Dual Credit Program
High School Students
ACU offers high school students the opportunity to enroll in college-level courses that can apply toward high school graduation requirements and easily transferable college credit.
Simply select which type of student you are for additional information about dual credit options available specifically to you.
Students in Abilene Independent School District
Students must meet specific college and Abilene ISD criteria before being accepted for enrollment in dual credit courses:
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- Students must have counselor and parent approval prior to enrollment.
- Admission to dual credit is based on a student’s application and ACT or SAT college readiness scores. English/Verbal scores of 19-ACT or 470 SAT and Math/Quantitative scores of 20-ACT or 500-SAT are the preferred minimum section score requirements. If a student has not taken the ACT or SAT, or has not met ACU’s desired minimum, a high school counselor or administrator can recommend a student for dual enrollment through our Dual Credit Recommendation Form.
Dual Credit Recommendation Form
- Students will be limited to 7 credit hours per semester. More than 7 credit hours require special permission from the principal.
- ACU is offering AISD students full-tuition grants to cover the cost for four dual credit courses. Students will be responsible for paying a $50 program fee per dual credit course taken at ACU as well as the purchase of textbooks.
These courses will be taught on the ACU campus during the regular school day and are open to Abilene ISD juniors and seniors. Courses consist of high school and college students, and space is limited and filled on a first-come, first-served basis. All courses at ACU are eligible for dual credit, subject to approval by AISD and completion of the appropriate prerequisite for the course.
Complete the 2016-17 Application for Dual Credit.
Students at a National Christian Schools Association member school and other private schools
ACU has partnered with NCSA and other private schools to offer three unique ways for students to earn college credit:
- Course taught at your school by a credentialed high school faculty member.
- Course taught at your school by a high school faculty member with resources and oversight provided by an ACU faculty member in the discipline.
- Course taught by an ACU faculty member online. Content and instruction will be provided by ACU. The high school may provide a supplementary instructor within the classroom to help keep students on task, help answer questions, and direct enrichment activities. The student takes the course either in class with a supplementary instructor or, if no supplementary instructor is provided, at a time convenient for him or her.
2016-2017 Dual Credit Offerings at ACU:
- American History 1
- American History 2
- Intro to Psychology
- Math: Quantitative Reasoning
Admission to dual credit is based on a student’s application and ACT or SAT college readiness scores. English/Verbal scores of 19-ACT or 470 SAT and Math/Quantitative scores of 20-ACT or 500-SAT are the preferred minimum section score requirements.
If a student has not taken the ACT or SAT, or has not met ACU’s desired minimum, a NCSA High School Counselor or Administrator can recommend a student for dual enrollment through our Dual Credit Recommendation Form.
Dual Credit Recommendation Form
Complete the 2016-17 Application for Dual Credit.
Students in the Abilene surrounding area
Courses Available
Any course at ACU may be taken as dual credit provided the student meets all prerequisite requirements for the course. Prerequisite requirements for courses can be found in the Course Description section of the catalog.
View the ACU schedule of classes for a given semester.
Costs
These courses are offered to high school students at greatly reduced rates. The rate for the 2016-17 academic year is $140 per credit hour. Individual course fees may also apply. Students will also be responsible for purchasing an ACU Parking Pass at a cost of $25 (for on-campus courses only) and will be responsible for any books for each course taken. Cost for books varies by course. No other discounts or scholarships, such as the Faculty-Employee Discount, will apply to these hours. Dual credit students at ACU are limited to a maximum enrollment in 7 credit hours per semester and a total of 24 credit hours of dual credit at ACU.
Other Information
Students enrolling in dual credit at ACU will be registered after current ACU students have registered for classes. Typically, this means students will be registered in late April for the fall term and in mid-November for the spring term. When ACU classes are full, no dual credit students will be allowed to register for those courses without special permission of the department and professor. Students seeking to take upper-level courses at ACU will also need special permission of the instructor and professor of the class.
Complete the 2016-17 Application for Dual Credit.
ACU treats a dual credit course like any other transfer course. All rules that apply to transfer courses also apply to dual credit courses. Read more below about the information and policies on transferring work to ACU.
There is no limit to the number of dual credit courses which can be transferred to ACU. However, other rules that apply to transfer courses apply to dual credit as well. For example, students may not transfer more than 66 total hours from a two-year school, including both transfer and dual credit work. In addition, students must have at least 48 hours at ACU to receive a degree from ACU and 24 of those hours must be upper level (300-499 courses).
Some dual credit courses may not apply toward specific ACU degree requirements. For example, students taking more than the allotted number of social science courses or multiple math courses may find that some of those hours will count only as elective hours, which still count toward the degree, but not to specific requirements. The student’s specific degree plan will determine how these courses might count toward degree progress.
ACU must have the official transcript from the college that issued the credit in order to post dual credit hours to your degree plan. ACU cannot award college credit from the high school transcript. The student will need to request the transcript from the college that issued the credit and have that transcript sent directly to ACU. The high school cannot request or send that transcript for you.
Transferring Credit
Information & Policies
Prospective Students
To find more important information about transferring to ACU and how to transfer coursework, please click the buttons below.
Currently Enrolled Students
Policies and more information related to transferring courses after enrolling are found in the ACU catalog.
For students seeking to take courses away from ACU, no prior approval is needed, but students should be aware of how those courses will count in their current degree plan.
One significant resource for determining course credit is the Texas Common Course Numbering System. This is a site run through the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board that uses the subject and course numbers from most Texas schools and provides places for department chairs to equate those courses to ACU courses. Once on the TCCNS site, click on the ‘Compare Institutions’ link. From there, choose to see courses for ACU and any of the other 188 institutions who participate in the TCCNS project. The courses will appear side-by-side for easy comparison.
For courses at non-Texas institutions, students will need to take the course description for the course to the academic department for which the course would be credited and discuss the course with the department chair. Course descriptions for courses from other colleges can be obtained by using CollegeSource, an online resource for course catalogs from other institutions.
In addition to the course description, students should take a copy of the Course Equivalency Form to the academic department chair. The department chair may use this form to equate the course the student intends to take with an ACU course.
If you have questions about the course equivalency process, please contact your academic advisor or the Registrar’s office at registrar@acu.edu.