About CI

College Institute offers students at Gaithersburg High School the opportunity to take college classes during their sophomore through their junior and senior years. The classes are offered through a partnership with Montgomery College and MCPS supporting dual enrollment and early college programs.

The goal is to enable students to gain experience of college level academics as well as the opportunity to take credits earned from them into freshman year. The costs of taking the same credits is about one third higher at universities so there is a financial incentive as well. Students participating in dual enrollment can start their freshman year with up to a maximum of four classes or 12 credits and with the experience of having taken college classes allowing them swiftly transition to university life.

Gaithersburg High School has the largest program in the county and one of only five high schools that offers a selection of the college courses at school. Student also are able to take courses at nearby Rockville and Germantown campuses of Montgomery College and enroll in online distance learning classes that can minimize the impact of these courses on their class schedule at school.

Gaithersburg’s program has not only been the largest at school program, but its students have also excelled academically with over 87 percent of the 2014 Cohort achieving A’s and B’s both semesters, beating all other high schools participating in the program.