NC offers numerous opportunities to its students including the magnet program, AP classes, honors classes, and dual enrollment classes. Dual enrollment provides students with a chance to take college courses online or on-campus at Chattahoochee Technical College or Kennesaw State University, to earn college credit while still in high school. The dual enrollment counselor Becky Young believes the dual enrollment program offers multiple advantages. Juniors and seniors can do full-time or part-time dual enrollment where they would take both high school and college classes. 

The dual enrollment program includes multiple pros for high school students. The state-funded program provides 100% funding for tuition, books, and fees for up to 30 hours of college credit, allowing high school students to earn early college credit without the price tag. Once graduated, the credits earned from the program can transfer to other colleges and universities. This provides a great transition into college. Additionally, when applying to college as a dual enrollment student, the simple application process gives an insight into how the real admission application process goes. 

Although the dual enrollment program ensures numerous benefits, the program does contain cons. Dual enrollment students must acquire perfect time management to balance high school and college classes to stay on top of assignments. Joining the dual enrollment program consists of students applying and signing up for their own classes and schools. Students who do both high school and college classes must manage their time to get from one school to the other. Once in the dual enrollment program, the college/university will treat them as a real college student, which means they will take faster-paced classes.

Requirements in place to join the dual enrollment program differentiate between colleges. Kennesaw State University only admits juniors and seniors and requires a 1050 SAT score or a 20 ACT score and a GPA of 3.0. Additional requirements include two units of English, Math, and Science and one unit of social science. 

“Applying to Kennesaw State and taking classes has been a great experience. I love the environment and my classes have taught me a lot. I am still continuing the program and the experience is overall great and it gets me more and more excited for college,” senior Nuseiba Glissa said.

Chattahoochee Technical college allows certain sophomores to join their school, but they can only take CTAE classes, not allowing core classes. The school requires two units of English, math, science and a unit of social science. On the Chattahoochee dual enrollment page, the step-by-step explanation process creates a smooth transition.

“It has been a phenomenal experience for me. I met lots of cool people through the program who really helped me. I had really understanding professors which also really helped the transition ease out. Mrs. Yvonne Young, our dual enrollment counselor is extremely helpful and I couldn’t have done any of this without her help,” senior Carly Bedenbaugh said.