Credit by examination

Manor ISD offers students the opportunity to take college classes through Austin Community College and University of Texas at Austin. Dual Credit refers to courses in-which a student can earn high school credit by taking a college course.

Important considerations for Dual Credit Courses:

Most scholars wish to take DCC in order to earn credits that will shorten their time in college earning a Bachelor’s degree in order to save money in college. Some simply wish to graduate with an Associate’s degree. It is important to note that depending on the college program choice and graduate school ambitions, DCC options may impact your collegiate options differently.

Here are some things to think about when considering the three different Dual Credit Options

OnRamps, ACC, or AP courses:

It is important to note that if you are entering a specialized college program, such as some pre-med programs, or programs where the requirements are very tightly controlled, they may require you to take their entry level courses in your major. (For example, math majors may be required to take the first year college maths from the institution of record, or a biomedical engineering program may require the same as they utilize it for future course selection criteria. Pre-med students may have to re-take some sciences, even if they have mastered the dual credit requirements while in high school.)

College Financial Aid eligibility may be impacted when students go well over their allotted college credits when earning a degree. Specifically, if a student earns more than 150% of the required credit hours without completing the degree, that student may lose financial aid eligibility moving forward, from all sources, until the degree is earned. Eligibility resets after a degree is earned, so once an Associates’ degree, Bachelor’s Degree, or Graduate degree is earned, the scholar may have eligibility for another degree.

This means that if the college accepts your credits, but only as elective credits, your student may have to re-take those same courses again, and may come close to hitting that 150% mark. This usually happens when a student switches majors too many times, but as the number of dual credit course offerings in high school increases, this becomes an important policy to consider when making your selections. You can find more information about this at this web address: https://www.ecfr.gov/. Search for Title 34, Subtitle B, Chapter VI, Part 668. The specific policy is in the Student Eligibility sub-chapter- (§668.34 Satisfactory academic progress).

To help you understand your options, here are a few of the differences between our dual credit options in Manor ISD.

ACC courses

Austin Community College courses are accepted at all Texas colleges and universities. If you are transferring these out of state, please check with your institution, as not all credits will transfer. When submitting your ACC transcript, you will be submitting ALL of the courses you took, whether or not the college will accept them as replacements for course requirements or elective credits. You may not select certain courses to transfer.

Courses are awarded grades by ACC professors on a letter grade scale that translates into a number grade via a set MISD board policy. Everyone who receives an A receives the same number grade, regardless of whether the A was really a 100% or a 90%. This is because ACC professors are not required to deliver grade records to MISD for number grades. We only receive A, B, C, D, F and have no way of knowing the actual number score. If a scholar is aiming for a GPA boost, they may be disappointed if their translated grade is less than the points earned in the college class. Conversely, it may help those students who squeak in with that 89.5 in the college class, and end up with a grade rounded up to a letter grade of A. All grades earned in credit earning courses will show up in the college transcript.

OnRamps

UT OnRamps courses are accepted at all Texas colleges and universities. If you are transferring these out of state, please check with your institution. When submitting your UT OnRamps transcript, you will be submitting ALL of the credits you accepted. UT OnRamps has the unique distinction of allowing you to decide if you will accept or reject the credit you are awarded, if eligible, at the end of the course, just prior to the final exam. This means that if you score poorly, but would still be earning credit, you may choose to reject the credit and keep it off of your college transcript.

OnRamps grades are not directly translated into High School grades. The MISD teacher of record working in concert with the OnRamps course instructor assigns a course grade for High School credit that is not related to the grade earned in the OnRamps online course. Essentially, two different instructors give two different grades.

While it is possible for those grades to be the same or similar, it is equally possible that a scholar may complete all of the work for the college course credit, and fail to complete the work for the high school course credit, or vice versa. Keep in mind that when taking an OnRamps course, students will have two instructors with two different sets of assignments for two different course grades.

Advanced Placement courses

AP courses earn college credits only if the student earns a 3 or higher on the AP exam. Class grades are not related to exam earned credit in any way, except that it would be unusual (but not impossible) for a student who performed poorly in the class to do well on the exam. It is required that all students enrolled in an AP course take the AP exam, and Manor ISD will cover the cost of the exam for every student enrolled.

Credit acceptance is a bit more complicated for AP. Each college and university determines their own credit policies, but most U.S. colleges and universities accept exam scores of 3 or higher for exams that are similar to their own course offerings. Some top tier universities require a 4 or better in certain subjects before credit is granted. It is important to determine exactly which credits will transfer for course replacement before you send the scores to that university or college. The great thing about AP courses is that scholars may select individual course scores to send to each institution. There is no requirement to send ALL scores as there is with other dual credit options. College Board offers a course credit policy look-up service at the following link: https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/getting-credit-placement/search-policies

Manor ISD is working on composing a comprehensive list of these credit transfers for AP, but it is a moving target and we cannot guarantee that any list we provide will be up to date. It is best if you check it against the College Board website above.

AP course grades are given by MISD teachers trained in the rigorous College Board training for Advanced Placement. These teachers understand both how to deliver rigorous, high intensity coursework while scaffolding developmentally appropriate supports for high school students.

Requirements for Dual Credit participation

Dual credit courses with ACC and UT OnRamps are tuition free to Manor High School students. There is no cost associated with AP courses either. Students sometimes have the option to take courses on the Manor High School campus or on an ACC campus. Other options include distance learning courses through the ACC and the University of Texas at Austin. For more information, contact your student’s high school counselor. There are no requirements for students wishing to take AP courses, other than the standard course prerequisites for that course. Other Dual Credit options have some requirements.