Dual enrollment at Mt. San Antonio College, explained for parents

Which Mt. SAC track is your teen on?

Mt. SAC runs two concurrent enrollment programs, and a family has to know which one a course belongs to before anything else makes sense. Dual Enrollment puts a Mt. SAC course on a partnering high school campus. Special Admit lets a high school student take courses at the Walnut campus or online, on top of the regular high school schedule. A student can be in both at the same time, as long as each program's requirements and timelines are met separately.

Grades nine through twelve are eligible. Juniors and seniors were the original audience, and Mt. SAC opened the program to freshmen and sophomores starting in fall 2025. Middle school students can be considered, with additional steps and a meeting with a counselor and an Associate Dean before approval. Students with an IEP or a 504 plan apply to the ACCESS program for accommodations, which is its own application and worth starting the term before.

The Dual Enrollment track only exists where Mt. SAC has a high school partnership, and the published list runs to thirteen districts and school systems. Ten are unified districts: Bassett, West Covina, Pomona, Walnut Valley, Bonita, Covina-Valley, Charter Oak, Rowland, Hacienda La Puente, and Baldwin Park. The Los Angeles County Office of Education adds International Polytechnic High, and two Catholic schools are named, Pomona Catholic through the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and Bishop Amat Memorial. A student whose school is not on that list uses Special Admit instead.

We start a Mt. SAC plan by asking which building the class meets in, because that answer sets the paperwork, the deadline chain, and who pays for the book.

What does it cost?

California residents pay Mt. SAC $46 a unit, and a high school student on either track does not pay it. Special Admit courses are described by the college as tuition free, and Mt. SAC's admission policy charges special admit students the fees a regular student pays except for the enrollment, health, and student activity fees. The Dual Enrollment track adds textbook rentals, so the book comes through the program.

Put the number to work. A three-unit course carries $138 of enrollment fee at the published rate, and a family on either track pays none of it. Over ten courses across two years of high school that is more than $1,300 of college tuition that never reaches the household budget, before books.

Two costs are still yours to plan for. Mt. SAC does not publish the same textbook treatment on the Special Admit side, so ask what the required materials cost before the course is chosen. Getting to Walnut is also the family's problem, and a Special Admit section that meets on campus only works if somebody can drive it twice a week.

How many units, and what lands on the record?

Fifteen units a term, and no more than four community college courses, for a student enrolled under a CCAP agreement. Eleven units for a special part-time student. Mt. SAC's administrative procedure also requires that CCAP units count toward a high school diploma, an associate degree, or a certificate, which rules out a course taken purely out of curiosity.

Grades earned in these courses become part of the student's permanent college record. Now that ninth graders are eligible, that record can open at fourteen and it travels with your teen to every college they later apply to. This is the strongest argument for treating the first course as a real decision rather than a schedule filler.

An Assessment Questionnaire is required where a course calls for one, and prerequisites are checked before registration rather than after. Both steps take time most families have not budgeted for, which is why the application deadline sits so far ahead of the first day of class.

What are the deadlines, and how do we apply?

Mt. SAC publishes a dated chain for each term, and each link has to clear before the next one opens. The most recently published winter cycle ran this way: the CCCApply application was due September 8, the Mt. SAC account had to be claimed and the online guardian and student packet submitted by September 15, the Assessment Questionnaire and the orientation video were due September 30, registration opened October 13, and classes began January 12.

Read that chain against the calendar and the shape of it is clear enough to plan around. The paperwork for a winter or spring term is due in September, and the paperwork for summer and fall is due in March. A family that starts thinking about this in August for a January class has already missed the first link.

Dual Enrollment has eight steps: apply through CCCApply, claim the Mt. SAC account, complete the Dual Enrollment Parent/Guardian Consent Form, activate the student email account, take the Assessment Questionnaire if the course requires it, finish the student and guardian orientation, register for courses, and then get into Canvas.

Special Admit runs on its own packet. The student applies to Mt. SAC, completes the Assessment Questionnaire, submits the Special Admit Packet signed by a parent or guardian and a high school administrator, watches the Mt. SAC student email for updates, and registers for approved classes. Packets are reviewed by hand and the office asks for two to three business days for the initial review. In September 2026 it was accepting winter 2027 packets with the fall window already closed.

Where does Mt. SAC credit count?

ASSIST describes itself as the official repository of articulation for California's colleges and universities, and Mt. SAC sends students there to see how a given course applies at a given campus. Open it before the course is chosen. A course can be transferable, meaning the university grants units for it, without being articulated to the specific major or general education requirement your teen needs, and that gap is the difference between a requirement met and an elective banked.

