Early College Information for Prospective Students and Parents

Early College students are encouraged to complete the Associate of Arts – College Transfer degree, which ensures students’ transfer with junior status into most major universities. With assistance from their college advisor and guidance counselor, students should become familiar with the entrance and program requirements at the university they plan to transfer to in order to guide their course selections at SCC. 

Through the Comprehensive Articulation Agreement with the University of North Carolina system, SCC students can earn up to 66 hours worth of credit that will transfer to any of the 16 public universities in the state. A number of North Carolina’s Independent Colleges and Universities have also signed a similar agreement. Students interested in attending an out-of-state institution should be in contact with that school’s Admissions office to ensure transferability.

SCC administers the Accuplacer College Placement Test (CPT) in Reading Comprehension, Sentence Skills, Arithmetic, and Algebra so as to find the most appropriate placement for students planning to take certain college courses. This test is not a pass/fail test, but is for placement only. Students are made aware of when they should take the CPT through advising, and are strongly encouraged to complete the sample tests before taking the real test. 

Students will take high school courses that resemble the structure and expectations of college courses so as to prepare them for a smooth transition into the college culture. Not only will their high school teachers be present to help students after the transition, but the college has support services in-place for tutoring, ADA accommodations, and supplemental academic experiences (i.e., affective skill-training, focused workshops, etc.).

 It is an essential component to the Early College that the total number of enrolled students in grades 9 – 13 remains under 200, which allows for smaller high school class sizes and greater opportunities for one-on-one attention by faculty and staff. The community college also boasts small class sizes, as opposed to the university-style auditorium/lecture classes, to offer students the opportunity to develop positive, supportive relationships with instructors and classmates.

The Early College emphasizes the need to complete the state-required 28 credits for the high school diploma by accelerating the first two years of the students’ core high school classes (Math, Science, Language Arts, and Social Studies). At the same time, students will enroll in preparatory college courses to enhance their reading and study skills for college success. In the following three years, students will be enrolled mostly in college courses, all of which work towards the completion of the Associate’s Degree and also transfer back as both core classes and electives for the high school diploma.

Because the nature of a college course is expected to be more rigorous than a high school course, students should expect to be challenged in all areas: 

• homework may take more time to complete and may have rigid deadlines

• research papers and other writing assignments may be longer, more detailed, and of a higher caliber (in grammar, structure, and content) than in previous experiences

• reading assignments from textbooks and other publications may challenge the student with adult vocabulary, concepts, and analysis, and the student will be expected to demonstrate in class that s/he has read and understood the material

Just as the credits earned in college courses also count as credits earned towards the high school diploma, so do their respective grades. For example, an “A” earned in the college course ENG-111, or Expository Writing, will also be an “A” on their high school transcript. Grades for college courses are submitted only once, at the end of each college semester.

It is possible for students to obtain both degrees in four-to-five years because of articulation agreements that exist between the counties and community college. For example, successful completion of college courses POL-120 (American Government) and ECO-151 (Survey of Economics) not only equal 6 credit hours towards the Associate’s Degree, but also equal the Civics & Economics requirement of the high school diploma. Take a look at this Sample 5-Year Plan (attached below) to get a better idea of how this works.

While Early College students have a different high school experience than students at traditional high schools, they will have similar social activities and more opportunities for leadership roles in them. Though they may vary within each Early College, these include participation in high school and college clubs, class and school trips, dances, student government, school yearbook, newsletters and other publications, and more.

• Community College Library

• Student Support Services

• Learning Assistance Center (LAC)

• Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC)

• Academic Advising: College Liaisons or Academic Programs

• Career Counseling: College Liaisons or Career Center

• Computer Labs

• Student Email Accounts (powered by Google)