Northwood School is making advancements in the curriculum. This school year, four courses are dual-enrollment courses that earn college credit through Paul Smith’s College. These new opportunities are going to give students more of an advantage when they graduate high school and enter college. Students who pay the modest fee and pass the class will earn college credit.
The four dual credit courses are Advanced Psychology of Sports Performance, Advanced Biology, Advanced STEM Research, and Advanced Humanities Research. These courses have existed in previous years, but only this year have they been enhanced with the college credit option. This exciting advancement for Northwood may help students stand out in the college application process.
Dean of Faculty and Academic Affairs Ms. Noel Carmichael says the college-credit courses will boost Northwood’s academic profile.
“Dual credit courses allow us to focus on offering the classes designed by our own teachers rather than an external body. The syllabi are created by Northwood faculty and then undergo a review process with Paul Smith’s College to get approval. This allows us to offer more unique courses than the standard AP fare,” Carmichael said. “They also allow us to recognize students who do our research-intensive courses with college credit for their work. I think the ability to enter college with some credits already squared away is very attractive to families, both from a cost perspective and ensuring more academic rigor,” she added.
Balancing college work for collegiate athletes is a challenging task. During their season, student-athletes often try to lighten their load and stack their load in the off-season. Thus, being able to knock off credits in high school can go a long way. Getting those extra credits in high school may mean that students might not have such a tough time balancing academics in the future.
Students are excited about the opportunity to earn college credits while at Northwood.
“I think it’s a cool opportunity. If it is implemented more in the future that would be cool,” said Wyatt Wardlaw ’24, who is taking both Advanced Humanities and Advanced Biology.
Emma Hathaway ’24 is taking Advanced Psychology. “I think it’s good because it will be easier to do in high school than in college,” Hathaway said.
“I think it’s very beneficial because I want to pursue STEM in college and it’s good to get the credit out of the way,” said Jenny Tran ’25, who is taking Advanced Biology and Advanced STEM.
Teachers are also excited about the partnership with Paul Smith’s College.
“I think the dual credit courses are a great opportunity for students. It allows them to take a college-level class while still in high school. Hopefully, it’ll allow students to stand out in the college application process,” Advanced Psychology teacher Mr. John Spear said.
Ms. Jill Walker taught AP Biology for years. She also started the Advanced STEM research program at Northwood, so she’s familiar with challenging students with rigorous course offerings in high school. She said the dual-credit courses are “something that students can use while applying to college. Even seniors can use it because AP exams do not come out until later. For me personally, instead of teaching AP Biology, I get to teach the topics that I think are more important instead of teaching to the AP exam,” Walker said. “A large portion of taking an AP course is learning how to take the test,” she added.
Walker also appreciates independence from the College Board and AP. “It gives me more freedom to teach and engage in more productive learning. The bonus is that the kids automatically get college credit and a GPA boost. Not all schools are going to accept the credit, but some schools will. It is also important how it appears on a student’s transcript because it shows like an AP course does,” Walker said.
The consensus is this is a good opportunity for students. Everybody is excited about it and looking forward to the new school year.