The general education pattern changed recently enough that older advice is wrong. Mt. SAC states that as of fall 2025 Cal-GETC replaced both CSU GE Breadth and IGETC for new students, and that the one pattern now covers CSU and UC transfer together. The college's Associate Degrees for Transfer page still describes the two retired patterns, so a student starting now should have a counselor confirm which pattern the degree audit is running against.

The associate degree is a destination in its own right, and Mt. SAC publishes 29 Associate Degrees for Transfer, 17 of them AA-T and 12 AS-T. The degree asks for a minimum of 60 CSU-transferable semester units, a 2.0 GPA in all CSU-transferable coursework, at least 18 semester units in the major with every major course at C or better or P, and certified general education. A student who earns one is guaranteed admission to a CSU campus. Admission to a particular CSU campus or major is not guaranteed, and a CSU that accepts the degree cannot require more than 60 units after transfer unless the major is a designated high-unit major.

For the University of California the guarantee is a contract with one campus, and six take part: Davis, Irvine, Merced, Riverside, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz. Mt. SAC publishes the bar as 30 or more UC-transferable units at the time of the TAG application and a UC-transferable GPA somewhere between 2.7 and 3.6 depending on the campus. The TAG application window is September 1 to 30, and the UC admission application follows from October 1 to November 30.

Outside the two public systems Mt. SAC has signed its own agreements, and the bars are lower than most families expect. Arizona State asks 2.50 with an associate degree or 24 transferable credits, Northern Arizona 2.5 with IGETC or 2.0 with an associate degree, the University of La Verne 28 units at 2.7, Whittier College 30 or more units at 2.9, Western Oregon 24 units at 2.25, and Northeastern's College of Professional Studies 60 units at 2.5. A separate guarantee moves students to historically Black colleges and universities on a transfer-level associate degree with general education at 2.0, or on 30 or more UC or CSU transferable units at 2.0.

Dual enrollment credit behaves the way any other Mt. SAC credit does, which is the reason to take it here. A teen who finishes four or five transferable courses before graduation reaches the 60-unit count a full term ahead, and Mt. SAC says it ranks in the top ten in California for transferring students to UC, CSU, and private colleges. For a private or out-of-state university with no published agreement, that university decides on its own, so ask its admissions office directly while the course is still a choice.

Questions to ask before registering

Bring these to the college's dual enrollment office and to the high school counselor. The answers decide most of the plan.

• Is my teen going through Dual Enrollment at the high school or Special Admit on the Walnut campus, and which deadline chain does that put us on?
• Does this course have an Assessment Questionnaire or a prerequisite, and how long will clearing it take?
• Who supplies the textbook for this specific section, and what does it cost if we do?
• Do these units count toward a high school diploma, an associate degree, or a certificate, as the CCAP rule requires?
• What does ASSIST say about this course at the CSU and UC campuses on our list?
• If the plan is an Associate Degree for Transfer, how many of the 60 units will be finished by graduation?

Frequently asked

Is dual enrollment free at Mt. SAC?

For tuition, yes. California residents pay $46 a unit and high school students on both tracks pay none of it. Mt. SAC's admission policy exempts special admit students from the enrollment, health, and student activity fees, and the Dual Enrollment track includes textbook rentals.

What grades can apply to Mt. SAC dual enrollment?

Grades nine through twelve. Freshmen and sophomores became eligible starting in fall 2025; before that the program took juniors and seniors. Middle school students can be considered with additional steps and approval from a counselor and an Associate Dean.

How many units can a Mt. SAC dual enrollment student take?

Fifteen units a term, and no more than four community college courses, under a CCAP agreement. Eleven units as a special part-time student. CCAP units have to count toward a high school diploma, an associate degree, or a certificate.

Which high schools have a Mt. SAC dual enrollment partnership?

Thirteen districts and school systems, including Bassett, West Covina, Pomona, Walnut Valley, Bonita, Covina-Valley, Charter Oak, Rowland, Hacienda La Puente, and Baldwin Park unified districts, International Polytechnic High, Pomona Catholic, and Bishop Amat Memorial.

Do Mt. SAC credits transfer to a CSU or a UC?

An Associate Degree for Transfer guarantees admission to a CSU campus, though not to a particular campus or major. Six UC campuses offer a Transfer Admission Guarantee at 30 or more UC-transferable units, filed September 1 to 30. ASSIST shows how one course applies at one campus.