With many Jones College Prep seniors struggling to finalize their 2024-2025 class schedules due to low class availability, many move towards dual enrollment opportunities as an approachable alternative that offers college credit.
This year especially, Jones seniors found it difficult to switch the classes they were enrolled in. In order to take the classes they wanted many moved towards City Colleges Chicago (CCC), a free opportunity to take online classes during an open period in a variety of subjects.
Senior Reilly Martin looked into this option while trying to transfer into AP Research, a part of the AP Capstone Program she began last year.
“I tried to transfer into some classes, but every class I tried to get into was full,” said Martin.
Eventually, Martin transferred into AP Research, at the cost of her AP Psychology course. Still wanting to take a psychology class, she considered applying for one through City Colleges Chicago (CCC).
“I asked Mr. Coleman about it and he just told me to sign up for CCC,” said Martin. “Then I just decided that I was probably going to be burnt out by the end of the year.”
Although CCC did not work for Martin, there are other choices to gain the college credit through CCC without the difficulties of asynchronous classwork. Some Jones classes, such as French IV and African American Literature, offer dual enrollment credit for those who sign up and pass the class. Ruby Brothers ‘25 signed up for CCC in her Honors Calculus class since CCC gave her teacher a certification.
“I started doing my paperwork. I printed it out and started doing it and within 20 minutes I got my college acceptance,” said Brothers.
The classwork and teacher stayed the same, but Brothers applied for the class separately through CCC to get the credit.
“I’m enrolling in Math 207 at Malcolm X College,” said Brothers. “It’s the same class, just with the potential of a college credit.”
The opportunity also exceeds CCC, with some classes being available through other colleges.
“Some are enrolled in nearby colleges. Harold Washington is the most popular this year, and there’s a popular one that comes from our computer science: Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT),” said Francis Feeley, the school librarian in charge of attendance and accountability for those taking the classes in the library. “It hasn’t grown leaps and bounds,” said Feeley. “But there is definitely a number of people in every class period.”
Alton Lipford, for example, currently takes classes through both CCC and IIT. Due to schedule conflicts, he needed to take an art class to fulfill his graduation requirements.
“It was either take a dual enrollment class with City Colleges, or take an art class at Jones,” Lipford said. “I decided to do City Colleges’ dual enrollment because it’s a one semester class and I would be able to do something I consider more interesting in the second semester.”
However, many issues arose from the application process for Lipford, from deciding which of his classes to drop to placement tests and prerequisites.
“There’s been a lot of issues with communication,” said Lipford. “It took them 3 days to deny my proof of residency, then 4 hours to accept my updated one. As I’m going to set up my classes and sign up for Art Appreciation 103… they haven’t been able to link my SAT score so it’s still up in the air.”
The Art Appreciation 103 class he hoped to enroll in filled up with students during his issues with the application process. Now, Lipford plans on enrolling in an economics class and take the same art appreciation class second semester instead. Although the CCC cycle starts in a couple weeks, Lipford’s IIT class on web design already granted him access to the assigned classwork.
“So far, it’s very self paced. I can get whatever I need done whenever I need it done, and all the resources I need are available,” said Lipford.
Despite APs already offering a chance of college credit, dual enrollment presents a completely unique prospect to the Jones student body, especially when college sits at the forefront of so many senior’s lives.
“There’s so many initiatives and opportunities and doors to walk through, this actually comes with the benefit of gaining college credit before you come out of high school. Combine that with the AP Course and a lot of people can have a semester of credits under their belt,” said Feeley.