthermore, some universities generously award useful college credit for high AP scores while others award it stingily. Again, Duke and MIT fall into this latter category. Clearly, they want other people's money in their pockets by hook or by crook.
Rather than belabor the point, I sent my coworker (with his permission) these two video links in the hopes that he will re-think his potentially costly position of letting his twelfth grader run the show alone. I share them here with you as well. Please take the responsibility of becoming an informed parent.
"Slash $24,000 and Two Years from College at NCSSM"
"From Tenth Grader to Professional Engineer in Ten Years or Less"
I attempted to show briefly to my associate how a well-reasoned plan could save him large sums of money on his child's college experience, but I am not sure how well I "sold" him on my ideas.
Regardless of your child's career ambitions or current high school, you will find material here that could save literally years of wasted effort and tens of thousands of dollars in squandered money.
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