How many dual credit courses should my son take?

Honestly I would say as many as he can. Things don’t always go exactly as planned. My daughter graduated high school with almost 30 hours. She moved off to college and went to her number one choice in school. Fall of sophomore year, She found out she was pregnant. She moved home, continued with school, Had our beautiful granddaughter, and graduated in three years with honors In international business. She’s now Started her career. We didn’t plan it that way but it certainly helped that she had all those hours. My son just started his freshman year with almost 30 hours as well. If he happens to get drafted, he’s very close to his degree at that point. Bonus for him was that he got a sophomore parking tag

Does it really "eliminate" the JUCO option?

If a kid has the appetite for learning and that comes in the format of dual credit courses, it just doesn't seem right to curtail them. If he's taking dual credit courses just because they are dual credit, and there are AP alternatives, maybe take the alternatives.  There is nothing wrong with learning just for the sake of learning.

The only reason I would think to not take dual is that your kid wants to take it while at College.  Some dual courses are not well taught at the HS (and I'm sure some could be better a the HS than College).  Other than that, I can't see any issue.  If he can get out of a few GERs and take more relevant courses, why not?  If he wants to do some other courses out of general interest, he will be able to do so, and that will free up his time.  There is nothing wrong with taking extra courses in most cases.

Just an FYI, at most schools, transfer credits don't go into the University GPA.

KLL,

All three of my sons took a fair amount of AP and dual enrollment classes.   The AP classes were most important to my oldest son who we kind of knew was going to a High Academic (HA) school.   This turned out to be the case.  It was a private school 8 hours away.   The AP courses he took helped only with his admissions profile and placement.  He got no credit hours for AP or dual enrollment classes, only an admissions boost for a very selective college.   My two younger sons took a bunch of dual enrollment classes (18 credits and 12 credits total for each) which helped both of them at different State Universities in Virginia.  They each got total credit for their dual enrollment efforts.   This helped my middle son especially as he was juggling engineering courses, internships and a part-time job.   He did not have to struggle to stay ahead. 

If your son is an academic sponge and likes school then I would let him take as many as he is comfortable with.   I took two dual enrollement classes when I was a high school student 100 years ago.   They had nothing to do with my eventual major but they were enjoyable and fun. My 6 credits did transfer and that did help me freshmen year when I dropped accounting in the Spring (during my tennis season) because I knew I had credits and wouldn't get behind.

You mentioned pre-engineering and an SEC school.   If, I understand that correctly you may want to look further into that.   My son had a walk-on offer at an SEC school with an academic scholarship at the honors college.   The HC pretty much told him point blank that engineering and baseball was a bad idea.  You need to understand your son's baseball demands at an SEC school are going to be extreme the whole year.   

As always, JMO.   Good luck!

Thanks everyone. Yes, he realizes that he won't be able to persue engineering, but has talked about getting a degree in something else and maybe going back and doing it later if the baseball gig doesn't work out. His high school is very small and does not have any AP courses unfortunately. He is not planning on a HA school. 

He can still go to a juco, he would just have to get creative with the credits. You just pick up a second major or minor for the extra coursework. 

I wouldn't not take credits now so he has the option of taking more later. The earlier you graduate the better, you now have options in grad programs on the school's dime, the option to transfer without penalty, etc. 

If it is not an academic, money, or time problem I would take as many as possible in high school.  If he attends a four year school out of high school it will give him a lot of flexibility to lighten his load.  If he is able to run at 12 credit hours during the season his life will be much more flexible.  It may also open options of a double major or selecting minors.  Both seem to be challenging more out of scheduling than ability to complete both.  Other scenario is he can look at grad school as an option if he ends up spending five years in school due to any roster juggling that goes on from COVID.  The other win, win scenario is he is drafted after his Junior year and is much closer to having a degree.  I would always prioritize the path to degree completion since that is something that can be controlled and is has long term value.  Your son is in a good position.  Even if he goes JUCO I assume the intent is to go for one year.  Whatever he can do to set himself up for getting his degree will prove helpful.  The cost of dual enrollment in our schools is very low so financially it makes sense but I don't know what you are paying.  My son had <>30 hours and it added a great deal of flexibility to his journey.

My son is majoring in history. He went in with more than a semester of credit all of which transferred in. The school requires him to sign up for 15 hours a semester with the idea that he could drop a class if necessary (like he's struggling with it). It's never been necessary.

He's now on target to graduate this spring, a year early. In a perfect world, he would get drafted. In a less perfect world, he had two years of baseball eligibility left and can go back to earn a masters, probably in teaching. It gives him a ton of flexibility that lets him move forward both as a baseball player and a student.

On the flip side, my daughter was a science major. Fewer of her classes were accepted, but they still were helpful. She said later she never would have made it through some of the chemistry and biology classes if she hadn't gotten a good foundation by taking the most challenging versions of those classes in HS.

I will disagree on the not taking juco off the table.  Some juco's will not allow you to come in with a certain number of credits so you have to look at which juco's he might consider if it came down to that.  Having the back-up money/scholarship for grad school is a plus also because some colleges reduce or will not pay for grad school.  If you take the back-up plan off the table, then take all he can that will transfer.  My son limited his because he was going out of state and they would not guarantee that his dual classes would transfer so we decided not to make him take classes that he might have to take again.  The juco admissions will answer the one question and the SEC school will answer the transfer questions.