Can Middle and High School Students Take Real College Classes? What I Learned as a Mom.

 MOTHER & DAUGHTER · LEARNING

Can Middle and High School Students Take Real College Classes? What I Learned as a Mom

Recently, I heard something that made me curious:

Can students take real college classes before they are actually in college?

I wasn’t looking for another way to push my daughter ahead.

She is still young, and I don’t want childhood to become one long college application.

But I wondered whether there might eventually be a class that could genuinely expand something she already loves—writing, history, STEM, government, or another subject she becomes curious about.

So I started looking.

And I discovered that there are several very different ways students can experience college-level learning before college.

First: AP and College Courses Are Not the Same Thing

I used to put all of these programs into roughly the same category, but they work differently.

With AP (Advanced Placement), students generally take a college-level course while in high school and then take an AP Exam. AP Exams are scored from 1 to 5.

Many colleges award credit or advanced placement for qualifying scores, but each college makes its own decision about which AP scores it will accept and what credit it will give.

Official information:

College Board — About AP Scores
https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/about-ap-scores

College Board — AP Credit & Placement
https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/getting-credit-placement

College courses taken through an early-college, dual-enrollment, concurrent-enrollment, or similar program can be different because the student may actually be enrolled in a college course and earn college credit based on the course itself.

That distinction matters.

One Option That Surprised Me: ASU Universal Learner Courses

Because we live in Arizona, I was especially interested to discover Arizona State University’s Universal Learner Courses.

ASU says these are real online college-level courses developed and taught by ASU faculty, and they are open to learners of all ages.

There is no traditional ASU admission application required just to take a Universal Learner Course.

The financial structure is especially interesting:

$25 — to enroll and take the course

Then, after completing it, if the student is satisfied with the grade and wants the college credit:

$400 — to add the completed course to an official ASU transcript

That means simply participating in the course does not automatically place the course on the student’s ASU academic record.

Official information:

ASU Universal Learner Courses
https://ulc.asu.edu/

How Universal Learner Courses Work
https://ulc.asu.edu/newsroom/your-questions-answered/what-are-asus-universal-learner-courses/

ASU ULC Pricing
https://ulc.asu.edu/how-to-enroll/pricing/

ASU currently offers courses across areas including writing, history, mathematics, psychology, science and technology.

For example, the catalog includes courses such as First-Year Composition and Modern American History.

ASU Universal Learner Course Catalog
https://ulc.asu.edu/

For a parent, I think this creates an interesting possibility.

A younger student doesn’t necessarily have to approach it as:

“I need to earn college credits early.”

Instead, perhaps someday it could simply be:

“You really love this subject. Would you like to see what a real college class feels like?”

That feels very different to me.

Another Arizona Option: Maricopa Community Colleges

Arizona students also have access to Maricopa Community Colleges’ Early College programs.

There are two terms parents should understand.

Dual Enrollment

The college course is offered through the student’s high school during the regular school day. It can count for both high school and college credit.

Concurrent Enrollment

The student takes a Maricopa Community College course directly—on a college campus or online—outside the regular high-school schedule.

Official information:

Maricopa Community Colleges — Early College
https://www.maricopa.edu/degrees-certificates/early-college

Concurrent Enrollment
https://www.maricopa.edu/degrees-certificates/early-college/concurrent-enrollment

Students under 18 have additional admission requirements and must demonstrate college readiness. Individual courses can also have their own prerequisites and placement requirements.

For example, Maricopa currently lists several possible ways an under-18 student may demonstrate readiness, including a qualifying high-school GPA, EdReady assessment, or certain standardized-test scores, depending on the student’s situation and course.

There is one detail I think parents should understand before enrolling a younger student:

Concurrent Enrollment courses become part of the student’s permanent college transcript.

That makes this quite different from simply trying an enrichment camp or workshop.

For that reason, I would personally be much more cautious about starting this simply because a child can.

So When Should a Child Start?

After learning all of this, I don’t think there is one magic age.

And I don’t think earlier automatically means better.

For our family, I am thinking about it more like this:

Middle school

Explore.

Read widely. Try STEM camps. Take writing workshops. Join speech, debate, clubs, music, sports, service or whatever genuinely interests the child.

If an unusually interesting college-level learning opportunity appears and the child is ready, we can investigate it—but there is no race.

Early high school

Begin looking more seriously at whether an occasional college-level class would add something the school curriculum doesn’t provide.

This might be especially useful when a teenager develops a strong interest in one subject.

Later high school

Compare AP, dual enrollment and concurrent enrollment more strategically.

At that point the questions become:

What does the student want to study?

What courses are available at the high school?

Will the college credit transfer?

How will the course appear on the student’s academic record?

And is the extra workload actually worthwhile?

One Important Difference I Didn’t Know Before

AP credit isn’t automatically guaranteed simply because a student passes an AP course or takes an AP Exam.

Colleges set their own AP credit and placement policies.

Likewise, college credits earned while in high school may transfer differently depending on the university.

Maricopa, for example, states that its credits transfer among Maricopa colleges and Arizona’s public universities, while transfer to out-of-state institutions is determined by the receiving institution.

So before choosing a program simply to “collect credits,” I would check the policies of universities the student may eventually consider.

What I Want to Remember as a Mom

The biggest thing I learned wasn’t really about college credit.

It was this:

Just because a child is allowed to do something early doesn’t mean the child needs to do it early.

I don’t want education to become a race to accumulate AP classes, college credits, awards and activities.

I would rather watch carefully.

What does my daughter keep talking about?

What subject makes her curious enough to continue reading after the assignment is finished?

Where does she want to go deeper?

Maybe someday the answer will be writing.

Maybe STEM.

Maybe government, history, medicine, law—or something we haven’t even imagined yet.

When that interest appears, programs like these give us another tool.

Not necessarily to move faster.

But to go deeper when she is ready.

And that is the part I want to remember.

Helpful Official Resources

Arizona State University — Universal Learner Courses
https://ulc.asu.edu/

ASU ULC Pricing & Credit Information
https://ulc.asu.edu/how-to-enroll/pricing/

Maricopa Community Colleges — Early College Programs
https://www.maricopa.edu/degrees-certificates/early-college

Maricopa — Concurrent Enrollment
https://www.maricopa.edu/degrees-certificates/early-college/concurrent-enrollment

Maricopa — Dual Enrollment
https://www.maricopa.edu/degrees-certificates/early-college/dual-enrollment

College Board — AP Scores
https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/about-ap-scores

College Board — AP Credit & Placement
https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/getting-credit-placement

Editorial Note

This post reflects my personal learning and experience as a mom exploring educational possibilities for my daughter. Program requirements, costs, course availability, and college-credit policies can change, so please check each school’s official website before making decisions for your child. I use AI as a creative tool to help organize my research, refine my English, and occasionally create illustrations, while I continue to review the ideas and resources I share. I always encourage readers to visit the original sources and decide what is right for their own family.