Double the learning: Dual enrollment provides college credit to high school students

While still a senior at St. John’s Catholic Prep in Buckeystown, Samantha Hackley spent the majority of her school days this past year at Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, where she was enrolled as a full-time student.

“I took all my classes there,” Hackley said. “I spent a lot of time at the Mount in the library. It is such a welcoming community.”

She also was able to still enjoy her high school activities at St. John’s, she said, where she was a cheerleader and attended both homecoming and her senior prom.

“It is really a great opportunity,” said Hackley, who will attend Towson University in the fall. “It worked out really well. I picked the right courses to transfer them over to Towson.”

Mount St. Mary’s and St. John’s Catholic Prep’s dual-­enrollment program offers senior high school students the opportunity to earn college credit by becoming either a full- or part-time student at the Mount.

“The ultimate goal is for them to enjoy and appreciate their experience and to continue on to the Mount (when they graduate),” said Angela Mucci, director of the Center for Catholic School Excellence and a lecturer at the School of Education at Mount St. Mary’s. This year, two of the five students in the program will attend the Mount in the fall.

“Dual enrollment is becoming more and more popular,” Mucci said, noting that the Mount also has partnerships with Our Lady of Mount Carmel School in Essex, Archbishop Curley High School in Baltimore and, for the first time this past school year, St. Frances Academy in Baltimore.

“We were happy to have another option for the students,” said Jerry Miles, dean of academics at St. Frances Academy. “We are still in the beginning stages. It is set to come back next year.”

For its first year offering the dual-enrollment program, six students participated, Miles said. He believes that number will double next year as interest grows.

“It helps kids get ahead on college. They get college credit,” Mucci said, of dual-­enrollment programs. “It also gives them the skills to advocate for themselves and talk to professors.”

Students at St. John’s Catholic Prep are invited to be part of the dual-enrollment program based on academic course completion, GPA, attendance and behavior, according to Jill Seaman, St. John’s assistant head of school. The full-time program limits the number of students who can enroll, she said, noting that the part-time program is more popular with students, who also must be invited to participate.

Students accepted to the program pay tuition fees for St. John’s and a reduced cost for the Mount classes. Full-time students select their own classes while part-time students are offered set classes selected by the Mount.

“It was nice to get to experience a lot of different classes,” said Hackley, who took enough credits, including a research lab, to be able to graduate from college a year early.

“I love telling people that I got research experience as a high school student,” Hackley said.

As a part-time student at the Mount during her senior year at St. John’s Prep, Katie Russell split her time attending classes both at her high school and at a Mount St. Mary’s satellite office.

“It was a good introduction to college,” Russell said. “It gave me freedom. It was very, very independent oriented.”

Part-time students take two courses on a set schedule off campus each semester in addition to their high school classes, Mucci said. Students at St. John’s Catholic Prep go to the Mount’s satellite office in Frederick. For students at St. Frances Academy in Baltimore, the professor travels to them.

“I love it so much. I never turn down an opportunity,” said Dr. Tim Wolfe, a professor who has been involved with the dual-­enrollment program for eight years and traveled to St. Frances regularly to teach classes.

“These are ambitious students who are college bound,” Wolfe said, noting that his dual-enrollment classes require the same textbooks, lectures, guest speakers and assignments as those he teaches at the Mount. They are not “watered down” for high school students, he said.

“They get an authentic college experience,” Wolfe said. He also emphasizes study skills, note-taking and other tips that can help his students through college and beyond.

Wolfe’s class on criminology was a favorite of Russell’s.

“It was an amazing class,” Russell said. “Professor Wolfe was engaging the whole semester. It helped confirm I wanted to go into law.”

Hackley said her professors did not know she was a high school student; only her counselors did. 

“I was basically a commuter student,” Hackley said. “I had a good relationship with all of my professors. They were so helpful and so kind.”

Both Hackley and Russell credited St. John’s Catholic Prep for providing them with a good education.

“It was definitely challenging and I grew a lot from it but St. John’s did so well preparing me,” Hackley said. “I found it a lot less challenging than other college students.”

Like Hackley’s, Russell’s credits will all transfer to the University of Tennessee, which she will attend in the fall. 

“I would completely recommend it to any senior or whoever wants to do it,” Russell said. “It was great.” 

Growing trend

Dual-enrollment students represented 7% of undergraduate enrollment in Maryland in 2022-23. 

Nearly 2.5 million high school students took at least one dual-enrollment course from a college or university in the 2022-23 academic year in the United States. 

In 2022-23, 26,455 dual-enrollment students studied at community colleges, four-year public universities and four-year private universities in Maryland.

Source: Community College Research Center

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