High School Offers More Options for Students Wishing to Earn College Credit

Hasbrouck Heights High School has expanded its dual enrollment program this year offering more opportunities for juniors and seniors to earn college credit furthering preparing them for the next level of education while completing their high school education.

There are up to 12 courses this year from which students can chose to pay a fee to earn college credits at either Seton Hall University, Fairleigh Dickinson University and Bergen Community College is expected to also be included, Steve Forte, high school principal explained. For example, a student taking AP English Literature at the high school can get credit for the Seton Hall University course Great Books of the Western World I. 

Fees per credit vary and range from $60 to $75 per credit. The amount of credits earned vary as well. Some classes can earn a student up to 8 credits and some as little as 3 credits.

Last year there were three courses offered in the dual enrollment program, AP, or advanced placement, Biology, Spanish and US History, Forte explained. This year there are additional AP classes such as Calculus, Chemistry and English Literature as well as music theory, accounting and anatomy and physiology.  Forte says that they also plan to offer college credit option for pre-AP Physics and AP Physics which would be 4 credit courses.

Forte recommends that  parents research the school their children plan to attend in regards to the credits so they can know going in if and how the credits would be accepted. Most state colleges such as William Paterson and New Jersey City University should accept the credits but some things can vary based on the course of study the student wishes to take at the college level.

For example, a non-music major may no longer need to take  required music theory classes at college as a result of taking the Music Theory class and college credits in Heights but in other cases the school may want the student to take music at the college but will accept the credits earned in another area, or perhaps allow a student to take an advanced course.

Although the classes began at the start of the school year parents and students can begin to enroll in the college credit program as of next week, Forte said. More information can be found in the Friday Folder for Sept. 23 on the district's site. At this point students have had a few weeks to get a feel for the class which can help them decide if they want to earn the college credit as well, he explained.

For students with interests in the culinary arts, there is now a ninth period,  afterschool program taught two days a week that helps students earn ServSafe credits that can help them skip a course upon entering culinary school.

About 22 students are in the program which meets after school two days a week. The group is split in two groups some which meet Tuesday and the others Thursday.

Forte said the two-hour class is taught in the kitchen at the back of the high school cafeteria by culinary instructor Chris Santhouse who also teaches at Passaic Technical School.