The most common way for students to earn college credit before enrollment in college is to take an Advanced Placement class at their high school. These classes are much more rigorous than average high school classes and are, in most cases, considered analogous to taking an early college-level course. Exams are given at the end of each school year. Each exam is scored on a scale from 1-5. Most colleges will give credit to students who receive a four or above on an AP test. The AP program has seen a remarkable rise in participation over the past two decades. In each of the past several years more than one million students have taken at least one AP exam.
The College Level Examination Program allows current college students, military members and working adults the opportunity to earn college credit by taking exams that test college-level knowledge they have amassed through work experience, travels, study and national service. There are more than 30 individual CLEP subject exams offered. They are scored on a scale from 20 to 80, and most colleges that accept the exams will give credit to those scoring a 50 or above.
An increasing number of U.S. high schools are working with local community colleges and universities to offer students the opportunity to take college-level coursework while they are still in high school. Many of the courses offered are the general education classes that students would take in their first years of college. Advanced and motivated high school students can ask their high school counselors or advisors at participating colleges about their options for taking college-level courses in lieu of later high school courses.
There are two great benefits to each of the aforementioned college-level coursework options. The first is that they are all generally much more cost-effective ways of getting early coursework out of the way. CLEP and AP tests are each less than $100 for registration and will result in anywhere from three to four units per successful test, whereas college classes can cost up to $1,000 per unit or more. Community college programs for high school students are also generally a cheaper option. The second benefit to these options is that students who have already received college credit can skip much of the early college coursework and move on to more advanced studies in areas of interest.
Though each of the college-level options presented is cheaper than taking the classes at a university, these options still cost money. It is highly advised that students make an honest assessment as to whether they can succeed on tests or in early entrance classes before spending hundreds of dollars on individual AP or CLEP tests.