By: Ishrak Ramzan, Ashley Chen
Community college classes have always been an option available for students seeking to both challenge themselves and explore diverse subject areas that are not traditionally offered in high school. High school students are constrained in what they can fit into their class schedule by factors such as the credit requirements enforced by their school, college entrance course requirements, or even simply scheduling conflicts, and dual enrolling presents an enticing and flexible way to circumvent these obstacles.
In recent years, the number of students at MHS who elect to dual enroll in classes outside of school has increased. The most common cohort of students taking these classes are upperclassmen, in part due to the current limit that only allows students to take three AP classes and one college course outside of MHS per semester.
Juniors Matthew Do and Josephine Nguyen and Seniors Mealaud Mokhtarzad, Priyanshi Nigam, and Kaiwen Shi decided to take community college classes this semester. They shared their experiences from their respective classes and their thoughts on how these classes differed from those offered at MHS.
Do is currently taking Intro to Sociology and Developmental Psychology at the SJCC extension. He decided to take these two courses due to only getting into one of the three AP classes he signed up for as a result of class size, Do said. Upon feeling unchallenged, he decided to increase the academic rigor of his schedule by dual enrolling in classes outside of MHS, Do added.
“These classes were not solely for raising my GPA, but to clear lower division [class requirements] as well, Do said. “While you don’t have to take an AP test, you still get college credit, but there’s more studying and homework that you have to do by yourself.”
College classes focus on different things compared to traditional advanced classes at MHS, Do said. They are a lot more communication based, there’s a lot of participation and group projects, whereas here classes are mostly just a lot of work and studying, Do continued.
Nguyen is taking Intro to Sociology and Intro to Business at through SJCC, or San Jose City College, at the extension across the street from MHS. She decided to enroll in these classes because she is interested in psychology and hopes to get into the business aspect with international relations, Nguyen said.
“If students have the chance to enroll in community college classes, I think they should because it helps your GPA, and then you also get college credits and high school credits,” Nguyen said. “You also get to network with those who aren’t high schoolers who are also enrolled in the classes.”
It is not too difficult to manage her classes with her SJCC schedule, Nguyen said. Her professors understand that students have different priorities so they know not to give students too much work, she continued.
As she continues her semester at SJCC, she hopes to get closer to her professors since they are knowledgeable about the subjects they are teaching, Nguyen said.
Mokhtarzad is enrolled in Differential Calculus at Mission College. He chose to take an in-person class to ensure that he meets deadlines and can schedule work more readily, Mokhtarzad said.
“The class I’m taking is about differential equations which is basically using derivatives, which is how functions change,” Mokhtarzad said. “It’s like a sort of general tool to use science. It’s really really really cool. You do things and there’s numbers and there’s shapes sometimes. It’s wild. It’s really nice.”
Compared to MHS classes, general community college is more catered to the public, so it is not as rigorous as you would imagine, like AP classes would be for example, Mokhtarzad said. In addition, some of the professors, at least in his case, are there to help students a lot of the time and they are not as busy as MHS teachers, he continued.
Having a limit for number of community college courses is] reasonable, Mokhtarzad said. Taking multiple Mission Colleges could really interfere with students’ schedules or just make it so they do not nearly have enough sleep or free time, he added.
“But I feel in some cases [having multiple college classes] should be allowed because I have four periods this year,” Mokhtarzad said. “I was originally planning to take another class which I thought would probably be fine. But because I didn’t take one of those, I got a job instead, which is working out but I feel like I would’ve preferred learning more math which would have been really cool. Overall it’s reasonable but I wish there were some exceptions.”
Nigam is enrolled in American Sign Language 1, Intro to Buisness, and C/C++ Programing through SJCC’s Milpitas extension, and is taking Math 1B and TurtleLinux online through Foothill College. She elected to take this diverse range of courses in order to both further her knowledge in the field of her intended major, computer science, as well as to explore new topics in a relaxed environment.
“One of the things I’ve found most interesting was doing ASL, and of course there are cool languages offered here, but ASL is not something that a regular high school will offer,” Nigam said. “It gives you a chance to learn something that so many people over the world use, but we don’t really know it or like not a lot have people have learned it. That was a super cool class to take.”
Since community college classes typically don’t meet daily, you have more time to complete homework and get your schedule set up, compared to AP classes, Nigam said. Additionally, they tend to be more organized through listing everything in one place via Canvas, and it’s easy to get help from your professors or to get on-demand help from tutors through the program NetTutor, she added.
“It’s definitely a busy schedule which I didn’t expect to take on senior year because everyone is like ‘Oh, after your Junior year you’re just chilling’, but I decided to add on a class, then I was interested in something else so I added that on too and you don’t really think about it in the moment when you’re just adding on classes and you’re like ‘oh i can handle it,’’ Nigam said. “So far it’s been ok, at times I get a little stressed out, but I feel like everyone’s pretty lenient, all the classes I have right now aren’t extremely hard,” Nigam added.
Despite the extensive workload, enjoying the classes makes it easier to manage time and complete all required work, Nigam said. Managing a large array of tasks currently is beneficial, especially because in college you’ll have both classes and other responsibilities to have to take care of and this means you’ll already have the skills to handle them.
When asked about students who might be considering taking community college classes, Nigam had this to say. “I would say just do it, because like there’s not that much of a variety of classes at MHS. Try to look up Mission classes or SJCC classes because it’s right across the street, that might pertain to your interest and try them out. You can just take one class, which would just basically be the same amount of work as an AP. So like, even in sophomore year if you’re not taking WHAP or something, just try out a class that might open your pathway to an interest you might build a career on.”
After having taken Calculus A and B at National University Virtual High School, or NUVHS, Shi decided to take Calculus C. The class helps fulfill his outside elective credits and is relevant to his business and economics major, which places emphasis on mathematics, Shi said in an email.
“The class is very demanding as it has many deadlines for various units and projects,” Shi said. “Personally, I would usually spend around eight hours a week on the course over the span of weekdays and weekends. The course is very flexible as you can take it anytime you want to via laptop. The class resources are all very organized and comes with four to five homework sections for each subunit of the chapter.”
In general, the course is more flexible and forgiving as compared to calculus classes at MHS, Shi wrote. Homework can be re-done and submitted for full credit, and tests are based on homework problems, which is very easy to pass, he continued.
“I would consider [my class] a drastically new and different approach to math courses as compared to courses in MHS,” Shi wrote. “Resources are not as limited and they have a wide selections of teachers to choose from. The whole course is point based, no curve, so three homeworks equals full credit on a test. It is just tedious work and students must have the drive to complete eight units for A, B, and C respectively. Independent study is key.”