At the end of junior year, students are presented with the opportunity to take dual enrollment or to partake in an internship for their senior year. Dual enrollment is when a student has no second or third period and instead takes a college class at Montgomery College or The Universities at Shady Grove. An internship is just like a job and can be either paid or unpaid depending on which one a student chooses. These are both great opportunities and students should not take the decision on what to do during senior year lightly. Before passing on these offers, talk to your family and seniors who have already taken dual enrollment or an internship.

Dual enrollment is a great way to earn some college credit before going off to college. Depending on the grade one receives in the class, his or her future college may accept the credit and put it toward that student’s graduation credit requirement. This means that one could possibly start off their freshman year at college already having a 4.0 GPA. “I am extremely happy that I ended up taking dual enrollment classes this year as I am going to head off to college with some already fulfilled college credit,” senior Ben Stoller said.

Along with extra credit, dual enrollment provides students with exposure to what college classes are really like. The workload is obviously much more extreme and it is not uncommon to have to write multi-page projects, single spaced. This may seem horrendous and you may never want to take dual enrollment due to this but it is extremely helpful in preparing one for college. “Dual enrollment was a lot of work but I think I am definitely more prepared for college due to taking it,” senior Jessica Trzeciak said.

An internship is also a good choice as it provides students with hands-on experience at a job. Students take an internship in either the morning or the afternoon in place of class periods. This can be used on a student’s resume to help him or her further a career in the future. Senior Jesse Lotenberg worked for orthodontist Frederick Fritz this past year. “It’s an amazing experience to be able to learn about a field I’m really interested in with the nicest working staff,” Lotenberg said.

With both internships and dual enrollment, one huge advantage is that students get to have an easier senior year schedule. This may seem like a bad thing as people think that colleges will not want a student who is not taking a full schedule senior year. This claim is false as students should tell the colleges they are applying to that they are taking a college class or that they are working somewhere in place of these classes.

Either choice is a great one and it is an opportunity that students should not pass up without looking into them. “I think that it was an amazing choice to take dual enrollment and I believe it actually helped me out with getting into some of the colleges I wanted,” senior James Hollingsworth said.