Every study here follows the same twelve headings: the situation, the goal, the colleges considered, the credits reviewed, the problem, the analysis, the path, the outcome, the savings, the lessons, the sources, and a note that outcomes vary. Each figure is cited to the page it was read from, with the month it was read.
Studies marked as illustrative examples are not clients. The students are invented so that the work can be shown in public; the courses, rules, deadlines, and dollar figures around them are real and cited. Studies from real families are published only with consent, anonymised.
Nursing
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Minnesota · Illustrative example
How a Minnesota PSEO plan was checked against three nursing programs
An invented 10th grader, three real nursing programs, and 31 PSEO credits sorted into the ones that answer a published requirement and the ones that do not.
Any in-state degree, lowest cost
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State withheld · A real student, name changed
How a student graduated with 45 dual enrollment credits and kept all of them
A real student, name changed. Two college courses inside her own high school in 10th grade grew to seven courses in 12th, 45 credits at graduation, and an in-state university that accepted every one.
Research and selective admissions
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State withheld · A real student, name changed
What seven AP courses and 23 dual enrollment credits did for an Ivy application
A real student, name changed. Seven AP courses at his high school, 23 credits at a flagship state university, research and internship access on that campus, and an Ivy that took fewer than half the credits.
Biology and pre-health
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State withheld · A real student, name changed
How 12 dual enrollment credits gave a homeschooled student a college record
A real student, name changed. Twelve community college credits mapped to a regional transfer curriculum, electives paired with shadowing, a decision on biology, and an admission to his first-choice university.
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Minnesota · Illustrative example
How a PSEO plan for a future physical therapist kept the science courses out of it
An invented 11th grader, three undergraduate destinations, and 27 PSEO credits chosen so that the graduate prerequisites are still fresh, still repeatable, and still ahead of her.
Engineering
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Minnesota · Illustrative example
How a Minnesota PSEO plan was checked against three engineering programs
An invented 10th grader, three real engineering programs, and 37 PSEO credits arranged around the calculus sequence that all three of them start from.
Computer science
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Minnesota · Illustrative example
How one year of PSEO computer science credits was checked against three Minnesota programs
An invented 11th grader with two terms of PSEO, 21 credits of programming, discrete mathematics, calculus and writing, and three computing programs that number their first courses differently.
Business
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Minnesota · Illustrative example
How a PSEO business plan was checked against Carlson, St. Thomas, and St. Cloud State
An invented 10th grader, 25 PSEO credits in economics, statistics, accounting and speech, and the reason the Carlson School transfer requirements never apply to a student who is still in high school.
Skilled trades
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Minnesota · Illustrative example
How a Minnesota PSEO plan was checked against an electrician diploma and an HVAC degree
An invented 10th grader, two trade programs at one technical college, and the discovery that a diploma leaves room for six general education credits while the associate degree leaves room for fifteen.
Teaching
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Minnesota · Illustrative example
How a future elementary teacher’s PSEO plan was built on a transfer pathway degree
An invented 10th grader, three teacher preparation programs, and 29 PSEO credits arranged around one rule: the education course she most wanted was the one she could not start with.
Why there are no quotations here
A testimonial is a claim about a family, and a testimonial from a student who does not exist is a claim about nobody. Studies on this page carry numbers a reader can check against the source instead. When a real family agrees to have their plan written up, it will run under the same headings, with the same citations, and with the details that would identify the student taken out.
See the whole roadmap
A case study is the argument behind a plan. The plan itself, term by term and course by course, is on the sample roadmap, where each course is marked against the requirements of every college on the family's list.
Talk about your teen
We start from three careers and work back to the courses, against the colleges a family names. How the four stations work, or send us the situation and we will say on the first call whether dual enrollment earns its place for your teen.