Does dual enrollment affect merit scholarships?

Will your teen still count as a freshman?

At most universities, yes. The common rule is that a student who earned college credit before receiving a high school diploma is a first-year applicant no matter how many credits they bring, and first-year applicants are the pool most merit scholarships are built for. Transfer status, which has a smaller and different scholarship pool, usually attaches to credit earned after high school graduation.

Some universities set a credit threshold above which a student moves to the transfer pool regardless of when the credit was earned. Only a minority do this, but if your teen is likely to bring more than a year of credit, ask each target school about it early, because the admissions office can answer in one sentence.

Which GPA does the scholarship look at?

This is where dual enrollment can help or hurt. Merit scholarships at the university level usually look at the high school GPA, sometimes recalculated the university’s own way, and sometimes at test scores as well. A dual enrollment course that is also on the high school transcript counts in that GPA the way the high school records it, weighted or not, so a strong college grade helps and a C in a college course sits in the same average.

State scholarships that key off the high school GPA are a special case, because several of them compute their own GPA. Georgia’s HOPE Scholarship counts core-subject dual enrollment courses in its calculated high school HOPE GPA and adds half a point to a B, C, D, or F earned in those courses. Florida’s Bright Futures includes dual enrollment courses that fall within its sixteen required core credits and gives them extra weight, half a point for a year-long course and a quarter point for a semester course, while dual enrollment courses outside that core are left out of the calculation. Both formulas differ from what the high school prints, so a grade that looked harmless on the school transcript can matter more, or less, in the state’s calculation. If your state has a merit scholarship tied to high school GPA, ask the program directly how it treats dual enrollment courses.

Can a college GPA hurt later?

The college GPA from dual enrollment does not usually feed into a freshman merit award, because those are decided before the student enrolls. Where it shows up is after enrollment, because scholarship renewal requires keeping a GPA, and at some universities prior college coursework, including dual enrollment, is part of the cumulative record the renewal check reads. A student who arrives with a 2.7 from dual enrollment and a 3.5 renewal requirement starts the first semester already below the renewal line.

The same record feeds satisfactory academic progress for federal aid, and while one weak course rarely trips either check, a pattern of them can.

Does it strengthen the application?

Yes, when the grades are good. A merit committee is trying to predict whether a student will do well in college courses, and a transcript showing that the student has already done well in some is about the most direct evidence there is. It reads as rigor in the same way AP does, and at many public universities it reads better, because the credit is already theirs.

It does not substitute for the parts of the file the scholarship weighs most, though. An award driven by test scores won’t move because of dual enrollment, and where an award is driven by class rank, a dual enrollment course that is unweighted on the high school transcript can pull rank down relative to a weighted AP course, which is worth asking the counselor about before choosing between the two.

What should we check before registering?

Before registering, put one question to each of three offices, in this order.

1. At the two or three universities on the list: does college credit earned before graduation keep your teen in the first-year pool, and is there a credit cap?
2. At the high school: how is a dual enrollment grade recorded, is it weighted, and how does it affect class rank?
3. At the state scholarship program, if there is one: does the GPA calculation include dual enrollment courses, and how?

FAQ

Do dual enrollment students qualify for freshman scholarships? Usually, because most universities treat students who earned college credit before their high school diploma as first-year applicants, who are eligible for freshman merit aid. A minority set a credit cap, so ask the specific university.

Can dual enrollment lower a scholarship GPA? It can, because dual enrollment grades recorded on the high school transcript count in the high school GPA, and some state scholarships, including Georgia’s HOPE and Florida’s Bright Futures, fold them into their own GPA formula. A weak college grade counts the same way a strong one does.

Does dual enrollment count as college for scholarship purposes? For admission and freshman merit aid, usually not; the student is still a first-year applicant. For scholarship renewal and financial aid progress, prior college coursework can be part of the record at some universities.

Does dual enrollment help get scholarships? With strong grades, yes, because a college transcript shows readiness in a way a committee can verify and reads as rigor. It does not replace test scores or class rank where a scholarship depends on those.

Can you lose a scholarship for having too many college credits? At a few universities, a credit total above a threshold moves a student to the transfer pool, which has different awards. Ask each target school whether such a cap exists.