Earn College Credit in High School
Kirkwood partners with local school districts to offer opportunities for high school students to enroll part-time in college-level courses. Credits earned through these partnerships count toward a student’s high school diploma AND their future college degree – all at NO COST to you or your family!
Most classes can be taken either at a Kirkwood location or a partnering high school, so there are many ways for area students to get a jump start on their college degree at Kirkwood.
You can test the waters with one or two unrelated college-level courses, or complete a packaged sequence of career-focused courses in a Kirkwood Career Academy.
Your best first step will be to talk to your high school counselor. They'll talk you though important information and make sure you meet all necessary requirements – you may have to be a certain age, have a minimum GPA, and may also need permission from your parents and/or school administrators.
Next steps:
Certain College Credit in High School programs have different qualifications that must be met – such as age, prerequisite courses, and minimum performance measures on placement testing.
To find out if a student meets Kirkwood’s enrollment requirements, they should begin by meeting with their high school counselor to explore their options.
Our courses fit into a variety of different programs and will transfer to most colleges, including guaranteed transfers to Iowa, Iowa State, and UNI.
Alburnett Jr./Sr. High School
Anamosa High School
Belle Plaine Jr./Sr. High School
Benton Community High School
Calamus-Wheatland High School
Cascade High School
Cedar Rapids Community Schools
Center Point Urbana High School
Central City High School
Clear Creek Amana High School
English Valley High School
Highland High School
Hillcrest Academy
HLV Junior-Senior High School
Iowa City Community Schools
Iowa Valley High School
Isaac Newton Christian Academy
Keota High School
Liberty High School
Linn Mar High School
Lisbon High School
Lone Tree High School
Maquoketa Valley High School
Marion High School
Midland High School
Mid-Prairie High School
Monticello High School
Mount Vernon High School
North Cedar High School
North-Linn High School
Prairie High School
Regina High School
Solon High School
Springville High School
Tipton Community High School
Vinton-Shellsburg High School
Waco High School
Washington High School
West Branch High School
West Delaware High School
Williamsburg High School
Winfield-Mount Union Jr./Sr. High School
Xavier High School
Why Earn College Credit in High School?
Big Cost Savings
Dual-enrolled students earn both high school and college credit at NO COST to them or their families! Last year alone, families saved $8.2 million in college tuition by earning college credit in high school.
Real-world Experience
Primarily designed for high school juniors and seniors, Career Academy programs focus on career exploration while also aligning with industry workforce needs. Students can even earn industry-recognized certifications for immediate employment opportunities.
Kirkwood consistently meets with industry representatives to find out what skills they want to see in new employees, and then builds academy programs specifically around that information.
The Proof Is in the Numbers
According to a recent Iowa State University study, students entering college with prior college credit have:
- Higher grade point averages (their first semester and year)
- Higher graduation rates
- Graduate in less time than students without prior college credit
- Change majors less than students without prior college credit
- Add minors and second majors more than students without prior college credit
“Claudia Gay graduated from Cedar Rapids Washington High School on May 28, 2022 — two weeks after earning her associate’s degree from Kirkwood Community College. Claudia, 18, was able to earn both degrees, and accumulate 65 college credits, through Kirkwood’s College Credit in High School program.”
Claudia Gay,
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Read more about Claudia Gay on the Kirkwood Online Newsroom.
Questions?
Your best resource for information about earning college credit in high school will be your high school counselor or the contact at your nearest Kirkwood location.